Recycling is easy, we basically only have to separate the good stuff from the normal trash. Then if your lucky, the council comes and take it away for you, sorts it and send it's off to the right factories to make new things. But what do we put in those bins? My husband gets very confused, and I'm often running behind him and pulling things out of one bin and putting it in another. Poor Jez.
So much can be recycled. I've realised that I only do the basics though. So much can be recycled these days. Even those pesky plastic bags!
So what can go into the recycling bin? Drink cans, empty them though. Most people know this one. But they still seem to end up in the rubbish bin. So when your out, and you have the means, save them and put the in the recycling. Plastic drink bottles also should be recycled. Make sure your cans and bottles are empty so they don't contaminate others or destroy the machinery that sorts them. Instead of buying plastic drink bottles it's a good idea to get a water filter for you tap, or one that can go in the fridge, and the fill a reusable drink bottle.
Glass is recyclable, but not oven proof glass or drinking glasses. I did not know this and used to put in my broken glasses in there. Beer bottles and wine bottles etc.. are okay.
Newspapers of course should be going in the recycling, also old yellowpages, shredded paper, cardboard, milk cartons (rinsed), stamps and magazines.
Don't put your recycling in plastic bags as the sorters do not open the plastic bags. If you want to recycle them you can take them to your local Coles or Woolies, and they usually have a plastic bag recycling bin that you can put them in. A lot of my family use them as garbage bags, for those who don't try and use the reusable shopping bags made out of canvas or your greenies that are sold at the supermarket.
Printer Cartridges can be recycled via the Planet Ark recycling bins located at most Australia Posts, Offices Works, Harvey Normans, Tandy, Dick Smiths, and Power house stores. Also for businesses, some office supply companies can do this service for you.
Mobile phones, if it's broken and can not be fixed, most mobile phone outlets have a recycling facility available. But if it's still working, sell it and make some cash!
Hope some of this was useful, let me know if there is a product that I haven't metioned that you want to find out about.
xxoo
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
The Realisation
I woke up the other morning, and after having emptied my rubbish bin before dinner last night, I had to empty it again. My bin is not a small bin, it holds a lot of rubbish. But still, I realised that I am emptying it all the time! What am I throwing away? There was food scraps, packaging and the biggest offender... NAPPIES! I am an avid recycler already. My mother had brought us up recycling from day dot. But the food scraps should have found a home in a composter or worm farm... and the nappies... eek. But I felt immediately ashamed when I remembered the bundle of clothes that I had thrown away the day before. It really troubled me when I thought about how much I was throwing away, and how I had been okay with that. Even my 22 month son Harry knows to put the food he doesn't like in the bin.
Do I want my kids growing up not thinking about what they are throwing away? Not realising that it just goes and sits in landfill for ever accumulating? And what about where things come from? We just go to the shops for food, Harry thinks that when ever I come home from the shops magically chicken nuggets appear to appease his appetite! What am I teaching him about the where food really comes from? I was angry.
My first step, as I can not afford to go out and just buy the things that I know I need to be a better "green mum", was nappies. They are my biggest bin filler. We go through about eight a day. We have two kids under two (Hayden is 15 weeks) and I feel if I can get out of the disposable nappies, I will cut my bin volume almost in half.
Talking to my husband about the idea of going for reuseable nappies was always going to be hard. Jeremy finds the poo "issue" hard enough already, and while he always willing to help, I know he finds it hard. So bringing up the idea that we will be making changing nappies a little bit harder was... hard. But he was surprisingly supportive, with a little hesitation he understood my point of view.
Researching was the next step. There are a lot of options. There are bio degradable disposables. While these would be a good option, they are expensive, and would still be clogging up landfill. Not the option for me. There are the total reuseable, with reusable liners, but that is a lot of washing and scraping off poo... not too sure Jeremy would love that so much. And the last option is a reusable nappy with compostable liners. Which saw and thought was a brilliant idea. The ones I chose were the Weenees. I have purchased 3 and hopefully they will arrive today or tomorrow, we'll see how they go!
Do I want my kids growing up not thinking about what they are throwing away? Not realising that it just goes and sits in landfill for ever accumulating? And what about where things come from? We just go to the shops for food, Harry thinks that when ever I come home from the shops magically chicken nuggets appear to appease his appetite! What am I teaching him about the where food really comes from? I was angry.
My first step, as I can not afford to go out and just buy the things that I know I need to be a better "green mum", was nappies. They are my biggest bin filler. We go through about eight a day. We have two kids under two (Hayden is 15 weeks) and I feel if I can get out of the disposable nappies, I will cut my bin volume almost in half.
Talking to my husband about the idea of going for reuseable nappies was always going to be hard. Jeremy finds the poo "issue" hard enough already, and while he always willing to help, I know he finds it hard. So bringing up the idea that we will be making changing nappies a little bit harder was... hard. But he was surprisingly supportive, with a little hesitation he understood my point of view.
Researching was the next step. There are a lot of options. There are bio degradable disposables. While these would be a good option, they are expensive, and would still be clogging up landfill. Not the option for me. There are the total reuseable, with reusable liners, but that is a lot of washing and scraping off poo... not too sure Jeremy would love that so much. And the last option is a reusable nappy with compostable liners. Which saw and thought was a brilliant idea. The ones I chose were the Weenees. I have purchased 3 and hopefully they will arrive today or tomorrow, we'll see how they go!
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