I think it was a few years ago, we began with composting I think.
We got onto composting and then it was around the time that I was pregnant and so I was
looking at ways to save money and I came across cloth nappies as an option.
With not having any cloth nappies in the rubbish and no food waste we just realised how little
waste we were putting out each week.
It's our curbside recycling, we try not to use it too much but we do use it.
This is landfill bin, so maybe two thirds full from the year.
There's some big household items in there like broken appliances that have taken up
a bit of room and also a little bit of building renovation waste.
So this two-thirds full, here we are in August, you haven't put that bin out?
No, we haven't.
We just put a challenge on ourselves, can we do one landfill bin in a year?
That was our challenge for 2015.
And we did it.
I think that's the best way to approach it, because if you try to sell it to other people
to get them to reduce their waste, you can't expect them to click their fingers and to
have everything done over night.
I think it's better to just tackle one area at a time.
Are you putting out your soft plastics?
Do you have a compost?
Because that takes 60% of your landfill bin, that reduces that.
Then some other areas.
Could you have some mesh bags that you could use for your fruit and veg when you go to
the supermarket?
Can you have a tote bag that you use when you go to the supermarket that you always
keep in your car?
And then the next thing you know, you'll be doing it.
The waste station, we've got curbside recycling.
We've got our food waste for the big compost heap out the back.
This is for our container for the bokashi bin.
This is our landfill rubbish.
So we've got a lot of medical waste in there, because we've been a bit sick.
Toys, this is a sticker from a container, so we buy some things from the deli in our
own containers and then the stickers go into rubbish.
We've got a compost heap down the back and we also use bokashi bins which we use for food scraps and any food waste that we
have and we've got a container underneath our kitchen sink and once it's full we just
tip it in here.
And what sort of food scraps can you put in it?
Pretty much anything, that's the great thing about bokashi it takes cooked items and
vegetable and fruit peelings.
We just sprinkle some of this bokashi mix on top and it helps it break down and once
it's full we'll leave it to ferment for about ten days and then it's ready to dig into the garden.
At the bottom there's juice that collects but you can dilute it and use it on your plants.
So it's a resource.
What would you say to families who look at you guys and think well, we can't do that,
that's just too hard, it's too inconvenient.
We just try and do the best we can realistically with the kind of time available.
Just take small steps, like we did.
Just start off on something small, a small action like taking your bags to the supermarket,
go to a composting workshop, Compost Collective are great, held workshops all over Auckland.
There's lots of resources out to help you, there's council resources.
Join a community group for a community garden, just surround yourself with like minded people
always helps.
Do the littlies have any little jobs?
I think Marcy is pretty good at putting things in the compost and helping out in the garden.
We got her daycare composting, so they're not composting all their food waste, so I
think it's just become nature for the young ones because it's been from day one that there
has been no rubbish.
My lunch it's all packed in containers and my popcorn is packed in a reused ice cream container.
Do you enjoy it?
Do you like doing that?
Reducing your rubbish?
Yes.
What do you like about it?
That we get to buy ice cream and then eat it and then we have it as like a container for our popcorn.