“We’re on a mission to cut our household waste”, I told my old friend Jeanette over coffee last week.
She grinned and said, “I noticed!”
I had to laugh. I forget how often my enthusiasms bubble over onto my blog. So I thought I’d give you a full update on where we’re at right now, in January, and then provide progress reports as the year goes on.
Interestingly, up until the beginning of this year, I actually thought we were doing quite a good job. We were separating our recyclables, feeding our vegetable trimmings to the chooks and worms, and I always shopped with a furoshiki and a KeepCup in my bag. About ten years ago, our local council had replaced the red wheelie bins on our street with half-sized ones, and we’d managed that transition without too much difficulty. Having said that, our bin was still full at the end of every week.
This year, inspired by a growing awareness of just how serious the environmental problems associated with plastic and excess waste are, we resolved to do better. Here are some of the changes we’ve made.
. . . . .
Furoshiki, beeswax wraps, mesh bags
I’ve already written separate blogposts on these topics, so I won’t rehash them here, but suffice to say that we’re trying to avoid bringing plastic bags home wherever possible. This has actually been an easy change to make – both the furoshiki and the mesh bags are small and lightweight, and add very little bulk to my handbag…
The beeswax wraps have proven to be very successful. I’ve had to dedicate a couple just to smelly cheeses, as the aroma impregnates the cloth, but that doesn’t seem to impact their efficacy. We’ve been particularly surprised by how well sourdough loaves keep in a beeswax wrap – the crust turns very hard, but the crumb stays tender for days.
I clean these by wiping them down with a wet, clean dishcloth and hanging them up to dry. If they’re a bit grotty, I wash them under cool running water with a little dishwashing liquid. So far, so good…
Small Man, bless him, asked me for a beeswax wrap for his lunch the other day. He was very pleased not to have to throw out a paper bag after eating…
Here are the links to my earlier posts:
- Furoshiki
- Beeswax Wraps
- Mesh Bags (pattern here)
. . . . .
Knitted Dishcloths
Lovely Rose sent me a batch of these five years ago, and I’ve used them ever since. I eventually learnt to knit my own out of Australian cotton. They’re absolutely brilliant – mine go into the washing machine with towels and tea towels (and now napkins) and after years of daily service, I’m yet to have one wear out.
We use them in place of paper towels wherever possible, and they’re great for scrubbing the stove, wiping down benches and cleaning up spills…
I wrote about them in 2015 (link is here), and posted my favourite knitting pattern here. And if you’re a beginner knitter, let me reassure you that a simple garter stitch square will work just as well!
. . . . .
Cloth Napkins
As I mentioned in the previous post, I’ve recently sewn cloth napkins from coarse-weave Japanese cotton tea towels (tenegui). I’ve had to make a lot – in order to work around our laundry cycle, we need at least a couple of dozen on rotation. It does make us realise how many paper napkins we must have gone through each week! The print on the cotton is fading very quickly, but the fabric seems to be holding up well and I still haven’t had to iron anything. It’s quite peaceful to sit and fold napkins for a few minutes in the morning…
. . . . .
Recycling Soft Plastic
My clever neighbour Maude told us about REDcycle, a recycling service for soft plastic. They have drop off bins outside most Coles and Woolworths supermarkets. We now separate all our clingfilm, plastic bags, onion net bags and general soft plastic waste, and drop it off once a week (or Maude takes it for us, because she seriously is the best neighbour ever). You can read more about REDcycle here.
Having said all that, we’re still trying to cut back as much single-use plastic as we can through other means. Recycling requires a huge energy input, so the goal is always REDUCE-REUSE-RECYCLE, in that order.
. . . . .
Bokashi Bin
So…whereas I was concerned about how much plastic we were discarding, Pete was fretting over all the food scraps we were throwing away.
We’re not talking about edibles so much (between us and the chooks, we’re pretty good at getting through most of what we buy and cook), but all the leavings which couldn’t go into the worm farm, such as bones, cooked stock veg, citrus and alliums. Pete did some research and found the Bokashi system – a method for breaking down all kitchen food waste (raw and cooked), so that it was in a form that could be composted and then either fed to the worms or buried.
It’s too hard to explain in full here, but I’d encourage you to Google “bokashi” and read up about it if you’re interested. We’re only a couple of weeks into the process, so I can’t really tell you how well it works yet, but I’ll keep you posted. What I can tell you is that I made Pete take it outside and leave it on the back deck, because it does produce a noticeable aroma…
. . . . .
1 Million Women
Discovering 1 Million Women has been a great source of inspiration to work harder at reducing our green footprint. It’s definitely worth following their blog and social media feeds (here are direct links to their Twitter and Instagram accounts). I initially came across them while looking online for a method of making beeswax wraps. Recently, they challenged readers to mind map out their green plan. Here’s what I came up with…
. . . . .
KeepCup
I bought my little piccolo KeepCup in August last year and since then, it’s been everywhere with me (even San Francisco). I’ve had to replace the lid after twisting the stopper off in a weird way (my error), but otherwise it’s been perfect. According to 1 Million Women, most takeaway coffee cups are lined with plastic and therefore can’t be recycled, so reusable really is the way to go (and they reckon that if we all switched, 500 billion cups would be saved from landfill every year)…
My KeepCup lives in my handbag as much as possible, not just for coffee, but also for the odd occasion when I need a drink of water. Because it’s so little and lightweight, it takes up very little room. And if I ever forget, I try to sit down for a decaf rather than getting takeaway.
As an aside, it was encouraging to see this sign on the Single Origin Roasters stall at Carriagework Markets today…
. . . . .
So…that’s where we’re at right now. And even though we’re only one month into 2018, it seems to be making a difference already! When Small Man was taking the bins out this week, he rushed back in very excitedly and said, “Mum! The bin was empty! I’ve never seen it empty before on a Thursday night!” Sure enough, the only thing to go in was one small kitchen bin bag, and even that wasn’t full…
I’ll keep you all posted on how we go throughout the year, particularly regarding the Bokashi bin (Pete is quietly optimistic). And I’d love to hear your green plans or any eco-friendly tips you might have! ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 