“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.
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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)
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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!
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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…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 
Awesome post Celia, keep up the good work. We do most of the same things but I have been trying to find the word Bokashi for some time. I first saw it a few years ago but soon forgot. So thank you for reminding me :)
Cheers, Nick! We’re only a couple of weeks into the bokashi process, so will let you know how we go.
You’re doing lots of great things! Using knitted cloths as an alternative to paper towel, as well as disposable dishcloths, is a great idea. I love my beeswax wraps too, I haven’t needed to buy clingwrap for a couple of years now. Meg:)
Thanks Meg!
I’ve had to contact Redcycle to ask them to collect more frequently or give us a bigger bin, as our local collection point in Coles is always massively overflowing. I’m making mesh drawstring bags for produce from leftover mozzie netting, I wash and reused aluminium foil up to three times, and I’m still trying to persuade the Husband that a Bokashi bucket is a good idea, but he’s slightly over fermentation due to my kombucha and kefir activities burbling away on the benchtop… How bad is the Bokashi pong? Only if I have to put the bucket outside in our tropical climate I’m worried it’ll either smell much worse or the fermentation process will go wrong due to excessive heat.
Kate, we’ve only just started and if I’m honest, the bokashi is Pete’s domain. But I did put fish heads in it over a week ago and with the lid down, there’s no smell at all. I think the maze brand one is good as the seal seems nice and tight – we have the 12L but we’re going out to look for a second one. Pete’s comment was that it’s a fermentation smell rather than a rotting one, if that helps. And he hasn’t read anything about it being a problem in the heat, but we don’t really know, obviously. Ours lives on a covered back deck.
Thanks! Fermentation smells a lot better than rot and mould, and I shall obviously have to experiment with location.
Kate, have a look at the comment below from plotter63!
Thanks, that helps, and will hopefully reassure Himself. I’m going to ask for two bokashi buckets for my birthday in a few days. Not quite what he’ll have had in mind, but he did ask!
We bought two 12L Maze Indoor composters from Bunnings. They were much cheaper there than directly from the company! They have a bigger one on sale too, but the lid doesn’t seem to seal as well (which, as you can imagine, is quite relevant to odour management). Our family of four seems to be on track to fill a bin every three weeks, which should work well in terms of fermenting time.
Thanks, I’d already spotted them and done a bit of price research :-) And hurray! The Husband has said yes to them as a birthday present, so long as I don’t keep them in the kitchen. We don’t have chooks or worms for our scraps, so I imagine we’ll fill ours up a lot faster…
Kate, here’s a photo of our bin – we’ve been filling it for two weeks now. I very bravely stuck my nose in and gave it a good sniff for you. It smells a bit, but it certainly doesn’t reek badly, and remember there are fish heads in the bottom there! :) So tell your hubby not to worry too much about it!
He’s listened to reason, and I’m now the proud owner of two buckets, one already in action :-) I’ve given the mixture a kick-start by adding the rather sad remains of my whey-fermented cabbage. I’ll be interested to see how it deals with watermelon rinds, as they’ve always got stinky very quickly in our climate. Thanks for the push to take this final step. :-)
Congratulations! My only suggestion would be looking at a possible alternative for the plastic bag that you are using in your rubbish bin. I line my kitchen waste bin with pages from the local newspaper that is dropped off each week. Especially the one with coloured pages, which I can’t use in my wood heater.
Thanks! We found biodegradable bin liners made from vegetable matter yesterday! From a company called Maze.
Like you we are doing better recycling and reusing. For those folks who like the idea of changing to cloth serviettes try your local Vinnies or similar, that’s where our everyday serviettes come from these days. I’ve been housekeeping for52 years and have never used paper serviettes. I tried knitting and crocheting dish cloths and have plenty but was recently introduced to Norwex products and prefer their kitchen cloths, they don’t get smelly. My husband has different kitchen habits to me and it’s just easier have something that is more forgiving … we all do need to do better in the cleaning department less chemicals and pollutants into our waterways … teach our young people the old ways of cleaning that are kind to our planet.
Sandy, the thing I find interesting about the knitted dishcloths is that they’re very good at scrubbing down our bench and stainless steel stove top without chemicals. Understand completely about the hubby – mine used my favourite dishcloth to clean the fish tank and it’s never been the same since. I was unimpressed. 😂
I even carry a cotton napkin with me when i travel – I buy them second hand sites and never use paper napkins. I think my next job will be your dish cloths. Are they good at scrubbing off the pots though? I am a terrible burner. I have always thought that everyone should imagine their own rubbish piling up in their own back yards – if there was no city recycling (like here) and you had to reuse or keep all the packaging that would cut down on what we BUY in plastic. I SO wish I had family support like you do – that would be so lovely. c
You, my love, are a superstar but that’s not surprising as I think you might be the least lazy person I know! The knitted cloths sadly aren’t great scrubbers. We use them mainly for wiping down benches and cleaning up spills. Having said that, they do a pretty good job on the stainless cooktop. And yes, so grateful for my men – they got behind the plan immediately. I’m working on the big kids to cut back on straws now – they enjoy their bubble teas a bit too much! 😉
Cecilia Mary what I do when I’ve burnt something is put a good sprinkle of bi-carb soda on the pan and walk away! Whenever you return, be it an hour later or the next day the burnt stuff will come off easily. It might need a bit of back & forth scrubbing but not a lot. Works a treat.
I also read once that you put the bi-carb on and put the pan in the fridge overnight, I haven’t done it that way though.
You can use sections loofah (or luffa, depending on where you live) for pot scrubbing. They don’t last forever, but clean up quite nicely in soapy water till they start to disintegrate. You can grow your own loofah gourds from seed to replace your loofah, so they’re self-sustaining, biodegradable, and can even be eaten when very small. You can find an entertaining blog post on how to grow them (if she can grow them in Canada, I think you should be able to in your climate) here:
https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/growing-luffa-sponges
Bicarbonate. I’m a GREAT burner – if I get any better i will have discovered how to burn water. otherwise, sprinkle bicarb onto wet soot/tar whatever.
I wish my family was more supportive too, but I just do what I can and hope that it’s enough.
Cheers Kate
I’m sorry they’re not more supportive – I’m very blessed with my tribe, and I never take it for granted! Good on you for doing your bit regardless! x
Yay! Keep us posted. I, too, am very concerned with how much we throw away. We are keen movie goers, and we recently decided to drop our soft drink–nacho habit. Too much to throw away. What I struggle with is the excessive and plastic packaging that comes with so much of what we buy.
Laurie, good on you, but stuff like that is a hard call, isn’t it? We buy a lot of stuff online and it’s becoming clear to me how much packaging that means, even if it IS recyclable.
Oh, I know! Very difficult.
Inspirational! Thought I was doing OK, but must admit your ideas are terrific!
Thank you! I think we can still do better though!
I found some cotton in my yarn stash I didn’t know I had (don’t ask) so I will knit some dishcloths. The Management is always moaning about dishcloths so more will mean more frequent laundering.
Your progress is enviable!
Oh puhlease. It’s not like I don’t understand that – I’ve been known to go “shopping” in my stash! 😆
What an inspiring post, thank you. I made some beeswax wraps over three years ago, and they are only now wearing out. Also, we recently made some wonderful ‘spoon butter’ from beeswax and rice bran oil- does a fab job of maintaining all the wooden spoons. I’m keen to see if my Coles has the plastic bag recycling bin…not sure how I missed that!
Louise, good to know the wraps have lasted so long! I heard that they can be re-waxed quite easily too.
Gosh your inspiring Celia! Thank you xo
I do crochet my dishcloths, I need to learn to sew to make some napkins, it really does trouble me to see them used once and thrown away without a thought. I’m also keen try the beeswax wraps. Whilst we are talking all things environmental, I use Who Gives A Crap toilet paper, have you heard of them? They’re worth a google too.
I’ve heard about that, Cath! I’ll google, thank you!
Thanks for the timely reminder, I try to be good then it slips. I added a couple of agreena food wraps to my arsenal last year. Well worth the investment! In place of baking paper, cling film and foil. This is not an advert, I like to share what I found that I like. https://www.agreena.world/?gclid=CjwKCAiA47DTBRAUEiwA4luU2dZl2Fx12dm7JIoOU8SD0zVWua2U1YFCad0xtKMbdfulzytLHJ6ZehoCdY4QAvD_BwE
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately we have a real issue with silicone going mildewy in our old damp house, but hopefully others will find it useful!
Awesome info. I love how structured it is giving the opportunity for further research to suit my own circumstances. We’ve found, similar to you in so many ways, that living simply, creating much in our life ourselves makes for so much less waste.
Thanks lovely one xxx
I have been using 2 large bokashi bins for about 5 years. Do you have bins with drainage taps at the base of the bin? I find that if you drain the liquid which collects at the base of the bin regularly there is no real smell. The two buckets live in the laundry and no one in the house complains about the smell unless I forget to drain them. I use two bins so one can brew while the other is being filled. I find the ‘pickled’ mixture breaks down very quickly if you can leave if in the bucket for a while. The liquid can be poured down drain adding good bacteria to the system or diluted (a lot) and used on the garden.
This is wonderful feedback, thank you so much! It’s great to hear from someone who has actually made it work! We’ve bought our second bin today, and yes, they both have taps. Thanks again!
Yay, i have a little feather in my cap because we have been using Who Gives A Crap toilet paper for a while now and i tend to give a roll of it to visitors as a ‘souvenir’:) i also ordered some of their kitchen paper this time but now i think i’ll need to rethink my use of that one just because it is a throw away item. I’ll also revert to using our cloth napkins. I’ll be interested to follow your bokashi composting – i bought some of the bran-like activator to use in our compost heap but discovered that Mrs Pumblechook eats it and i’m not too sure it would be good for her.
Jan, I’ll let you know how the composter(s) go!
I remember moaning to someone about the McD/Costa culture of grab it, eat & drink it, throw away the rubbish and wondered why people couldn’t take time to sit down and eat off proper plates and being told I was just old! Feel slightly justified now. However, now think my table manners are sadly lacking as we haven’t used napkins everyday since the children needed their school uniform protecting from breakfast. Will introduce them this lunch time and see what reaction I get.
How did you go? I’m actually feeling very grown up with our new napkins.. :)
I used mine but the others were unused. At teatime I heard one of my daughters tell her nephew to wipe his hands on the tablecloth, but to make sure he did it under the table so I couldn’t see. I have some work to do :)
Great blog. My council accepts almost all kitchen waste – bones, peelings etc into the green bin, okay to wrap in newspaper, so my red bin goes out monthly if that. Have you seen any of the ABC “War on waste?” Not all Woolworths soft plastic bins actually go to the right place, some are going to landfill; Coles seems to be okay. My mesh bags aren’t drawstring, just closed 3 sides like a plastic bag.
Someone mentioned the show just yesterday to us and we found them on iView. Such interesting stuff! I’ve never heard of a council taking ALL kitchen food scraps – our green bin is ONLY for garden waste. That’s very impressive. Which state are you in?
South Australia. A lot of the local councils are really onboard and actively encourage all kitchen scraps to go to GreenWaste bins; there are free dropoff points at the weekends for excess garden waste. I am Tea Tree Gully Council, pretty sure Campbelltown is as good and Unley outstanding – they offer tours of their garbage management facilities. VERY pleased to hear one of the farmers markets is going to stop plastic bags too! I still end up with some…. but I take them with me if I’m walking on the beach or riverwalks and pick up rubbish as I’m even more worried about plastic in the waterways than in landfill.
That’s wonderful Celia. I do most of those things too, though need to build up my supply of mesh bags and looking for a cheap source. Our council takes all soft plastic now- introduced around 2 years ago so that all those bits get placed inside another plastic bag then out it goes with the recycling. I tried the bokashi bin for a while,but it was too small and slow so now simply stick to composting all the things the chooks don’t eat. Large green waste gets piled up for a late winter bonfire, then the ash from that goes in the compost bins. we have four bins going. When we get newspaper, rarely, it is torn in strips and added to the compost- the ink is vegetable based, and I often gather my mother’s papers in winter. I’m thinking about ways of re- using old cotton and linen clothing that is at the end of it’s life, stuff that is too raggy for the op shop. If I use plastic bags, they tend to be sturdy zip lock bags and get washed out and re-used often, before hitting the council plastic recycle bag.
That’s great that your council takes soft plastic! And let me know what you end up doing with old clothing – I’d love some ideas! I’ve sent you an sms about the mesh bags! :)
Can’t find the sms. can you re- send Celia please. Ever since I lost my phone in a train near Prague, I’ve been a rare phone user. But I have charged it up now and do need to get back into it. xx
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-make-rag-rugs-979195 I have some in my bathroom and really like them.
Thank you, Great idea – I’ll need a big crochet hook and hope that my hands are up to working with a big ‘yarn’.
what a great effort you make to reduce waste,, this is a passion of mine,, I really enjoyed this post!
Thanks Lorie!
Lovely overview Celia, we are also down to 1 small kitchen bag (or less) in the bin per week though still quite a bit of recycling. With composting, I am actually very slack about sorting out onions etc, so it all goes in, and anything that doesn’t break down as fast gets dug into a hole in the garden. I also add baking and kitchen paper and any other damp or otherwise unrecyclable paper to the compost for extra carbon.
My biggest tip would before people to check their local govt recycling website for what can and can’t be recycled – after watching war on waste, like many people I thought coffee cups couldn’t be recycled but in the ACT they can, so if I forget my own cup I don’t feel quite so bad. There are also specialist recyclers for things like toothbrushes – ACT govt at least has an A-Z listing for any material you can think of, and I imagine others are the same – of course reusing/using less is preferable, but it’s good to have backups.
Another vote here too for Who Gives a Crap and Norwex cloths.
Beck, I just checked and sadly takeaway coffee cups can’t be recycled in our area. But it’s a great tip to check – thank you – and for anyone in Inner West Sydney, here’s a link to our council’s A-Z listing:
https://www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/environment/waste-and-recycling/a-z-what-goes-where
Thank you so much for this insightful and inspiring post Celia. We too are hoping to reduce our waste, but we are nowhere as close as you – but I have learned a lot from this blog post, so thank you so much for sharing and inspiring.
Thanks lovely Shaheen! x
This is amazing! We are nowhere near as efficient as you are! I’ve never had luck composting mainly because our city homes have been too shady but the city has green bins and they compost your food waste. A couple of times a year, you can get free compost from them too. We don’t use many paper napkins (when it’s JT and I, we only toss them when they get mangy, which is not often). For company, I always use cloth napkins (I buy Ikea dish towels, they are 100% cotton with two red stripes for $1.00 each. Recently I got 4 extra large blue checks and stripes for $4 which I halved into eight napkins). I’m super intrigued with your homemade beeswax cloths, they are super expensive here. I’m also curious about the soft plastic recycling, I’m definitely looking into that. The mesh bags are on my list too.
Eva, I hope you can find a use for all those one-off coveralls! The Ikea dishtowels sound like a great idea, I’ll have a look next time I’m there. And it’s been nearly a month now and we haven’t used a single piece of cling film – the beeswax wraps are really great!
I need to look into knitted dishcloths! I have compostable ones, but they’re pretty manky now