Reduce Household Waste And Protect Our Environment

Top Tips For Reducing Household Waste

As a child I remember being at school and being taught a song called “Save Our Planet”. It was all about recycling, protecting the environment and not polluting. I found the subject of pollution fascinating and took a keen interest in finding ways to recycle and reduce waste. It’s something I still find really interesting and feel quite passionately about. In fact at my daughter’s school they have a recycling competition where the classroom who recycles the most wins a prize. I think it’s great.

At home I do my best to reduce waste. Today I thought I’d share two areas that I really try hard in and share my tips on how I do this. I’d love to hear how you reduce waste in your home too. Here are my tips.

Minimise Food Waste

So food waste has to be the number one issue in my home. A while back I found we were buying in food, especially cheaper marked down items and they were sadly at times going to waste. I had a good think and made two decisions, I would only buy in marked down items I could use or freeze. So we still get the benefit of buying in cheap blueberries or marked down bread but by storing it in our freezer our food is not wasted. I love being able to grab fruit out of the freezer to add to smoothie recipes.

A second thing I have started doing is cooking for six. I don’t personally do all the cooking in my home due to chronic illness. In fact several times on a school night, I have a support worker who actually comes and helps with meal prep. It’s not something I talk about much but it’s also not something I am ashamed of. I am after all unwell and do need extra help especially when my husband is not at home.

Me and my “support worker” plan the meals. We cook for 6 so we get one meal on the night and one meal is frozen for a later date. This works out well. We use up a whole onion, a whole tin of tomatoes and make the most of the food we have rather than using small amounts and leaving the rest to go to waste. I really do think freezing food, precooked and cooked meals is good for the environment and it’s something I will continue to do. I would love to get a bigger freezer or a chest freezer in future. That would be fantastic.

Recycle Paper and Cardboard

So we often recycle jars, cans, paper and cardboard. We have a recycle bin at home which fills up quickly and being a blogger who receives a lot of parcels, I often end up sending my husband to the local dump with a whole lot of cardboard to recycle. There is a choice between throwing cans in the rubbish and washing them out and popping them in the recycling. We have the choice to sort the plastic, paper and glass and it’s something we try to do the best we can.

When we sort our plastics and waste the items we use can be recycled by companies such as BPI Consumer Packaging.  BPI are a recycler of waste polythene film. They have been recycling since I was a little girl 30 years ago and they recycle 65,000 tonnes per year. I think recycle companies are fantastic and am really glad that the items we choose to recycle can be reused and not end up in a landfill.

Another thing I try to do when it comes to waste is to recycle items for crafting. I collect egg cartons, bottle tops, toilet rolls and wine corks for our craft projects. Also when we have materials which are too stained to give to charity or pass on, we will cut out the good material and add it to our material box.

There are so many items in the home which can be reused. In fact, when we sent our old sofa to the dump, (It was totally broken) I saved the cushions and I am planning a upcycling project for the cushions which when done will hopefully look fab. My dad taught me to upcycle and my mum taught me not to waste food. I’m grateful for these lessons and will be passing them down to my daughter so she can taste life without waste too!

Check out our Recycled Bunny Crayons Recipe