Start reducing your rubbish at home

Reducing your rubbish is really simple and it’s something that can involve the whole family. Here are some simple tips to get you started on reducing rubbish in your household. Take a look at your household rubbish and see how much is packaging, kitchen scraps and paper – you will be surprised!

Buy products with less packaging

In most cases it makes more ‘cents’ to buy your products with reduced packaging. Here are some tips to think about when you go shopping.

• Buy your yoghurt in 1 litre bottles and choose refill containers for your dishwashing liquid and soap. Yoghurt in 1 litre bottles can be poured into reusable containers for lunches and snacks.
• Buy your fruit and veggies loose rather than in pre-packed containers whenever you can.
• Use partitioned lunch boxes to reduce the amount of wrapping on your sandwiches and snacks.
• Use reusable bags - carry a spare for unexpected shopping.
• Choose products that have packaging that can be recycled or composted recyclable packaging means less rubbish.
• Reuse your water bottle - instead of buying numerous water bottles wash and reuse one.

For more tips on shopping wisely and ways to save visit: Sustainable Living more on Sustainable Living and Wasted TV.

Compost your kitchen scraps

Composting your kitchen scraps is a great way to reduce your rubbish. There are a variety of composting options available, it all depends on the amount of scraps and the space you have available in your yard to compost.

Compost bins come in a range of sizes nowadays. Compost bins are available through hardware stores and garden centres. Find out more about Composting.

Make a tiger worm farm - tiger worms are fast and efficient eaters of your kitchen scraps. Local farmers of tiger worms can be found in the Yellow Pages under ‘worm farms’. Find out more about Worm Farming.

Schools and early childcare centres with in Christchurch City can get a Council subsidy on the Hungry Tiger worm farms through a short-term subsidy scheme until June 2008, contact the supplier directly. More information on this flyer. [PDF 196KB]

EM Bokashi kits are another way to compost your kitchen scraps especially if you have limited space. EM Bokashi Kits are sold through Council Service Centres. Find out more about EM Composting.

Choose washable nappies

Washable nappies come in all sorts of gorgeous colours and styles that are simple to use, easy to wash and are great for baby. You can save between $600-$1800 by using washable nappies instead of the disposable kind. You can also prevent 112 rubbish bags full of disposable nappies going into the landfill which take up to 200 years to break down. These benefits and others are contained in the real life personal stories of parents using washable nappies.

The Council Service Centres have samples of washable nappies, next time you’re in ask to have a look at them.  The Council recently ran a subsidy scheme to encourage the use of washable nappies, it proved very popular with over 1,700 starter packs of nappies being purchased. Although the nappy subsidy has ended you can still get starter packs of washable nappies from the following retailers.

Recycle all paper

Put your unwanted glossy magazines, brochures, advertising material and small thin card in a tied supermarket bag on top of your Real Recycling crate.

Currently, Christchurch residents are throwing away far too much paper into the landfill – paper waste represents a whopping 21% of the total waste stream. The crazy thing about paper breaking down in the landfill – it creates methane gas. Burying paper and cardboard results in the release of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere which contributes to Climate Change. Carbon emissions from the breakdown of paper, cardboard and organic matter in the landfill amounts to the emissions generated from 33,000 cars each year.

By recycling your paper you can look after the environment. Processing recycled paper is faster and less expensive than growing trees for paper. Find out more about what you can recycle.

Say no to junk mail

Pop a sticker on your letter box to discourage unwanted mail. Stickers are available with your the Reduce your Rubbish campaign wheel through local hardware stores.

Buy and sell pre-loved items

To find out where to sell or giveaway your unwanted items look through: A to Z Reuse and Recycling Guide [PDF 709KB]. Check-out the various online auctions or visit the Supershed.

What to do with dog poop?

Instead of putting the ‘doggy doo’ and the associated plastic bags into the landfill, there are now products available that provide a safe and clean way of composting your dog's doo in your backyard. Take a look at the Clean Green Dog Loo.