About 483km northeast of Hawaii, Charles Moore in September 2009 holds up a bottle, which is covered with barnacles and algae, recovered from the ‘Garbage Island’, indicating that it had been in the water for a very long time. Light bulbs, plastic bottles, bags and bottle caps, toothbrushes and millions of tiny pieces of plastic the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the area. LINDSEY HOSHAW
I’m almost too embarrassed to admit the incredible fulfilment I get from my current domestic waste management system! It’s tragic really…
About 5 weeks ago, we received a letter from our council saying our bins were to be removed & replaced with bins half
their size – 120ltrs only. Once again, I’m embarrassed to admit that I have put our rubbish bins out on the street probably twice in the past 4 years… so I’m not that familiar with how full they are on collection day. we have always
used the recycle bin and have composted most of the time. I try and buy minimal packaging, but still – the idea of having to halve our output seemed like just another challenge to add to my list. Then I remembered Garbage Island.
There’s a swirling island of litter in the middle of the Pacific ocean. According to the Bangkok Post, “Garbage Island’ is now more than 1 million sq km. How scary is that?! How do you get rid of something that big? I have no idea.
So I set myself a challenge to reduce, reuse, recycle to within an inch of my life!
My immediate thought was to divide ‘garbage’ into 6 categories:
COMPOST BOWL – obviously, take it out to the garden and put it in the compost heap (or dig into the garden if you don’t have one)
CHOOKY BOWL – the nice soft vegie stuff our little hens love so much
EGG SHELL POT – I love this one – an old handle-less saucepan was on its way to landfill – it now lives in the bottom of my oven. I put my eggshells into it and leave it in while I bake… the shells come out crispy, my little man crushes them with a potato masher and we feed them back to our chooks as shell grit!
PAPERS FOR BURNING – basket by the fire. all paper goes in there except the shiny stuff which burns with a blue flame…
RECYCLING – glass, plastic – haven’t thought of what else to do with this but chuck it in the recycling bin – oh except that I collect broken crockery for that day when I am going to mosaic the entire back fence… (yeah right, when I’m 50!)
RUBBISH BIN – whatever is left over – which isn’t that much!
Again, I am embarrassed to admit that I was COMPLETELY ECSTATIC yesterday when I looked in our little bin, on collection day, and it was only half full!!!! (I am officially tragic.)
This has now become an addiction. I look at the pile of old clothes by the door on its way to the op shop – or off to India via container ship to be recycled into oh-so-lovely man made fibre – and wonder how I can recycle any of that too? Last week I cut up one of my old jumpers and made a fabulous chunky woollen knit for my boy – took me 10minutes, would have cost me $80 at Country Road!
[Truthfully, this one isn't so out of character, given that 20 something years ago I cut up one of my Mum's fabulous homemade '70's maxi dresses and made it into hair accessories - which I sold to a major womenswear chain..... clothing recycling is in my blood!]
I’m dreaming of a chain of grocery stores where people can bring their own containers and buy provisions packaging free. When I mentioned this to my Mum, she told me that in the ’70′s, they used to unpack their groceries at the supermarket and leave them with the problem with disposing of it! BRILLIANT IDEA! maybe then they’d get the message!
:)
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simple I may have to get some of these
Buying goods with limited packaging is the way to go so you then have already reduced you waste output.
This is exactly why we’ve launched Naturally Better Foods! Buying organic and in bulk is the way to go if you ask me!