My audit of a semi-typical Monday. All of the day was recorded except dinner which was eaten out, making it hard to record. I have no compost and my local government does not provide organic waste bins.
By conducting this audit I can start to consider where I can cut down on waste.
I can use loose leaf tea instead of teabags. Whether or not tea bags can be placed in organic waste or used in a compost is something I’ve never been sure about. The website ‘Gardening Know How’ claims that tea bags can be placed in organic waste unless the bags contain polypropylene which can’t be composted. In this case the website recommends opening the bags and composting the tea leaves as they increase the composting speed.
Replacing the pod coffee with ground beans. Means less plastic waste and the used coffee is much easier to be composted or placed in the organic waste bin.
Replacing plastic bags with canvas bags. After the days shopping I needed three plastic bags to carry my groceries. I have about a dozen canvas bags but as always I forgot them. I keep the plastic bags to be used as bin liners but my preference would be to not use them in the first place. To facilitate the use of canvas bag I will be keeping them in different and convenient location, such as in my backpack and in the car.
Recycling soft plastics. Unfortunately there is still the plastic from the chips, cheese and Muesli bar which cannot be recycled in the yellow bin. This does not mean those plastics cannot be recycled although it will require more effort. Coles provides in 500 of it’s stores an in-store recycling bin for soft plastics.
References
Grant, A. ‘Composting Tea Bags: Can I Put Tea Bags In The Garden?‘, Gardening Know How, viewed 5 April 2017,<https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting/ingredients/composting-tea-bags.htm >
Coles, ‘Waste‘, viewed 5 April 2017, <https://www.coles.com.au/corporate-responsibility/environment/waste >
Wealth From Waste 