How to let your neighbours know you're a greenie?

Over the last 12 months there has been a lot of talk about no-dig gardens. What trips me up is the need to source all the materials to make a no-dig garden. No-dig gardens just seem to have so many ingredients, when you can just call up a compost or landscaping place and they will dump a whole bunch of 'soil' at your front door. Convenience strikes again!

I haven't given up completely on the idea of creating my 'perfect' veggie patch through a no dig process and due to a number of recent random events in my life I am starting to think it might even be possible. However, the no-dig garden still needs all of those ingredients and perhaps the biggest sticking point is the current lack of compost in my life! Now compost doesn't just appear over night, you have to work at it, love it, feed it......and maybe, just maybe you might be rewarded with some 'black gold'.

When we moved in to our new place, I did rush out and buy the biggest and nastiest black compost bin I could find at our local green & red hardware store. I put it in a place I thought would be accessible and convenient, with the idea that I would be making buckets loads of compost by the time I was thinking about building the veggie patches. Well, 12 months on and I have decided that the bin is in the completely wrong spot and its location doesn't allow me to turn the ingredients to aerate them. Also, I think perhaps the type of bin I bought (a flat pack square one) is probably not strong enough to take a good turning.

Anyway, I will continue with my bin choice, but I have moved it and its current ingredients to a new location. The move brought ingredient aeration and some realisation that I don't have enough green materials (nitrogen) going into my compost bin (because the worm farm is hogging them). So this is where my neighbours find out that they have a hippie in their midst!

With the amount of green waste being utilised in my worm farm and the lack of established veggie patch to "feed" the compost bin, where am I to get this green material from? Work colleagues seem to be a little "special" when it comes to separating suitable lunch scraps and don't actually seem to have that many (or least not placed appropriately into the designated bucket in the lunch room).

So, where am I to get this stuff from? My greenie and recycling streak re-surfaced and I came up with a grand plan. Through a little initiative of mine, I am hoping my neighbours will be the source of all my required 'green materials'. How is this going to happen? Well, I have put together a flyer, that I have so far dropped into 50% of my street's letterboxes, requesting my neighbours be so kind as to drop their kitchen green scraps into a "bin" that I have conveniently placed at my front gate.

 (Source: World Changing Seattle)

I wonder if this plan will be successful? Once the rain eases I will do the rest of my neighbourhood letterbox drop and see whether this strategy reaps any rewards! Pin It

The chaos I came home to!

Hi ho hi ho its off to work I go and by the time I got home this afternoon the house seemed to have regressed into some sort of chaotic parallel universe!

I returned home after nine hours at work and find that my driveway is almost completely blocked with a massive pile of palm tree mulch. Sure I should be happy about this a gigantic pile of mulch (as tall as me and probably three standard car lengths long) but the access into our carport is nearly blocked. Not such a big deal one might say but the other half spent did spend about forty-five minutes this afternoon clearing out a flat enough section in the mulch pile so that he could four-wheel drive over it to get his car out from behind this pile. All this drama just because the dumper of the mulch was too slack to listen to instructions, which required them to open a gate and then dump the excessive amount of palm mulch next to an existing pile of mulch in a location that wouldn't create such inconvenience.

So this is my first 'shock'! The next was the realisation that this large pile of mulch was smothering my just fruiting snow peas! Now this nearly floored me and certainly I had to restrain myself from screaming down the pathway to my other half to explain or justify why I shouldn't be strangling someone. This fabulous pile of much was soon to be killing off my fine, organic, locally obtained snow peas grown from seed, in a newly cleaned out garden bed, with the newly grown fruit easily accessible to my food-fussy toddler (who will eat these off the bush) and I am not very impressed!

I managed to restrain myself from screaming like a banshee about this, but the next thing that struck me was my withered and chewed brightly blooming grafted Eucalypt ($50). As I struggled through the front gate whilst trying not to step on my bottom lip, the tree appeared to have either been attacked by a lawn mower or a more likely explanation a dog's mouth. From the damage, I certainly suspect it was one of my dogs! Basically they have chewed off the top of the tree in frustration probably whilst feeling frustrated at my other half ignoring their barking whilst he over at the neighbours' negotiating a bargain on the large pile of palm mulch that now is residing in my driveway!

This palm mulch had better be the best damn weed-suppressing mulch ever - that's all I've got to say!

(Source: Backyard Poultry)

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What will your container do in its second life?

It is time to re-think containers! Most of the products we buy from the supermarket come in some sort of container and many of us just throw them out or put them in our recycle bin to be turned into another product. Well, now it is time to think what you can do with these containers around the home.

In our house I religiously wash and save jars. I have a nice stash in the top of the cupboard and utilise these for all sorts of things around the house, but mostly for holding basil pesto that I make from basil I grow in my garden. Another container that has many uses in my household is a strong plastic type container that we get yoghurt in. My partner is particularly good at utilising these!

(Source: Georges Yoghurt)

We store many of our bulk food items in these containers, including sugars, biscuits, cereals, bird seed and much more. And these types of containers are sturdy enough to last a long time and have great lids that seal well so little black ants aren't attracted to their contents. 

What is great about re-using these containers at home, is that there is no additional transportation costs and no more electricity or water used to make these products into something new and none of these costs (financial and environmental) associated with buying a new container to store the products that I am currently using these "second hand" containers for.

Other uses for these containers might include:

• storing elastic bands, sewing cotton;
• storing kids' pencils, felt tip pens, crayons;
• storing all types of food products;
• storing or freezing leftovers and excess garden produce.

Why don't you leave a comment and tell us all what you use your left-over containers for.


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One of my favourite products

Wandering around my house today I noticed a product in my household that I get completely frustrated about if we buy an alternate product. What product is it you may ask? Well, it is a specific brand and type of toilet paper. That's right, toilet paper!

We buy double length 100% recycled "post-consumer waste paper" toilet paper. This isn't plush, extra soft, printed, excessively chlorine-bleached toilet paper which many people indulge in, but rather a recycled product. When you come to my house you may experience this product and I think you might be surprised that it isn't scratchy like some people believe recycled toilet paper is, it isn't unattractive and is certainly practical and appropriate for its use.

The product (6 rolls of toilet paper) is branded as "Safe", endorsed by Planet Ark (produced by Encore Tissue) and made in Australia. The best part about the product I buy is that the amount of toilet paper on each roll is the equivalent to two standard rolls. These rolls still fit my standard toilet roll holder and means that I save on the number of toilet roll tubes (less waste), the amount of packaging used to cover the entire product is reduced and the double length means you have to need to change the toilet roll less. The only unfortunate thing about the product is that it is packaged in a plastic material, where surely a paper wrapping would suit just as well and could then be recycled.

The product is also rated as an ethical choice by the Ethical Consumer Guide.

What a great product and it means that all the recycling of paper and cardboard products as part of my domestic waste collection, might eventually come back to me in the form of toilet paper later in their life cycles.

Give it a try, you might be surprised. Pin It

Do you know what a ghost net is?

Ghost nets are discarded fishing nets. These nets can be deliberately discarded or lost at sea during fishing expeditions and end up traveling around the world on ocean currents. Here in Australia, the northern shores of our continent are significantly impacted by these nets, with particular effects on marine wildlife. These nets are known to capture, injure and kill a number of our marine species, including threatened marine turtles and sawfishes.

What can be done about this situation? There is certainly room for improvement to netting and fishing technology and restrictions to locations where nets are permitted. But as many of these nets are released or lost in countries other than ours, these solutions won't help the Australian marine wildlife in the short to medium-term.

So, here in Australia the majority of attention and funding is on the removal of these nets from our coasts and waters. Ghost Nets Australia is an alliance of indigenous communities across northern Australia which are funded to remove ghost nets from our shores. What a big job! Their website shows many initiatives that have been generated from this project, including recycling and art programs and scientific research.

 (Source: Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2011)

This is certainly a big problem, particularly for northern Australian marine species and one which is generally out of sight of the majority of the Australian population.


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What goes into your rubbish bin?

Over the weekend I felt as though all I threw into our regular kitchen rubbish bin was plastic. All of it was generally, quite flimsy, thin plastic wrapping. There was obviously some recyclables in my garbage spree, but I have a separate bin for these and didn't seem particularly overwhelming or different to usual. I just couldn't get over the massive amount of this thin plastic that was in my house and taken straight from a product and into the bin.

I think from memory, most of this plastic that I threw out originated as food covering. I did some cooking on the weekend and so much of it came from the consumption of the products I was using in the cooking and also the replacement of some of the bulk food items that I tend to purchase.

So apart from my cooking spree, I had to rack my brains as to why this seemingly significant increase in plastic. Then it occurred to me, we have recently changed some of our family arrangements and with this my partner is now doing the grocery shopping. As he knows no better (well I don't think he does), its seems that when he purchases fruit and vegetable he puts it in the plastic bags available throughout the green-grocer section of your local supermarket. I hardly ever use these bags, probably only when buying grapes. As such, this certainly contributed a number of these additional plastic items that went into the bin. Also, as they seem to hold moisture and are quite small they are difficult to re-use around the house.

Instruction to my other half about the fact that we don't need these plastic green-grocer bags and that placing fruit and vegetables straight into the trolley and onto the counter is perfectly acceptable! I don't know whether he will adopt my suggestion, but if he doesn't I will have to come up with a way of re-using these bags. Otherwise I will feel too guilt about the amount of this plastic in the landfill or even worse blowing into the marine environment and potentially being ingested by some of a charismatic sea creatures, such as turtles or eventually find its way into the Great Garbage Patch in the 'middle' of the Pacific Ocean.

Plastic is everywhere, but where you can reduce your household intake of these or re-utilise around the house, it is important to do so. Pin It

Look for opportunities to reduce waste!

Through friends I came across the Resource Rescue Centre based in Victoria. It looks like a wonderful resource and manages to recycle things that would otherwise go to landfill.

Anything that can be done to reduce landfill and allow other people to use what you consider scrap is a fabulous initiative.

Here in Brisbane we have a similar centre known as Reverse Garbage. I have visited this store several times and always found some treasure that I needed to take home. They also have upcycle products that they create from "rubbish" that they receive and make into gorgeous art, craft and clothes!

What I need is more time to investigate and scrounge through these treasure troves! Keep your eye out for your local recycler and see what amazing things you might find and what you can rescue from landfill! Pin It

Water conservation tip...recycling

Some of you may have heard that rinsing your recyclable containers is a nice thing to do. This means that the containers that you recycle are therefore not so stinky and gross when they go to being sorted.

Instead of wasting clean, drinking water to rinse these out, collect up your containers that require rinsing each day and use the end of your washing up water to rinse them out.


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Should companies be responsible?

What would happen if companies were held to account for the goods they produce throughout their products entire life-cycle? As an example in this situation, a producer of a mobile phone would therefore be responsible for all of the discarded or redundant mobile phones they produce. I think this is a marvellous situation to ponder.

Would producers end up producing products that were likely to last longer, have more recyclable or reusable content and reduce the number of new models they are produced? What other situations would arise from this? Perhaps there would be a return of repairers, rather than the standard response "it would be cheaper to buy a new one than investigate the issue and then repair the problem" or "parts are no longer available for that model".

I believe there would likely be less landfill, less pollution, more sustainability and longevity of products. Producers would become more savvy with their products, more responsible with their choice of components, increase the amount of recycled content, as well as the increasing the capability for  their products to be recycled.

To me the opportunities and positive outcomes as a result of such a scenario are endless and something that perhaps we could strive towards and maybe mark the end of endless consumption that modern, western society seems to have entered into. Pin It

Freecycle

Freecycle aims to reduce the amount of usable/re-usable items going into landfill. Groups are locally based, with volunteer moderators. Members use a bulletin board to 'advertise' things that they would otherwise be throwing out and might be of use to other people. Almost anything can be listed, you just need to want to give it away and it can be in any condition. The idea is not to sell these things or seek a fee but to give the items away.

It is amazing what people give away. Recently, I managed to get a lot of garden plants for my friends in Brisbane that were impacted by the floods. Other things that have taken my fancy, but I wasn't successful in getting (first in first served type arrangement generally) have included juicers, pots, water tanks, piano, dolls, toys, puzzles, etc, etc. I have however, managed to get a lot of crafty items for my local day care. Not only have I managed to get some interesting items, I have also managed to get rid of a lot of the clutter around the house without being concerned about whether it will be utilised by the local community group or just chucking things into the bin that someone else might be able to use.

If you're interested you sign up to your local network (see if there is a Freecyle group near you) and then choose whether you want to receive individual emails or daily digests. Each group has different members, different interests and different items available.

Another way to reduce your environmental footprint.

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Saved a fence!

You just never know where you will find something useful in life! Wandering through my local township I  did a double take when a pile of fencing caught my eye. There just lying next to a shed was a large pile of dismantled white picket fence. This had been taken down from a courtyard area behind a shop in the main street. There were some landscapers working on what was clearly a new fence and I thought "opportunity"!

Quick conversations between myself and the landscapers and it was established the fence was going straight to the tip. Can I have it, was my obvious next question? Clear it with the boss and its yours. Fabulous. After an early morning trip back to the location, this time with a ute, I am now the proud owner of a pile of old picket fence segments and now slowly dismantling them into single palings and supporting beams.

Why some of you might ask? Well in the near future I will be moving house and I plan on acquiring some chickens. I thought the palings would make a good edge for my chicken run or at least allow the chickens to have an outdoors fenced area separate from my two dogs.

Felt proud of myself for salvaging this fence and re-using something that would have otherwise ended up at the tip, potentially as compost. It certainly would have had a much shorter life-cycle than it was capable of having! All sorts of things can make a difference to the planet and this is just one of them. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Pin It

Recycling...do you do it?

If you haven't heard already it is very important to recycle anything you can. The slogan "reduce, recycle, reuse" is a great mantra to follow in everyday life. I have however, sometimes got on my high horse and announced that it is no good recycling if you're not going to choose products that have recycled content. But I have come to the realisation that isn't necessarily true, as there is the need for more than one plastic bottle that I might recycle to produce a recycled content product that I might like to buy in the future. Thus, I need everyone to recycle!

Furthermore, it is important to choose products with recycled content, as this follows the "reduce" part of the slogan. This is because you will be using less primary resources and creating a more 'closed' system rather than continuing mine or gather intact primary resources. It also goes someway to also committing to the "reuse" principle because you are re-utilising a resource just in a different form. Such re-use does however still require more resources in the product's transformation process so in fact it is better if possible to reuse things in their original state. 

So, if you're going to be recycling your toilet rolls then best to buy recycled content toilet paper. It isn't as scratchy and nasty as it once was or perceived to be and does the job just as well! Alternatively, if you're ultra keen just use the toilet roll instead of toilet paper.       :)   Peronsally, I'm just at the recycled content toilet paper. 

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Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Have you ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? If not, here is a little bit of information about it.

Basically it a massive amount of plastic pollution floating around in the Northern Pacific Ocean circulating with the oceanic currents. Apparently it is quite large, between 0.41 & 8.5% of the Pacific Ocean. It is however difficult to gain a true estimation of its size because it isn't visible in satellite imagery as the material is suspended in the upper water column rather than directly on the surface and much of it is plastic particulates rather than entire plastic containers.

Its presence was originally hypothesized in a paper in 1988, but its presence was 'discovered' by a sailor in 1997 who brought its presence to the attention of the scientific community. It is thought that the patch has formed over time through the accumulation of marine (plastic) pollution collected in oceanic currents, with wind-surface currents retaining the pollution within the Pacific region.

If this was a visible feature on our coastlines I'm sure people would have paid attention to the issue more readily before now, but as it is out of sight, I guess it is also a little out of mind. My hope is that the dissemination of such information will bring about changes to people's habits, particularly in relation to consumption of products within plastic containers to start with (as it has to go somewhere once you're finished with the product) or alternatively just dispose of these items more appropriately.  Reduce, reuse, recycle! Pin It

Recycling numbers...what do they mean?

Many of the plastics and products that we all have in our kitchen and around the house have the chasing arrow recyclable symbols with numbers on them. But what do they mean?

Well, I have looked into it and here is an explanation:

1 (PETE) -Poly(ethylene terephthalate) - soft drink bottles, etc
2 (HDPE) - High-density Polyethylene - containers for milk, laundry powders, softeners, etc
3 (V) - Poly(vinyl cloride) - pipes, shower curtains, baby bottle nipples, etc
4 (LDPE)- Low-density Polyethylene - plastic wrap, plastic bags, etc
5 (PP)- Polypropylene - nappies, plastic containers
6 (PS) - Polystyrene - disposable cutlery, cups, meat trays, etc.
7 (Other) - other - who know what this is?

What can you truly recycle in your weekly recycling bin picked up by your local Council?

Apparently according to Choice magazine, most Council accepts products marked as either 1 or 2. Choice also indicates that quite often all the rest of the recyclable plastics (3-7) are bundled together and reproceesed overseas.

What can't be recycled:
The following are some unacceptable recyclables, even though they’re made of recyclable plastic.

• A high-density polyethylene (HDPE) container if it has carried a hazardous substance.
• Plastic shopping bags, low density polyethylene (LDPE) packaging film, small bits of polystyrene packaging. This lightweight packaging is likely to get blown out and contaminate the paper stream in the MRF, unless the facility is fully automated and uses optical laser sorting technology.
• Plastic bottle lids. They’re generally made of different plastic from the container and may fall through the holes in the sorting cylinder (trommel), or create air pressure in a closed polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle when it’s compressed, so that when the bottles pop open, the bales can fall apart. However, because they’re a valuable source of recyclable plastic, some MRF operators now advise recycling plastic lids, as optical sorters can deal with the different plastics issue – so follow your council’s advice.

http://www.choice.com.au/Life-Stage/Green-living/Recycle%20and%20re-use/Plastic-recycling/Page/Which%20plastics%20can%20be%20recycled.aspx

More information about your local Council's situation can be found at:

http://www.recyclingnearyou.com.au/

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Don't tie up your garbage bags!

A friend of mine has currently been spending a lot of time at the refuse transfer stations around Brisbane for reasons that remain a little foggy. But despite his new odour (just kidding) he has some insight into what happens to our 'normal' rubbish after it is collected by the rubbish truck each week.

Upon taking our rubbish from our wheelie bins it goes to a transfer station where our rubbish is sorted. Seriously! I just didn't think that would ever happen. All the stuff that goes into our bins I thought that it would all be taken immediately to a large hole in the ground, compacted and then covered over. But no! It is sorted into products that can be reclaimed, recycled, composted, etc. I find this amazing!

The moral of the story is thus, don't tie up the plastic bags you put your household waste before you place them into your wheelie bins! Why you ask? This is because if your garbage bag is tied, then the products in the plastic bag are generally less likely to be sorted into their appropriate waste streams (recycling, reclaiming, composting or landfill) and just end up going straight to that landfill stream. So if you leave your bags untied the contents can escape and be appropriately sorted. Pin It

Recycling...what can you include in your wheelie bin?

What can you truly include in your recycling bin that the Council collects every week or maybe ever second week? To me it is becoming more and more confusing. There are the obvious things that you can recycle like paper, cardboard and plastic bottles. But there are a number of items that people are putting into their recycling bin that they shouldn't, for example, plastic shopping bags.

Other items not to include in your recycling bin:

• lids for all containers, including plastic bottles....remove these before you put them into the recycling bin
• light bulbs
• food scraps
• ceramics
• ovenware

But what you can recycle really depends on what your local Council will accept. Have a look at your local government's website for more information about what is acceptable for collection. Pin It

Wrapping paper - reuse

Over the weekend I went to a friend's baby shower which was a lot of fun. Food, friends, a few silly party games and of course presents for the Mum-to-be! So, you may be thinking what aspect of a baby shower could she possibly relate to the environment or think of ways to reduce consumption, etc?

Perhaps it isn't the most obvious thing, but I asked whether I could have all the wrapping paper that was hurriedly being piled into garbage bags ready for dumping into the closest wheelie bin! Next question, perhaps logically, is what on earth am I planning on doing with a large pile of crumpled used wrapping paper. Well the bits that I can salvage I will re-use for other people's present, but my main motivation for asking is to cut the paper up either into shapes or cut out pictures from the paper and give it to my daughter (toddler) for either a collage type activity or just for her to do with as she pleases.

So perhaps you can think about your next event and see what things can either be re-used (that is incorporate some of your old things into the event rather than going out and buying purpose built products) or what things that would traditionally chucked out after the event could be re-used for any number of activities or purposes. I would love to hear some of the suggestions. Pin It

Plastic Bags in Recycling

Don't do it people. I have heard and yet to confirm that the companies that collect and sort the recycling can end up dumping whole truck loads of recyclable material into landfill if there is a portion of the truckload tainted with plastic bags.

There are options to recycle your plastic bags. This can be done through a number of large supermarket chains, but not through the recycling wheelie bin pick up route.

It infuriates me to see plastic bags hanging out of people's recycling bins in my street and suburb because I think of all the time and effort that I go to to sort my recycling items and ensuring that I recycle as much as I can. Then I see my effort potentially being wasted because my neighbour has contaminated the entire recycling load with plastic bags in their recycling bin. End result: my recycling getting chucked out with theirs. Aaarrrghh! Make the effort people, it really doesn't take that much time! Pin It

Consume less

Well this seems obvious and yet in a society which consumes many more products than they actually need the desire to keep up with the Jones's because it is the societal norm seems to make this one tricky.

Consume less of what?..everything. Less food. Portion control is a great saver of food, so is appropriately planning shopping. How many of the food products that you pay hard earned money for go into the bin or compost?

Do you need another skirt or can you make do with the last one? I don't know...this can be tricky sometimes. I know that boys are pretty good at not needing a new pair of undies....when they actually should have purchased a new pair 6 months ago!

The motto that many are familiar with is "reduce, reuse, recycle". So reduce is the first point of call.

Food for thought. Let's see if I can make any changes to myself and my lifestyle that picks up on this theme. Pin It