Why protecting the environment and reducing household waste is important to me!
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 to reduce household waste 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.
Batch Cook For The Family
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 excess household waste too!
Check out our Recycled Bunny Crayons Recipe
I am working on doing this more often! I do recycle at least. But we do waste a lot of food.
These are really great tips. Food waste is probably our number on waste around here, and I’ve tried to keep things from going bad by freezing it many times.
I need to reduce waste in all areas of my life. Our food waste always makes me cringe because there are those who are starving. And I really need to concentrate more on reducing waste for our environment.
It feels so much better when you’re able to recycle and reduce as much waste as you can. I think it’s one of the best things that we can do to help out the environment. Love all your suggestions.
This is great! I’ll definitely keep these in mind.
Great article. We have the same issue with food waste. We buy too much and don’t eat all of them. I would take your advice and buy only what i want to eat or could freeze. I have to start recycle paper as well. I have a lot of it.
since there’s only me and my partner, we are quite good in saving food! plus i always recycle like bring my own tumbler when buying coffee!
I am trying hard to reduce the food waste. By deciding ahead of time on a weekly menu and by going shopping with a list I think I am making progress into reducing the amount of food that ends up in the bin.
Those are great tips when it comes to recycling. And it’s great that you are teaching your daughter the same great lessons you learned growing up.
thanks. It is important and kind of fun at the same time.
First off, I always enjoy your illustrations. Its good you are teaching your child the art of recycling and not wasting.
Thanks.. I love the illustrations too!
It’s a shame how much we put in landfills. We recycle everything possible in our home. Including appliances and electronics. It’s a lot of extra work to break them down and separate the materials but we feel better for doing it.