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Are you looking for a way to go waste free at your home in Australia? Well, this is achievable by adapting to a zero-waste lifestyle. With this lifestyle, you will play an essential role in environmental sustainability by reducing pollution resulting from waste that ends up in landfills in the country.
A waste-free lifestyle also reduces the various health issues that arise from this environmental degradation and encourages sustainable living and biodiversity. It might be challenging to go waste-free at your home, but with small changes in your lifestyle, you can achieve your goals. This article provides you with helpful tips on how to go waste-free at home.
Tips To Go Waste-Free At Home
As you strive to go waste free at your home, it’s crucial to remember that this is not something you can do overnight. Therefore, be patient and take a few small steps at a time; eventually, you will realise your objectives. Here are zero-waste tips for you to follow.
Avoid single-use items
Single-use products such as straws, utensils, plastic bottles, and paper towels end up in landfills leading to massive pollution. You could practise zero-waste living by doing away with such items and using reusable items like cloth napkins or metal cutlery.
This practice helps reduce the amount of plastic and paper waste you generate in your household. Have your reusable water bottles, such as sports bottles or stainless steel thermos, instead of buying new plastic bottles from the store.
Examine your trash
It’s also crucial to take the time to examine your trash to understand the primary contributing source of your waste. This also helps you understand your waste habits and know the practices to avoid in order to reduce waste production in your home. For instance, if most of your home’s rubbish is food waste, you could change your shopping habits to only purchase what you can consume.
Recycle
Recycling is the best way to have a waste-free home in Australia. This is a process by which used materials are converted into new reusable products. It helps eliminate or reduce the need to harvest resources to save energy, reduce deforestation, and minimise greenhouse gas emissions. You could put this into practice by repurposing old items or sending used materials to waste collection facilities for recycling.
Repurpose domestic items
Your home has several items that could be repurposed to eliminate waste. Some of these items include glass jars, which could make great planters and food storage containers. In addition, you could turn your old bedsheets into a more reusable tote for your grocery shopping. You could also use fabric bags to carry fresh produce to avoid using the single-use plastic bags provided by your store.
Composting
Most of the food waste you generate in your household is compostable. Under perfect conditions, composting these wastes could transform your food scraps into valuable organic nutrition for your soil.
This helps eliminate the harmful methane byproducts emitted when these products are disposed of in landfills. If you have a home garden, compost is a great alternative to store-bought alternatives that contain harmful chemicals.
Buy fresh foods
Buying fresh food eliminates or reduces the need to purchase plastic-wrapped processed foods. Plastic packaging harms the ecosystem because it ends up in the environment or landfills. Fresh vegetables and fruits aren’t packed in plastics; you could carry them in your reusable tote.
Additionally, you could bring your containers to the butcher when buying meat. With such practices, you help eliminate paper and plastic waste.
Use rechargeable batteries
You could also go waste-free at home by using rechargeable batteries instead of disposable options. Rechargeable batteries allow you to save money and effectively eliminate their disposable counterparts, which end up in landfills and plastic packaging.
Connect with a zero-waste community
There are communities across Australia that have effectively adapted to zero-waste living successfully. Thus, you can search for message boards and forums or visit local community centres encouraging a zero-waste lifestyle. Such a community will provide support and valuable information on how to live a waste-free life at your home in Australia.
Other Simple Ways To Go Waste-Free At Home
There are some other simple ways that you could put into practice to make your home waste free. These include:
Avoid products in plastic wraps
This might be challenging, but avoiding all plastic-wrapped produce from your grocery stores or supermarket is possible. You could buy the options with biodegradable packaging to avoid having a lot of plastic waste in your home. This also ensures that the plastics don’t end up in landfills.
Have a green closet
You could also make your home waste free by buying from sustainable clothing brands in Australia, your local consignment, or thrift shops. Often, you will get unique or gently worn stuff at a discounted price. You should also consider donating the clothes you no longer wear to avoid having too many items in your closet.
Replace your soap bottles with bars
Avoid using plastic-package conditioner, shampoo, and soap bottles. Bars are more concentrated and long-lasting than bottled options; therefore, you also save a lot of money. Another option is to use homemade beauty products.
Create your cleaning products
Most conventional cleaning products contain toxic endocrine disruptors and chemicals that pollute waterways. You could make your home waste free by making your own environmentally friendly cleaning products to clean your floors, countertops, toilets, and showers. Some eco-friendly products that will prove helpful for DIY cleaning include vinegar, baking soda, and lemon juice.
Use digital instead of print products
You could also switch to digital documents to save on paper waste and ink. For instance, you could request digital bills from your utility companies and digital receipts to avoid wasting a lot of paper and having it all over your home.
Start using stainless steel straws
Plastic straws contribute to a lot of waste in many homes in Australia. Therefore, switching to reusable stainless steel straws is a great way to promote sustainability and go waste-free.
Choose quality products for your home
At first, quality products cost you more but offer many benefits in the long run. They are more long-lasting; therefore, they will effectively help reduce waste in your home and your efforts to go waste-free.
Eliminating Waste From Various Household Rooms
Here are some ways to effectively reduce waste in your household spaces to achieve a zero-waste home.
Kitchen
In the kitchen, you could start by buying unprocessed foods. This helps reduce waste from plastic packaging and the carbon footprint involved in production. You could also try reusing your leftovers and making home organic cleaning products.
Bathroom
You could have a waste-free bathroom by doing away with plastic personal care products as their packaging ends up in landfills. Some products to avoid include plastic toothbrushes and deodorant in plastic containers.
Instead, you could use wooden toothbrushes, buy shampoos and conditioners in bulk with your own top glass bottles, or use solid shampoos and conditioning bars. Another great option is to switch to reusable menstrual products such as menstrual cups or washable cloth pads or buy package-free deodorants.
Laundry room
You should reduce the amount of laundry you wash because the fewer the items, the less soap and other products you need leading to less waste. This means doing away with unnecessary washing. Another option is to purchase laundry detergents in bulk to avoid having a lot of waste products in your home.
Bedroom
Your bedroom should be a place for rest and relaxation, but a lot of waste is generated here. You could eliminate the waste using bedding made from natural materials like cotton or wool that compost at the end of their lifespan.
Need More Help Going Waste-Free At Home?
If you still need more help in your efforts to make your home waste-free, you could seek advice from the best waste management facilities near you. In addition to collecting your waste and disposing of it correctly, the companies provide expert advice on effectively eliminating or reducing the waste generation in your home.
Supreme Skips
Supreme Skips have the largest range of skip bins available for hire in the Adelaide, SA region.
