OBERON:They're projected to produce more plastic in the next decade then has been produced since the 1950s.
It's possible for an average
Suburban family to be able to do something about that
So that we can minimize the the negative and harmful impacts that we're having
From just blatantly consuming without any regard to the impacts of that consumption.
LAUREN: I'm Lauren and this
Oberon and we live in Muwinna land in Taroona in Tasmania about 15 minutes from Hobart and
we live here with our three daughters
Audrey, who's 15. Xanthe who's 12 and Maisy who's 8.
OBERON: We live in a 50s where the board house in an average sized suburban block and
try to live without making any waste.
(LAUGHS)
LAUREN: We shifted to waste free living about three and a half years ago
and for the first year, we collected all our waste in a biscuit tin.
After that, we shifted it to a jar.
We've been collecting that for two and a half years.
It's not quite full yet. I think we could get maybe another year out of it.
We have a ball of foil
recycling that we've collected we try and avoid
recycling if we can.
OBERON: We just don't want to play that gamble
when when we're putting things in our recycling bin in the hope that the right thing will be done by it and
also knowing that there's lots of energy that goes into the recycling process anyway.
And if there are alternatives available to just avoid all of that,
that's a solution that seems like a more long-term sustainable solution for us.
And that one ball is like two years of our
recycling
Some of the the bigger changes in our lifestyle have been around shopping and food
Because food packaging is a big part of a lot of people's waste and it was a big part of ours.
We buy a lot of our food in bulk which means taking our bags and containers and jars to shops and
having the ingredient put into those and bring it home and just put it on the shelf and it's ready to go and there's no
packaging and there's no advertising
it's very simple and straightforward.
We also will buy food in
containers when we go to the butcher, or the fishmonger, or the the guy who gives us snacks for our pets.
We've got a few different methods of managing our food waste. We keep two
buckets on our sink one is for scraps for the chooks and the rest is for the
compost bin. We have cold compost bins in our garden. We also have a dedicated worm farm just for pet poo.
We're trying to take
responsibility for everything that we bring into our home and
we think that if we can utilize things that are
compostable and organic and actually help build soil in our garden to grow food
To feed ourselves and to feed our neighbors and share with our family and friends
then we think that's a
much more convenient and healthier way to live.
LAUREN: I'll preserve lots of fruits from our garden
whether it be mulberries or apples or quinces.
OBERON: We're focused also on what things are made of if it's clothing
we're avoiding synthetic materials because we know that at the end of the life of that garment we will have the responsibility of
doing something with it.
It is about having a family pact and that means including our children
in the conversations about how we wanted to reduce waste. That was a conversation that we have had with our children at the start and
have continued to have that conversation,
so that they're there with us the whole way. We're not dragging our children along on this sort of adventure. They're they're there with us.
LAUREN: There is a misconception because I am at home with our kids
,homeschooling them which is a full-time job on its own and I also run a business,
but it's often perceived that we have so much extra time in our day that we must be able to
do all of this because of that and I don't know that that's necessarily true.
I was homeschooling their girls before
we moved to ways for a living and I was just as busy then as I am now.
OBERON: I think it's easy to forget how much power we have as individuals to enact positive change.
If you look at how the cumulative negative impacts of
all of the single-use plastic bags and plastic straws and plastic coffee cups that are being used every day,
one straw one plastic bag. That doesn't seem like a big negative impact, but the sum total of all that is is extraordinary.
LAUREN: You don't need to go out and buy new
cups and bags and toothbrushes and all of that sort of stuff.
We would encourage people to keep reusing what they already have until those
Items are no longer useful and then consider replacing them with something more ethical or compostable.
Definitely don't go out and throw out everything and start from scratch with this beautiful new
aesthetically pleasing zero waste kit.
OBERON: Not all waste is immediately overcome by the individual who's facing that waste it might be that it's a shared responsibility
amongst the community to help make waste free living more
available to more people
in different types of life situations.
It's important that all levels of government and corporations all take responsibility for their end of the process and
regulation and that's all part of it,
but I think that there's a lot that individuals and households can do to make a big difference
now, without having to wait.
We can actually make a lot of change now and by osmosis a lot of that will filter
broadly across the population and then filter upwards into the chains of power.
It is constantly rewarding to know that the choices that you're making in your life are beneficial or at least not harmful.
LAUREN: It feels pretty good to have not contributed all of that landfill.
OBERON: There's many tons of waste that we have avoided by making these life choices
and I think the average household is able to produce enough waste to fill a
three-bedroom house every year in Australia
and so that that means that's at least three
three-bedroom houses that we haven't
LAUREN: Three of these houses
OBERON: Three of theses house three of this house that we haven't filled with waste just by making a bunch of
relatively minor changes in how we how we do things and I think we're happier for it
LAUREN:I sleep a little better.
Yeah, that's right
(LAUGHS)