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Many Australians have ambitions of living more sustainably and producing less waste, but sometimes those ambitions can feel unreachable.
There are, however, a few daily habits you can implement to reduce your waste output, save money and consume more consciously.
Households make up 16 per cent of Australia’s waste output. We sent 5.2 megatons (that’s 5,200,000,000 kilograms) to landfills in 2020-21, according to data from the ABS and the National Waste Report.
Reusable items can cut personal waste if consumed appropriately.
Here are a few simple ways you can reduce your waste output:
Pack the reusables you need (but don’t overdo it)
The first stop of your morning may be the local cafe, and remembering to bring your KeepCup is the perfect start to a more sustainable day. Australians love a sustainability trend, whether it’s taking green bags to the shops or replacing plastic straws with reusable options. Packing the essential reusable items you need every morning is a great way to cut down on the waste you generate each day.
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However, many of these items can have a significant environmental impact if overconsumed. The British Environment Agency found that cotton tote bags need to be used 131 times before they offer a positive environmental impact over a single-use plastic bag.
Having a few shopping bags in the car, or a tote in your backpack is a great idea, but try to limit them to just the ones you need. The same goes for reusable drink bottles — like your trendy Stanley or Frank Green. A quality reusable container can last a lifetime, but buying one in every colour to match your outfit defeats the purpose.
Bring lunch to work
Once you’re at work and hunger kicks in, it may be easy to reach for a packaged meal or takeaway, but those can be wasteful and expensive habits to maintain.
Food waste costs the Australian economy upwards of $36.6 billion annually. We throw away 7.6 million tonnes of food (or 312 kilograms per person) each year, according to the National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study. The same study found food waste accounts for 3 per cent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Bringing pre-portioned meals to work is a cost-effective way of feeding yourself without risking the waste of buying packaged food on your lunch break. This habit can also minimise the food waste you produce at home, if you take leftovers to work for lunch.
Other tips for cutting down on food waste while saving some extra cash include: creating meal plans before grocery shopping so you purchase only what you need; learning useful skills like preserving and pickling excess food; and shopping at farmers and wholesale markets, where produce is often fresher (and lasts longer) than at supermarkets.
Taking care of your clothes (and shopping sustainably)
After a long day at work, it’s tempting to chuck your clothes on the floor and hit the couch, but the way we care for our garments can play a big role in our waste output.
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Australians purchase and throw out clothing at one of the highest per-capita rates in the world. In 2020-21, 300,000 tonnes of clothing was sent to our landfills, an Australia Institute report showed.
Nina Gbor, director of the institute’s circular economy and waste program, says the best ways to minimise clothing waste is to buy pieces from both sustainable retail stores and second-hand outlets, and importantly, to take care of the clothes you have.
Gbor says mending, and mindfully storing – by regularly airing clothes and keeping them in cool, dry places – can minimise clothing waste.
“People have a connection with their clothing, particularly if it’s something they’ve mended, they’ve looked after. That connection is lost when you talk about fast fashion. Sustainable fashion is bringing us back in connection with our clothes,” says Gbor.
Also a stylist and founder of clothing exchange platform Clothes Swap & Style, Gbor says her first piece of advice is to “ignore trends”. “Trends are what fuel fashion waste because you are just consuming; you’re just buying like food,” says Gbor.
Shop consciously
Once work is done and dinner plans are on your mind, take a few steps to minimise the waste output of your grocery shop.
Packaging-free grocery stores are growing in popularity, and while they won’t cover all your food shopping needs, their offerings may surprise you. From soaps and detergents to pasta and coffee, “scoop and weigh” style shopping may take some getting used to, but it is a fresh way to think about food consumption.
If going to a few stores doesn’t work with your schedule, consider reusable glass packaging over plastic, ditching single-use produce bags, and selecting less packaged meat and seafood at fresh counters when shopping at conventional grocery stores.
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