We had already been doing a few things to avoid waste, like recycling packaging as much as possible, re-using plastic bags or taking non-plastic bag alternatives when shopping. Thumper has been in cloth nappies since birth (except for when we went on holidays and had no access to a washing machine). However, we don't have a compost bin, so for the challenge week, I sent our food scraps to GrandPaul's compost bin.
Overall, we did OK, but I don't think we're going to be winning any prizes - we definitely didn't manage zero waste. But considering we didn't really try all that hard, I reckon we didn't do too badly. At the end of the week, there was so little rubbish in our bin, that we didn't need to put it out for collection that week: we could easily go another 2 or 3 weeks before the bin is full. (Although, this is actually pretty normal for us).
It is interesting to take a bit more notice of what does get chucked away. Most of the packaging we do have is recyclable - but manufacturers will persist with using non-recycleable packaging. Particularly annoying ones are:
- bread bags and the little plastic tie
- tablets in foil packaging, but with plastic bubbles on one side
- deli ham/sandwich meat comes in a plastic-backed paper wrap
- breakfast cereal - the inner plastic bag
- all my favourite chocolate biscuits and lollies come in flexible plastic wrap that cannot be recycled (although the plastic tray inside the biscuits can be recycled)
- toothbrushes and toothpaste (while I didn't have any that needed discarding this week, they are not recyclable)
- other health/personal care items (eg.sunscreen, nappy rash cream) comes in tubes doesn't appear to be sold in recyclable packaging.
- meat from supermarkets (and sometimes from butchers) is packed on foam trays
- clothing (both new and secondhand from op-shops) always seems to come with those annoying tiny plastic strips to hold the tag/label on.
Then there are the things we could have made sacrifices for to avoid waste, but chose not to, for example...
- night nappies for BallFiend (he's four years old but not night toilet trained yet and although Thumper is in cloth nappies, BallFiend refuses to wear them, having been used to disposables all his life);
- pads/tampons;
- disposable replacement-razor blade cartridges (even if you keep the handle part for reuse).
The Zero Waste Challenge was an interesting experience, but not one that is going to get me to completely change habits and adopt a zero-waste lifestyle permanently. It's not really practical to live off the land when you live on a smallish block in the inner city - can't really grow your own everything (ie. it's all very well to have a vegie patch, but what about wheat for bread, cows for milk, animals for meat, etc.). And for some products (medicines come to mind) there is no other option than to buy what is on offer, packaging and all.
Consumer-awareness campaigns are all very well, but I reckon it is really up to governments to regulate the packaging used by manufacturers and retailers. There are way too many products that are sold with mixed packaging where part of it is recyclable and part isn't, and consumer boycotts aren't going to change this. And a lot more could be done at the retail level to get shop-keepers to stop putting purchases into plastic bags. I know the big stores (Coles, Bunnings, etc.) have been the target of this type of thinking and are now voluntarily avoiding use of plastic bags. But every single greengrocer that I have ever been to has rolls of little plastic bags for fresh produce. Then when you pay, they place all this into another plastic bag! It doesn't matter if you take an alternative like a trolley or basket, they are too damn quick!
It's really annoying, because there are so many ways were it would be really, really, easy to stop using plastic and creating waste. I think we are all just too lazy really.
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