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“Together, we can be part of the solution.”
Avoid Bottled Water
Avoid bottled water and feel good knowing that you’re saving money, reducing your personal health risks and reducing resource waste in your community. In 2009-10 approximately 582.9 million litres of bottled water was consumed (IBISWorld Bottled Water Manufacturing in Australia, January 2010).
Australians spend more than half a billion dollars a year on bottled water. While bottled water has become a lucrative business for a few multi-nationals, it has created another hit on the environment and hip pocket for most.
Avoid Excessive Packaging
The average Australian consumes up to 200kg kilograms of resources in packaging each year.
This is almost double the amount of many European nations. Along with this consumption comes the generation of huge amounts of waste - so it's not surprising that Australia is one of the worst waste generators in the developed world.
Reducing the amount of packaging we purchase can help to significantly reduce our use of natural resources (including water and energy) and minimise the amount of waste going into landfill.
Bees Wax Wraps
Bees wax wraps reduce the need to use plastic to keep food fresh in your kitchen.
Find out more from the video below or book into our upcoming workshop!
Nude Food
Nude Food is food without excess packaging. This reduces the amount of 'stuff' that needs to go in bins to be sent to landfill.
Durable, reusable containers are a great way to bring food, as they may last from pre-school through to high school and beyond, providing long term cost savings and environmental benefits.
Find out more www.wow.sa.gov.au/nude-food.html
Reduce Bathroom Plastics
"Australia now produces over 400 million tonnes of single-use plastic annually, and the beauty and cleaning industry is a key contributor to this problem. In response to this, consumer demand is increasing for ‘naked’ products with zero plastic waste." Clean up Australia - www.cleanup.org.au/bathroom
Bathrooms and laundry's are notorious of having products packed plastics. Toothpaste, soap, shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper, clothes washing liquid and the list goes on. Most of these plastics tend to go into landfill. However there are some simple steps you can take to reduce your use of single use plastics.
A number of companies are now starting to lead the way in either producing recycled plastic containers or removing plastics all together. The Clean Up Australia link above provides some information about what key companies are doing.
Choice put out an interesting article last year on How to reduce plastic in your bathroom.
Some their simple bathroom swaps include:
- Buy toilet paper that's wrapped in paper rather than plastic.
- Swap your plastic toothbrushes for ones made from cornstarch or bamboo.
- If you're buying cotton buds, avoid the products with plastic stems and choose ones with cardboard, paper or bamboo stems.
- Pick up some bars of soap to replace liquid hand soap in your bathroom, kitchen and laundry.
- Many supermarkets now carry biodegradable dental floss picks and interdental brushes: buy these instead of plastic-based products.
Check out the link above for other great tips.
Another great action is to start making your own cleansing and products and there are some pretty easy recipes that you can make at home and store in reusable glass jars.
Check out this video workshop from the Plastic Free Mermaid on simple things you can make at home including toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, conditioner and body scrub.
Single-use Coffee Cups
It is estimated we use 1 billion disposable coffee cups every year. That's approximately 2,700,000 paper coffee cups thrown out every day! Takeaway cardboard coffee cups are lined with plastic, and second only to plastic bottles in contributing to Australian litter.
Here are some great tips from Clean Up Australia about what you can do:
a. Invest in a reusable cup.
b. Find a reasonable cafe's where you can bring your own cup.
c. Swap and Go, Green Caffeen is a FREE reusable cup system.
d. Recycle right.
e. Go topless, refuse the lid.
f. Take a seat, sit down take some time out and enjoy your coffee.
For more information go to www.cleanup.org.au/single-use-coffee-cups