Simple ways you can reduce your household waste

If you find yourself filling up your rubbish bin before bin day, it might be time to consider cutting back on your household waste.

These simple steps can help your cut back your rubbish, recycle and become more environmentally friendly.

1.Try composting your kitchen scraps

Think about all the food and scraps such as egg shells, banana peels etc. that come out of your kitchen. It might not seem like it builds up, but apparently half of the waste we throw out can actually be composted at home. Why not set up a compost bin or worm farm at home? It’ll leave you with less stinky organic waste in your rubbish bans and give back vital nutrients to your garden.

2. Say no to junk mail

Do you find yourself throwing out piles of junk mail every day? Instead of just getting your junk mail out of the mail box and binning it without reading it, you can put a No Junk Mail sign on your mail box. It’ll instantly reduce the amount of household waste you produce.

3. Take your own bags shopping

Using your own reusable shopping bags when you go shopping will save you from bringing home plastic bags and throwing them out. Plastic bags can take a very long time to break down and are apparently one of the biggest sources of pollution.

4. Have your bills emailed to you

Do you find yourself constantly throwing out bills and other paperwork? Most bills and important pieces of paperwork such as receipts can be emailed to you these days. Not only will you have a safer place to store it, you’ll be able to keep a cleaner workspace and save on the amount of waste you produce.

5. Refill your printer cartridges 

It may seem like such a little item in your house, but printer cartridges can add up to a big amount of waste over time. Instead of buying new cartridges, you can actually refill them. You can buy a refilling kit from an office supplies store or have your cartridge refilled at an office supplies store or electronics store.

6. Recycle wherever you can

You could be throwing out tonnes of rubbish each year that could be recycled. From your everyday plastic bottles, paper and cardboard to other items such as batteries, mobile phones, old electrical appliances and fluorescent lights, there’s plenty you can recycle around the house. Every day recycling at home doesn’t have to be hard. Try filling a cardboard box or a separate small rubbish bin with your everyday recyclables. For your bigger recycling items, you can try contacting your local council, visiting your local dump or tip or do your research on websites such as recyclingnearyou.com.au.

7. Learn how you can repurpose everyday items

Next time you go to throw away something, think about how you can find a use for it. There’s dozens of examples here on the Starts at 60 site of everyday uses for items from turning old clothes and linen into rags or craft items or jars and old cups and glasses into pot plants. Thinking outside the boxes and using a bit of creativity can help your stop throwing out things unnecessarily.

8. If it’s fixable, don’t throw it out

Too often we tend to automatically throw things out when they break or stop working. You could be throwing things out prematurely and filling up the landfill unnecessarily. Take a good look at what is broken. Ask yourself, can it be fixed easily and cheaply? Sometimes it can be cheaper to fix something than replace it – and you’ll save extra household waste by doing it!

9. Compost your green waste

Mowing your lawn or tidying up your garden? Instead of filling up your rubbish bins with green waste, you can use your old grass clippings as compost or mulch. It’ll give much needed nutrients back to your garden and reduce the amount of waste you contribute to the landfill.

Which of these waste reducing solutions do you use? How do you reduce your household waste?