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Our throw-away society is one of the worst
Australians are the second highest waste producers in the world. Only the Americans have a worse record than ours.
Every year we throw away about 10 million tonnes of waste. At least half of this could be reused.
More than three million tonnes of this waste is food—equivalent to nearly a quarter of the country's food supplies. Why? Because we buy too much.
On the positive side, households are recycling nearly 46 percent of their waste in some NSW council areas— and Australians are among the best recyclers of newspapers in the world. In 2005 more than 70 percent of newspapers were recycled. We're also recycling 2.3 billion aluminium beverage cans a year – that's 600 million more than ten years ago.
But there is still a long way to go. To live sustainably, we have to drastically reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
The key words of waste reduction are Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Have a look at the things you do every day that create waste and see which are necessary and which are not. ’Necessary’ waste is created when we buy products like medicine or foods wrapped in packaging that protects our safety and health.
A lot of unnecessary garbage can be avoided.
Some things can easily be changed, like using a sponge instead of a paper towel.
If we shop carefully and consume prudently, we can go a long way towards reducing waste.
Waste prevention reduces the amount of material used and therefore the amount discarded. It is not the same as recycling.
Some simple things we can do:
AVOID plastic bags. Get reusable calico shopping bags and keep them in the car so they aren’t forgotten when you go shopping.
REFUSE a plastic bag if you only purchase a few items and can carry them easily. A loaf of bread, for example, usually comes already wrapped in a plastic bag. Why use another if that is all you are buying?
DO NOT purchase over packaged goods. A lot of packaging is for convenience rather than necessity—for example the plastic wrapped six-pack of beer that comes inside a cardboard carton.
USE refillable containers.
ONLY BUY items in recyclable packaging.
USE biodegradable products.
BUY in bulk.
AVOID disposable products, particularly drink containers. Take your own coffee mug to work.
PUT a ‘No Junk Mail Please’ sign on your mail box to discourage the delivery of numerous catalogues and other unsolicited material that often goes straight into the recycling bin—or worse, into the garbage bin.
THINK about waste when you shop. Are you buying things you don’t really need? Are you replacing items (for example furniture or appliances) that could be restored or repaired.
Every year Australians use around five billion plastic shopping bags, adding an estimated $173 million to the nation’s grocery bills.
More than 200,000 plastic check-out bags are dumped in landfills every hour.
The useful life of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes – the time it takes to get home from the shop. Its actual life is rather longer. It can take between 15 and 1000 years for a plastic bag to break down in the environment.
In the marine environment plastic bag litter is lethal, killing at least 100,000 birds, whales, seals and turtles every year. After an animal is killed by plastic bags its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.
On land, plastic bags can block drains and trap birds. They also kill livestock. An autopsy on a dead calf found eight plastic bags in its stomach.
At least 80 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks. Local and state governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter.
Only five percent of Australia’s plastic bags are recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets.
Plastic bags are a by-product of the oil industry. More than three billion HDPE plastic bags are imported into Australia every year.
REPAIR broken items rather than throwing them away.
HAVE furniture such as a lounge suite recovered when it gets worn rather than replacing it.
GIVE unwanted items to charity or your local secondhand shop.
HAVE a garage sale. Join together with neighbours and make it a community event.
ADVERTISE your unwanted items on community noticeboards.
REUSE containers.
BUY secondhand rather than new items.
IF YOU are building or renovating see if you can use secondhand materials. Timber, bricks and even corrugated iron can all be used again. Restored timber particularly can add distinction to your renovation.
TIN cans with the ends removed and cut-down plastic milk or juice bottles can be used in the garden to protect seedlings.
Recycling is better than throwing stuff away, but it still uses energy, which increases carbon dioxide emissions, and the recycling process itself can generate waste products which need to be disposed off.
Reusing an item is preferable to recycling it, and recycling is preferable to throwing something away.
Recycling is a continuous loop, as symbolised by the recycling logo.
Putting items out for collection or dropping them off at the transfer station is only the beginning of the process. Stage Two is the manufacture of new items and Step Three is the return of new products to the marketplace.
Buying products made from recycled materials "closes the loop". The materials have now come full-circle: from bin to a manufacturer, to the store shelf, and back to your home.
And after using the item, you can start the loop again by saving it for recycling.
When you buy recycled goods, markets are created and a demand is assured for recyclables being collected in communities. Manufacturers will respond by continuing to use recyclables in their products.
Common household items that contain recycled materials include newspapers and paper towels, toilet paper, aluminium, plastic, and glass soft drink containers, steel goods of all kinds, and plastic laundry detergent bottles.
Recycled materials also are used in innovative applications such as recovered glass in roadway asphalt or recovered plastic in carpeting, park benches, and pedestrian bridges.
Buying recycled products reduces our dependence on natural resources, conserves energy, and prevents pollution.
Byron Shire Council provides two waste collection bins. The bin with the yellow lid (collected fortnightly) is for these items that can be recycled:
NEWSPAPERS and magazines
GLASS bottles and jars (minus lids)
CARDBOARD (torn small or flattened)
STEEL & aluminium cans
PLASTIC milk, soft drink, juice or detergent bottles (plastic codes 1 2 3 only)
MILK and juice cartons.
DON’T put anything other than the above items in the yellow bin—particularly things like polystyrene packaging, garden clippings or food waste which will contaminate the load and may cause it to be rejected when it is delivered to the recycling depot.
NEVER put plastic bags, light globes, lids, crockery or broken glass into recycling bins—the whole bin will be rejected
TAKE larger unwanted household items to the tip or store them until Council’s annual clean-up when items such as broken appliances will be collected from the kerbside.
SHARE trips to recycling facilities with neighbours – you reduce the number of car trips, while reducing waste
PRINTER cartridges and old mobile phones can be handed in for recycling at some computer retailers and mobile phone stores.
WHEN out walking, collect discarded containers such as bottles and aluminium cans). Recycling a shopping-bag-full of such containers saves at least five kilograms of greenhouse gas and reduces litter.
Byron Shire Council provides a bin with a red lid (collected weekly) for non-recyclable household garbage such as:
NON-RECYCLABLE packaging
ORGANIC food waste
BROKEN glass (wrapped) and ceramics
PLASTICS codes 4 5 6 7 (e.g. margarine or ice cream containers).
Do not put hazardous waste such as paint or chemicals, unbagged vacuum dust, or similar lightweight material into the garbage bin. (Household dust can be composted provided it doesn’t contain hazardous material such as asbestos).
Aim to generate as little waste as possible for the red bin. See if you can reduce household waste to the point where you only have to put the bin out fortnightly, or even monthly.
Myocum Tip
The Byron Shire’s waste disposal facility is in Manse Road, Myocum. It operates Monday to Friday from 7.30am to 4.30pm and at weekends from 8am to mid-day. It is closed on public holidays. Phone: 6684 1870.
In 2002-03, more than 4000 people in NSW were admitted to hospital for unintentional poisoning occurring in the home. One in three of these involved children under the age of three.
The average home today contains more chemicals than were found in a typical chemistry lab at the turn of the century and more than 300 man-made chemicals have been found in human bodies.
Thousands of litres of unused paint are being disposed of every year in NSW.
By making some simple changes in the way you use and dispose of chemicals at home, you can reduce negative environmental impact as well as save money and reduce unnecessary packaging waste.
REDUCE the use of household chemicals by buying less, using less and looking for safer alternatives such as non-toxic cleaning products (available from some supermarkets and most health food stores).
STORE household chemicals safely – ensure containers are clearly labelled and out of the reach of children.
USE water-based paints – only buy enough for the job at hand to avoid unnecessary wastage.
USE non-toxic ways to repel pests.
DON’T pour unwanted oils and chemicals into drains, toilets or where they may end up in our waterways.
TAKE unwanted household chemicals to a free household chemical collection centre in your local area (see below).
TAKE unwanted medicines to any pharmacy for free and safe disposal
NEVER put chemicals in the recycling bin – they could end up harming the people who sort through these materials, contaminate the recyclable materials, or end up in landfill, which can harm the environment
NEVER mix chemicals – they could react with one another and produce fumes, which could make you ill
The Lismore Waste Management Facility at Wyrallah Road, Lismore, offers a free chemical disposal service for residents of the Ballina, Byron, Lismore and Richmond Valley council areas.
The facility will take paint and paint related products, pesticides, herbicides and poisons, solvents and household cleaners, gas bottles, pool chemicals, acids and alkalis.
Only household quantities will be accepted up to 20 litres. For bookings call 6621 9671 or go there on the last Friday of each month.
The decay of a household’s food and garden waste generates almost one tonne of greenhouse gas a year. Consider using a worm farm instead of, or in addition to, composting (See below).
PRUNINGS can be mulched or chipped for reuse in your garden. If everyone composted and mulched their green waste, total waste going to landfill would be reduced by up to a third.
REUSE newspaper and cardboard (old pizza boxes are ideal) for weed control by laying them beneath a layer of mulch in the garden.
GRASS clippings and leaves can be left to break down naturally in the open air, or can be composted.
REDUCE mower fuel consumption by using a hand mower, mowing less often or choosing a more fuel-efficient machine (four-stroke mowers often use
less fuel).
AVOID over-watering the garden. Water treatment processes and pumping use energy and generate greenhouse gases.
Composting and worm farms are ways of turning kitchen scraps into garden fertiliser.
Choose a composting system that suits you - an open heap, an enclosure, or a bin with lots of air holes (available at most garden shops) and select a sunny, well-drained location.
Start with a 10-15 cm layer of twigs, sticks and dry leaves and lay this as a base which will provide drainage and aeration.
You can then add a range of organic materials including kitchen scraps and some manures.
Keep a sealed bucket in the kitchen for food scraps including coffee grounds, tea bags, fruit and vegetable peelings and other scraps such as eggshells and fish bones.
Keep grass clippings, raked leaves, etc. in piles so you can add them in layers together with weeds (but no oxalis, onion or nutgrass bulbs) and garden prunings.
Add the organic materials in layers no more than 10 cm deep, alternating between nitrogen rich (food scraps, manure etc.) and nitrogen poor (twigs, dry leaves etc.). Shredded newspaper and pizza boxes can also be added.
Dog and cat faeces are a source of parasites and should not go into the compost.
Ensure that each layer is as slightly wet and occasionally add a thin (3-5 cm) layer of soil to keep microbe levels up. Also add a sprinkling of lime, dolomite or wood ash after layers of manure and food and cover the heap with a hessian sack.
Your compost needs fresh air. In a landfill or poorly managed compost heap where there is no fresh air, food and garden waste breaks down to form a mixture of gases, including the very active greenhouse gas, methane.
Turn the material over regularly, insert air supply pipes or use a compost tumbler. If the compost smells, there is not enough air and it is producing greenhouse gases.
When the heap is full you can start a second heap, leaving the first to break down; or remove the enclosure from the heap and relocate it next to the original heap. Start the new heap by forking the top uncomposted material into the enclosure. The finished compost at the bottom of the original heap is ready to use.
How to make a worm farm
Worm farms are another great way of turning kitchen waste into useful fertiliser, especially for people who live in units or houses with a small yard.
Worms can eat the equivalent of their body weight in food scraps a day producing castings that are a rich soil conditioner or plant food.
You can use small containers with drainage, or buy a commercially produced worm farm from a garden shop or nursery. Put the container in a shaded position that will not get too hot or too cold. Worms prefer temperatures between 20 and 25°C.
Place a few sheets of moistened newspaper on the base of the tray and add a layer of bedding - a mixture of shredded newspaper and either composted horse or cow manure, worm castings or coco peat to a depth of 10-15cm.
Add soil for grit, then add water so that the mixture is as wet as a lightly squeezed sponge.
You will need from 1000 to 2000 worms, which can be purchased from some garden nurseries or through advertisements under ‘worms’ in the Yellow Pages.
There is no need to bury them - they will quickly move away from the light.
Cover with a damp hessian sack or newspaper and leave for a week. This allows the worms to adapt to their new home.
Begin adding small amounts of food scraps in shallow troughs. Only add more food scraps when the worms have worked through the existing scraps. After a number of months, you will be able to increase the amount of food. Worms will also eat shredded egg cartons, cardboard and paper.
Add small sprinklings of lime if a lot of acidic materials (fruit peelings, etc.) are used. Shredding food scraps will speed up the worm system.
When the entire container has been converted to castings (vermicast or worm manure) empty the contents onto a table and leave it for a few minutes to allow the worms to burrow away from the surface.
Scrape away the castings, layer by layer until you are left with a ball of worms, ready to use again. The castings can then be added to potting mix or used as plant food.
Methane from waste can generate power
Household garbage that is sent to landfill generates methane, one of the gases that contributes to global warming.
Methane from landfills can be captured and used to generate power.
This is already happening in some countries and at Bathurst, in NSW, a feasibility study is being conducted for a project to capture methane from the local waste management facility.
It is estimated that methane from the facility could be used to generate enough power for 500 homes.
The project promises to save 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas a year, which is equivalent to taking about 4000 cars off the road.
•Fact
Steel is the world's most recycled material, and one of the easiest materials to recycle as it can be separated magnetically from the waste stream.
Steel food and beverage cans are just part of the picture. Cars, appliances, industrial and agricultural machinery and steel building materials all become scrap steel at the end of their life.
Steel can be recycled any number of times without any loss of quality.