Home Sustainability Tips and Ideas

The temporary norm of spending almost all-time at home has given people the time to finally give yoga a go, make a start on their novel, clean out every draw, or learn Cantonese. If you're stuck for ideas on the new project you want to start, you might want to use this time to rethink the sustainability of your house.

Such as;

• How many bags of rubbish do you throw away each week?
• Are you generating unnecessary waste?
• How much do you think could be reduced or possibly avoided completely?
  

Here are some tips and ideas to help get you in the right direction towards a greener household.

Around the house ideas

• • Remember to turn off the light switch when you leave a room
  • Keep showers to a minimum and you will save both money and time. You can set an alarm, or put on some music and hop out after a song or two!
  • Reuse scrap paper, print on both sides, or let your kids draw on the back of used paper
    
  • Unplug unused chargers and appliances

Rubbish and recycling ideas

• If a product can't be recycled think of another way you might be able to use it. Maybe this means looking online for some DIY projects (something to keep the kids occupied?!)

• Make sure all containers are rinsed and lids are removed when recycling them

• Repurpose glass jars as storage containers and bulk storage

• Do an audit of your recycling and waste to see what you throw away regularly, thus how you can reduce waste
  

• Find an accessible and visible area to store your recycling bins, make sure they're easy to use for all ages

• Put up some at-home recycling posters from Method's designer, you can download them here

Outside in the garden ideas

• • Start a worm farm or compost with all the food waste you usually send to landfill. Though food waste varies among different families, some find that food waste contributes to up to 40% of their landfill
  • Start your own home vegetable garden so you spend less money on vegetables
    
  • Try to avoid generating green waste that you intend to send to landfill check out the Love Food, Hate Waste website for some ideas
  • Try to grow some vegetables or fruit from the seeds/ offcuts, such as carrots from carrot tops! Find more ideas here

Ideas for when you go the supermarket

• • Make sure your shopping bags are in an easy to see place when you're about to head to the supermarket
  • Do some research and learn about the most problematic types of packaging and choose more sustainable alternatives, you can start with learning the plastic codes here
  • Take your plastic bags back to the supermarket to recycle them instead of throwing them away where possible
    
  • Think before you buy by making a conscious effort to buy products in packaging that can be recycle
  • Purchase products that are packaged in recycled materials to continue to grow the demand

Here are some simple substitutions that will help you towards your green goals: