A Little bit of Rubbish

Why does the amount of waste going to landfill matter?

Last year the disposal of almost 31,000 tonnes of rubbish from household bins in Whitehorse (our Local Council) cost rate payers $3.8 million. $2.2 million of of this is attributable to the state government landfill levy and the carbon tax. Reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill will therefore reduce pressure on our Council rates.

From an environmental perspective - we think it's clear why we should be aiming to throw less rubbish into a decreasing number of landfill sites across the state.

How big is our rubbish bin?

City of Whitehorse have recently introduced a smaller (80 litre) standard rubbish bin. If residents want to keep the large bin (120 litre) they need to pay an annual fee. They have also reduced the fees for the 'optional garden organics bin service'. Despite some negative press in the local paper we think all of this is a good thing. 

Why does our Council supply a Smaller Bin?

One of the proven strategies to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill is the use of a smaller 80 litre rubbish bin as standard. The average Victorian council with an 80 litre standard bin sends 402kg of waste per household per year to landfill. Whitehorse households currently send 508kg to landfill each year.

How much rubbish did we throw out last week?

Where we live Monday night is rubbish night. This week we threw out two bags of rubbish, which weighed in at 1.8kg. Multiplying this by 52 weeks equates to 94kg a year; which is less than 20 percent of the average Whitehorse household. A little bit of rubbish indeed!

Seasonal Produce

Why is eating seasonal produce important?

"Being able to eat whatever we want whenever we want is convenient, but it isn’t great for the planet, or even for the cost or flavour."

Source: Environment Victoria

Food that isn’t in season has usually travelled huge distances, which means that a lot of energy has been used to get it to your local store - a whole lot of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not just the distance, it’s also the refrigeration along the way, and the energy that goes into packaging and storing it when it arrives. Produce which is in season tends to be local, which means much lower greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Eating seasonal produce — means produce is picked as close to the time it will be eaten as possible, which means lots of flavour, colour and nutrients. Out of season produce and produce that is transported long distance is harvested early so it doesn’t rot during transit. This doesn't do much for the taste or nutritional value of the food.

What's in season?

According to the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association right now produce in season includes:

• Beetroot
• Cabbages
• Carrots
• Leek
• Parsnips, Swedes and Turnips
• Pumpkins
• Cauliflower and Broccoli
• Silver beet, Spinach, Kale
• Oranges, mandarins, grapefruits etc
• Rhubarb

As part of our low impact lifestyle one important change we will be making is eating more seasonal produce. 

What's for dinner at our house this week?

Note - this is not an invitation to our friends!

On the weekend to supplement our small veggie patch and source some protein for the week we went to the Coburg Farmers markets. It's part of the Melbourne Farmers Markets; which are: "dedicated to Victorian food and producers, regional food cultures, seasonal produce, biodiversity, sustainable farming practices and the strengthening of relationships between the consumer and the producer." We think this is a great fit with our goal of a low impact lifestyle.

Shepherds pie for dinner tonight!

This week we brought a whole lot of lovely seasonal produce - including Kale, Bok Choi, Carrots, Cabbage, Mushrooms, Beetroot, Spuds, Oranges and Limes. We also bought fresh rye bread, cheese, organic eggs, streaky bacon, mince lamb and lamb chops for protein (we tend to eat a couple of vegetarian meals each week).

The challenge (because one of us likes to be organised) is that menu planning has to take a back seat and be done on the basis of what's in season - and available. So rather than plan our meals, and then head out with a list; we are going to be more flexible and enjoy what's on offer. The menu for the week includes: bacon and egg sandwiches, veggie soup, shepherds pie (with left overs for lunch), a vegetable stir fry, spanish omelette and lamb chops.

 

Household Waste and Recycling

How much household waste do we throw out?

According to Australia Bureau of Statistics in 2007 the annual waste generated per person was 2,100kg! This is a up from 1997 when it was 1,226kg. The average Australian family (of four) generates enough rubbish in one year to completely fill a three bed room house from floor to ceiling!

We are tracking the amount of waste we place in our red landfill bin each week. Last week it was two bags of rubbish. But starting Monday we are going to be more scientific about this and will weigh how much waste we are sending to landfill each week.

What do we throw out?

So we all know there are lots of things that shouldn't end up in landfill. According to Cleanaway Australians throw out:

• 414kg of food
• 330kg of paper
• 552 Aluminium cans
• 118kg of plastic
• 74kg of metal
• 206 glass bottles/jars

Almost all of the above can, and should be recycled or composted. We have two compost bins (more to come in another blog) for food and garden waste. We recycle as much as possible with regards to the other items listed.

What about plastics?

We've recently found out that most Coles Supermarkets have introduced an initiative to collect the soft plastics that can't be be placed in household recycling bins.

"In an Australian first, The Red Group, in partnership with Coles, has developed and implemented an innovative closed-loop recycling initiative, the REDcycle program. The program is set up as a product stewardship scheme involving 10 of the biggest food companies in Australia. These companies are taking responsibility for their product packaging, and covering the costs of the collection and recycling of the soft plastics.

The program is aimed at collecting the soft plastics you can't put in your kerbside recycling bin. The processed materials will be converted into outdoor furniture and signage for schools and communities by program partner Replas."


They accept plastics such as: bread bags, frozen food bags, confectionery packets and plastic shopping bags.

In terms of volume of waste we think this initiative will divert around a quarter of our waste from landfill - and we think we don't generate much in the way of soft plastic waste. If your in Australia please separate out your soft plastic waste and drop it off at Coles. That's not to say we support Coles, just this great initiative to divert what is largely food packaging waste from landfill.

What else do we do?

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

We take 'green bags' when we shop, to reduce our reliance on plastic bags. At the moment we are in the process of making some nice new calico bags. For food shopping we also have a collection of home made reusable 'care bags' which are mesh bags for storing fruit and vegetables, in place of plastic bags. To date no markets or stores have refused to accept us using our care bags. When we do have plastic bags we reuse them, before recycling.

Ethical Food Shopping

What do we want to achieve?

We want to have a low impact on the planet when buying and consuming food. Things that are important to us are:

• to buy food produced locally; ideally Victorian, but definitely grown and/or raised in Australia;
• try to only buy food from companies that are 100 percent Australian owned;
• identifying which companies are environmentally and socially responsible; and supporting these companies.

Why is this important to us?

“A typical Melbourne shopping basket has travelled a staggering 70,000 kilometres – equivalent to almost two trips around the world. By purchasing an orange grown in Mildura rather than California you reduce food miles from 12,879 km to 567 km.” 

(Shop Ethical!)

We think that buying Australian is a good thing. We live on an Island with a huge range of climates and can grow almost any food; so buying food from overseas seems more than a little crazy! 

We are using the Shop Ethical! Guide as a starting point to find out which companies are environmentally and socially responsible.

Two examples of why this is not straight forward...

Identifying companies that are 100 percent Australian owned is lot harder than we first thought. For example we buy Edgell Canned Chickpeas. We know that the Chickpeas are grown in Australia and the product is 'Made in Australia'. Therefore we are supporting Australian farmers and buying Australian. Shop Ethical! gives Edgell's parent company a tick and they are a signed up to the Australia Packaging Covenant.

However Edgell is owned by Simplot which is one of the largest food and agribussiness companies in America, so a cross when it comes to being an Australian owned company.

We've been buying SunRice microwavable rice cups - the perfect side dish to a reheated curry or home made stew. We know SunRice is Australian owned and the rice is grown in Australia (one of us has even been to their rice fields). No problem so far. BUT while the packets of uncooked rice are made in Australia - the rice cups are not. They are actually a product of Thailand. We assume this means the rice is grown here, sent to Thailand, processed and then sent back. That's a lot of unnecessary food miles!

So what's next?

Back to the wonders of google and the world wide web to find out more... 
and we'd love your comments on these examples or others.

• Where do you draw the line?
• What should be the most important consideration when buying food?

Water

Just how much water did we use this quarter?

Today we received our water bill. Our average daily usage during the last quarter was 133 litres a day - or 67 litres per person. This is down from 84 litres per person during the same time last year. For those of you in Melbourne who remember the previous State Government campaign 155 aimed at reducing water usage to 155 litres per person per day.

What have we done so far to reduce our water bill?

We replaced both shower heads with low flow versions when we moved in.

In addition to a 2,000 rainwater tank which was installed when we bought our house we have installed two 100 litre rainwater tanks. While they are relatively small we use them for all our hand watering. We installed them so a 9 litre watering can fits nicely under the tap.
replaced both shower heads with low flow versions when we moved in.

We also have an ASKO dishwasher which is also very efficient in terms of energy and water use. The quick was uses approximately 10 litres per quick wash.

In terms of appliances we have an ASKO front load washing machine which we selected based on energy and water efficiency ratings. We only wash with a full load and we use the quick wash cycle almost all of the time.

Outside the house we've added lots of mulch to the garden beds (more on our garden in another update).

So what's the average daily consumption?

According to the Melbourne Water Weekly Water Report this week the average is 142 litres per person. So we think we are doing well at reducing our use of water.

What's next?

• A basin in the kitchen sink to capture cold water while we wait for the hot water to come through. We will use this to water indoor plants, or empty on a thirsty garden bed.

• This spring we will rethink what we plan to grow in the garden and try to reduce the amount of thirsty vegetable plants. And did we mention more mulch for the garden beds!

Our first blog!

"Brown is the new Green"

So what's this all about?

Recently we've been inspired to make our house and lifestyle as low impact as possible. We think we're doing quite well, but know that there is more that we can do. We plan to use this blog to explore and share our experiences (good and bad) as we try to make Brown the new Green!

Who are we and where is home?

We're a professional couple who call the City of Whitehorse in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne home. Our house (built in 2011) is single storey and has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Living in a new house means we are fortunate to have excellent wall and roof insulation, low power lighting and a decent rainwater tank (which flushes both toilets). In addition we are lucky to have double glazing, and hydronic underfloor heating. Since moving in we have installed a 2.4kW solar power system, which was the largest possible system for the available roof space.

What do we want to do?

Over the coming months and years we want to make sustained changes to our lifestyle, that reduces our impact on the environment. Some of the areas we want to start with are:

• reducing our garbage
• making great compost
• growing more indoor plants
• using less power, gas and water
• growing more of our own produce
• reducing the "food miles" of the food we buy
• supporting local and/or independent traders
• buying less 'stuff'