reducing the amount we landfill

[3monkeys]

Next year I have challenged myself to reduce my contribution to landfill to a plastic (yes I see the irony in that) shopping bag per month. Or maybe I could buy a small pedal rubbish bin and make it a bin per month.

Anyway I have been thinking a lot about the amount we send to landfill and how I can start to reduce that. I have started making small changes.

Buying bulk. The more you buy the less packaging! (makes sense)
Only buying recyclable packaging.
If I dont need it dont buy it - this is going to be the hardest for me. I am a bit of a pack rat. I like new and shiny things.
Send anything that is reusable to the recycle centre so other people can love it too.
Compost - but do that anyway.

I dont know if I will acheive this but I am going to try my hardest.

So if anyone has any rubbish reducing ideas here is the place to share them.

As I go and learn I will share my ideas too.

[Seaweed]

I would say avoiding packed food stuffs would be a major in reducing rubbish. I cannot tell you how much it irks me that organic veges & fruits in the supermarket are all packaged in plastic.

I put all my paper bags & cardboard boxes in the chook run to compost down. I squash the cardboard boxes down. I avoid banana boxes as they are supposed to be sprayed too.

[Seaweed]

Continuing on on this subject especially with it being xmas. Wrapping paper! I never use this. I always wrap our presents in newspaper as I totally fail to see the point of buying wrapping paper as it is just going to be ripped up & thrown away. I guess you could be ultra careful & keep recycling year after year. This year I am going to use harakeke to decorate the presents as I have loads here & it biodegrades nicely.
http://alibrown.co.nz/blog/flax-gift-wrapping

[Wonder-Full]

Oh, those look really nice! I have several flax plants at my place too. I have tried flax weaving and want to get into it more. I tend to use kids paintings as wrapping paper.

I have only managed to reduce our rubbish down to 1 rubbish sack a month so far. It really is packaging that seems to bulk it up. I no longer have any 'wet' stuff go out since it's either fed to the dog, the chickens or the compost but I'm amazed at the things that still accumulate.

I find it tricky buying in bulk due to us eating gluten free and needing to keep our food non contaminated (although we joined an organic co-op over winter that does eliminate some of the packaging issue) but there must be another way.

I still need to remember my shopping bag when I do general shopping though and have been caught out a few times recently. I gifted shopping bags to a few people this year for Christmas. :)

[3monkeys]

Well I have started...... and man its gonna be hard. I dont know how successful we will be but thats ok because the bigger picture is about thinking about the things we purchase and how the effect our environment. I have made some small starts, still a long long long way to go.

I run an organic co-op too Wonder-Full. I love it. I esp love the peanut butter... YUMMY.