I recyle all paper, plastic and glass from home and at work. Marton doesn't have glass recycling so I bring it to work to do this.
I recyle all paper, plastic and glass from home and at work. Marton doesn't have glass recycling so I bring it to work to do this.
That's impressive Bunny. We get all the staff to put their food scraps into a compost bin and take it home every Friday. Sometimes it gets pretty high on the bus.
It's amazing how few people compost their scraps. The food waste in NZ must be massive
in September 2009
Most of our organic waste gets eaten by the chooks, that helps us not buying any cage eggs...
The glass, solid plastic and tin gets recycled. Unfortunately I have to repeatedly explain my son that foil and the like DOES NOT GET RECYCLED in NZ. Why oh why?
The paper goes into the cardboard box in which we carried the groceries home and is put outside for kerb recycling.
in September 2009
We recycle all our food scraps, all but the citrus and the avocado - i understand the compost bin doesn't break this stuff down to well. Becoming very conscious about not buying products whose packaging can't be recycled. Amazes me that supermarkets and vege stores sell avocados in polystrine trays packaged in threes, i want the discount for the three avocados - guess i should just leave the packaging behind at the counter. They need to think about friendly packaging.
in September 2009
Cool
in September 2009
We put most of our uncooked food scraps into a worm farm. Though with our kids, we found we had quite a bit of leftover 'cooked' food scraps (plus the citrus stuff). Then we discovered the Bokashi Bin ! This has meant zero food waste into the rubbish, YIPPEE. (Although I do understand that landfills actually require some organic waste for it to work, but somehow I don't think that's a problem right now).
in September 2009
We recycle at home and at work. I am also developing a solution to throw away coffe cups and have a process that turns wasted coffee grounds into a soil conditioner with the addition of some natural minerals.
in October 2009
I help out sorting books for the school book sale and am collecting Readers Digest which don't sell to make a cob wall. (stack books, cover with clay, sand and straw mix)
in October 2009
Recycling is great, but avoidance is better. Try to avoid buying anything that is wrapped in plastic (Good luck).
Unfortunately, recycling still created demand for the manufacture of new material that leads to new waste that needs recycling. Most items are not really recycled but downcycled. So at the end it is still ending on the tip.
Aluminium recycling is still a very energy intense process although less intense than the production of virgin material, it uses about 20% of the initial production energy. About 51% of aluminium is currently recovered in NZ for recycling (Final Report Recycling: Cost Benefit Analysis, prepared for Ministry for the Environment, April 2007 by Covec, retrieved 3 March 2009 from http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/waste/recycling-cost-benefit-analysis-apr07/recycling-cost-benefit-analysis-apr07.pdf) and sent to Australia and Japan for resmeltering.
As a result, by using an aluminium product, 49% new aluminium will be produced at this stage. This brings down the total energy used for Aluminium in NZ to about 60% of new aluminium, still very high.
This is just one example where the use of aluminium, even when recycled, CREATES A MARKET FOR NEW aluminium.
I am not aware of any product that contains a 100% recycled material of THE SAME QUALITY. Usually it is a percentage that is subsequently downcycled.
So it is still the best thing to actually avoid creating waste and only use renewable materials wherever possible.
I was getting sick of all those soymilk tetrapaks from Australia we bought because my wife is allergic to cow milk.
Now we are creating our own oatmilk and the chooks get the leftover oats. Everybody happy, no waste.
We got rid of the laundry detergent by using soapnuts. Despite of them (still) coming from india, almost no more waste, the nuts go into the compost after use. Just the soapnut bag comes with plastic to keep them dry. Wondering whether they really need this.
Many more examples.
Regards,
Ingo
in November 2009
H there
As a family we have always been BIG on recycling, and always try to make a conscious effort. We grow and trade many of our own veges, and meat
We recently did a community waste clean up and picked up a massive 56kg of waste, 95% was recycled! And guess what the most featured item was ... pie wrappers!
I'm glad to say our children really understand that recycling is a good option. Our awareness and actions seemed to have rubbed off on our local school with a fun trade me project, and hopefully helped others to thunk recycling. Every little bit counts
One of the best options of course is to reduce waste in the first place, say no to obvious non-recyclable materials, and support those food producers with smart environment policies
Our 3 businesses all have recycling policies
Rgs
Linda
last month
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