Whether you’re keen to set some goals for the new year around reducing your waste and single-use plastics, or you’ve been slowly plodding away towards your target for a while, it can be helpful to reflect on your current habits and journey so far. I’ve been meaning to do a stocktake for a while now, so the new year is probably an apt time to finally record my journey! Sometimes it can feel like I’m not making much progress, or that life is getting in the way of me achieving my sustainability goals, so it has been a really worthwhile experience to reflect on how far I’ve come.
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I’m always saying on social media that the key to sustained, long-term change is to go about it slowly. I say this for good reason. In early 2016 when I decided to make some serious lifestyle changes, I was a stay-at-home-Mum with a 4 year old and a 5 month old baby who had numerous health/allergy issues. Within a few short months, I was trying to produce only a handful of trash and cook 95% of our food totally from scratch from package-free ingredients, all the while getting very little sleep, single handedly running a household, adjusting to being a Mum of 2, and trying to learn how to “do” Zero Waste with young kids (even 2 years ago, there wasn’t the wealth of information that there is now, and none of the online Zero Waste gurus I found had young children). Obviously, it was a recipe for disaster, and I had to really pull my head in and give myself a break before I had a breakdown. However, it was an extremely valuable experience and I learnt firsthand the importance of taking things slowly; there’s no point doing Zero Waste “perfectly” if you’re too miserable, exhausted and overwhelmed to enjoy it. Since then, I’ve concentrated on making 1 or 2 changes at a time, then moving onto another goal only once I felt comfortable with my new habits and how they fitted into our life.
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My journey will likely look very different to others, and we shouldn’t judge our own progress against someone else’s. Many complex variables come into play to determine how we live our lives: money, health, employment, transport, stress, ownership, support, education, mental health, energy, resources, and how connected we are to our community. While I’m not close to truly being “Zero Waste”, I’m incredibly happy with our consumption habits, the amount of waste we produce, and our lifestyle at this point in our lives.
","stylesMapId":"CK_EDITOR_PARAGRAPH_STYLES","linkList":[]},"dataItem-jcib9rpu":{"type":"TPAWidget","id":"dataItem-jcib9rpu","metaData":{"isPreset":false,"schemaVersion":"1.0","isHidden":false},"applicationId":"4755","referenceId":"5674be07-7c75-43e8-81d7-457e7a7ac8e1","widgetId":"142bb34d-3439-576a-7118-683e690a1e0d"},"dataItem-jcibdokz":{"type":"StyledText","id":"dataItem-jcibdokz","metaData":{"isPreset":false,"schemaVersion":"1.0","isHidden":false},"text":"So here’s my wrap-up from the last two years: what I’ve changed so far, and when I changed it. Sometimes, some of these behaviours need to go on the back-burner for a short time (e.g. I don’t bake biscuits and crackers when my workload is extremely high - I buy them from the supermarket and recycle the plastic), but on the whole, these are the ways in which I have transformed our household and the habits I maintain.
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\n\nPRE-2016 HABITS
\n\nReusable coffee cup (infrequently)
\n\tReusable shopping bags (frequently)
\n\tCloth nappies
\n\tReusable drink bottle
\n\tHomemade gifts
\n\tVegetable gardening (infrequently)
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2016 CHANGES
\n\nReusable coffee cup (now 100% of the time)
\n\tReusable shopping bags (now 100% of the time)
\n\tReusable produce bags
\n\tStarted making my own cleaning products: dishwashing detergent, liquid soap, toilet scrub, spray & wipe, dishwasher powder, floor cleaner etc.
\n\tLined rubbish bins with newspaper liners instead of plastic (which is *not* recommended!)
\n\tIncreased home-cooking from raw ingredients (e.g. sauces, dips, pizza dough, tortilla, biscuits, crackers, muesli bars, bliss balls, muffins etc.)
\n\tFilter coffee machine and Chemex instead of Nespresso pod coffee maker
\n\tBar soap instead of body wash or commercial liquid soap
\n\tWooden dish brush with replaceable head
\n\tWooden vegetable brush
\n\tBamboo toothbrushes
\n\tHomemade toothpaste (which we have since decided not to use)
\n\tRubbish-free lunchboxes for the kids
\n\tStarted washing and reusing plastic ziplock bags I already owned
\n\tReusable wetbags in the nappy bag instead of single use plastic
\n\tReusable baby wipes
\n\tGround coffee straight into a giant jar at a local coffee roaster
\n\tBeeswax wraps and reusable containers instead of glad wrap to store food
\n\tHomemade reusable cloths instead of paper towels
\n\tSecondhand/repurposed fabrics for most of my sewing projects instead of buying new
\n\tKeep a reusable coffee cup, cloth bag, baby flannels, shopping bag and stainless steel straw in my handbag and nappy bag so I'm always prepared
\n\t2017 CHANGES
\n\nRoutinely shop at Bin Inn using my own cloth bags and containers
\n\tStarted making my own toiletries: face scrubs, dry shampoo, deodorant, facial toner, lip and cheek tint, essential oils to treat my skin
\n\tSourced raw milk in reusable glass bottles from a local farm
\n\tSwitched to no bin liner at all
\n\tMenstrual cup and cloth pads
\n\tSaved dried eggshells and ground them for the garden (sometimes)
\n\tLoose-leaf teas with a teapot or single-serve strainer instead of tea bags
\n\tCollected fruit/veggie scraps, coffee, tea, and eggshells for the green-waste bin
\n\tFroze veggie scraps in the freezer to turn into veggie stock
\n\tMade a butter-replacement vegan spread (infrequently)
\n\tStarted collecting any soft plastics for recycling
\n\tStarted saving batteries for recycling
\n\tShampoo and conditioner bars instead of buying bottles from the supermarket
\n\tFace wash bar soap instead of packaged cleanser
\n\tOnly purchase ready-made skincare/cosmetics in glass
\n\tBYO container for takeaways (infrequently)
\n\tBYO container for deli purchases (infrequently)
\n\tBYO container at the butcher (infrequently)
\n\tPurchase Trade Aid chocolate since the wrapper is compostable (infrequently)
\n\tWooden toilet brush
\n\tFabric napkins instead of serviettes
\n\tHandkerchiefs instead of tissues
\n\tHomemade almond and cashew milk instead of Tetra-Paks
\n\tAttempted coconut yoghurt (it was unsuccessful x2)
\n\tStarted saving toothpaste tubes to recycle via the TerraCycle Oral Care Recycling Program
\n\tUse fabric scraps, brown paper or secondhand tea towels/scarves for gift wrapping
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GOALS FOR 2018
\n\nStainless steel safety razor to replace broken plastic one
\n\tWooden comb to replace broken plastic one
\n\tHome-bake more bread for the adults and/or source unpackaged locally
\n\tLearn how to make homemade yoghurt really well
\n\tImprove my dressmaking and tailoring skills
\n\tLobby local council to look into a kerbside compost scheme similar to Raglan Xtreme Zero Waste
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\n\nSo there we have it! I hope this was a tad useful, or at the very least interesting. I'm always keen to connect with other like-minded people and share stories and info, so please stay in touch via my Facebook or Instagram!
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