It’s becoming common knowledge now that as individuals and households, we should be aiming to cut down our household waste. There are many ways we can start to do this – and many ways we can embrace the new mind-set of “waste not, want not”.
Why is cutting down on waste important?
You might be asking why cutting down on waste is so important anyway, so here I’ll try and briefly explain. Every year thousands of tonnes of rubbish and waste is poured in landfill sites across the world. The waste (most of the time) is unnecessary and unusable.
Eventually these landfill sites will fill up, and in the meantime the amount of energy of toxic air they give off are damaging to our earth’s natural balance. By following the next few steps, you can cut down your own family’s household waste. Doing this will set a great example for your children and encourage them to look after their planet too.
1. Recycle what you can
Recycling if a very important step towards protecting and preserving our planet, and anything you recycle will be reused, so you can stop thinking of it as waste. Try having separate trash cans in your house; one for paper and cardboard, one for plastic, one for metal and one for food waste. Just a simple step like this makes a huge difference, and lets your children learn about the steps of recycling too.
2. Use reusable bags were possible
When you go to the supermarket to buy your weekly shop, be sure to take your reusable “bags for life” with you. By doing this you’ll be avoiding the waste of all those little plastic bags which you’d be using otherwise. Next, try and use little baskets or papers bags for bagging your vegetables and fruit, this will save you throwing away the disposable clear plastics bags.
3. Purchase items in bulk
With items like washing detergent, shampoo, toilet roll, etc – try and buy them in bulk. Don’t worry if buying in bulk costs you more because it will last much longer than buying some every week and will save on waste hugely. By purchasing one large packet of 24 toilet rolls, you are saving the waste of buying little packets of 4 every week.
4. Use washing “rags” instead of kitchen towels
Instead of going through a roll of kitchen towel every week – but some kitchen cloths instead. You can wash them quickly and easily and it saves on so much paper and waste. And money!
5. Give to Charity
If you have old magazines that need chucking away, old toys, clothes or even shoes – check the condition of them before you throw them out. If the quality is still good and you’ve simply outgrown them, then why not hand them over to a local charity shop or hospital? Places like this always welcome donations and you’ll feel great for doing your part.
