At Awapuni we're big on reusing and recycling. For starters, Our seedlings are wrapped in newspaper, we are now offering for our customers to order our products label free and we use all sorts of recycled boxes to get our plants out to our customers.
At the nursery we are constantly looking for new ways to repurpose items and we thought you might be too. So we asked Dominque from She Sees Green to give us her top five tips for cutting down on waste
Dominque says the key to reducing waste is to just start where you are.
“If you are buying lunch in a plastic container everyday then take a reusable container with you, then move to taking in leftovers. If you are pretty good at recycling but throw food waste into your landfill bin, try to buy less of what you often throw away then consider giving your reduced food waste to your neighbour's chickens or starting a compost bin. Whatever point of the reducing waste journey you’re at, every bit helps to protect our land, water, and air.”
Here are her top five tips:
1. Know your recycling rules.
If your takeaway pizza box has cheese on it, if a bottle has some milk left in the bottom and even if your water bottle is a quarter full, they can be sent to landfill instead of being recycled. Simply rinse your plastics and tins and remove any patches with food from boxes for recycling. Remember to put items directly into recycling bins without plastic bags, which delay the recycling process and can mean your recycling gets put in a landfill.
‘Soft plastics’ like plastic shopping bags, bread bags, and cracker liners need to be collected and recycled separately, some supermarkets are now accepting them. Wherever you live look at your council website to check which number plastics can be recycled, and ask where you can take soft plastics, chemicals and paints, electronic waste, and batteries to be disposed of correctly.
2. Cardboard boxes are great for no-dig vegetable beds.
Cardboard boxes can, of course, be recycled or used on the fire but they are also great for creating gardens without the need for digging and moving dirt around. They help to create fertile soil and are great for getting rid of weeds without needing plastic ground coverings. Remove any stickers or tape and they can be used to layer with nitrogen-rich ‘greens’ (veggie scraps, grass, and manure) and carbon-rich ‘browns’ (straw, hay, sawdust, and woodchips) in a ‘lasagne’ method perfected by permaculture gardeners. If I forget my reusable bags at the supermarket I ask for a box and reuse it on my garden. Did you know that when you order supermarket delivery you can request delivery without plastic bags and with boxes? My local countdown delivers in banana boxes and the driver takes them back to be reused if I don’t want them!
3. Take reusable bags with you everywhere.
Single-use plastic bags are not good for human or environmental health. Find some long-lasting reusable bags. I like jute, bamboo or hemp bags because they are less water-intensive to produce than cotton but whatever you have is great too! Have a stash of reusable bags in the back of your car, at your office desk and one or two small ones in your handbag then you can grab what you need when out and about without needing plastic bags. Old pillow cases, shoe bags, and mesh bags are all great for putting produce or bread in when at the bakery, supermarket or farmers market. Even better pop a few reusable containers in your reusable bag for buying takeaway lunches or bulk food shopping, your butcher or fishmonger may also be happy to put weighed items in them.
4. Think glass, not plastic.
If you have an olive or gherkin addiction, then you will never need to buy plastic containers again. Glass jars can be washed and reused repeatedly. We store our bulk dry goods including nuts, flour and seeds in glass jars as well as salads and snacks for work lunches, and we use them when freezing leftover stews and soups (just leave some space at the top to avoid cracks!). Fill a few glass bottles with water and pop in the car to avoid buying plastic bottles when out. Using glass means less plastic is produced, less energy is used to recycle plastic, you can reuse glass over and over without worrying about toxins leaching into your food and you can clearly see what is inside! Oh, and forgot your reusable coffee cup when out? Just use a jar!
5. Compost and grow healthy treats.
Did you know that one-third of food globally is wasted each year? Separating your food waste for composting allows you to see what you are wasting and make better buying (and growing) decisions. When food waste is put in your landfill bin the food produces methane emissions that contribute to climate change. Composting offers a great way to manage food and garden waste and create a nutrient-dense soil with beneficial bacteria that can be used to grow more food! Use your matured compost on vegetable gardens or to grow veggies or herbs in pots if you are short on space. There is so much that can be composted including coffee grounds, leaves and grass and if you would like to compost meat and dairy or want to compost inside consider a Bokashi bin.
For more tips on how to reduce your carbon footprint, sustainable style and design, food and more head to She Sees Green.
