Banning the Bag

Last year the Fremantle Council started making plans to ban single-use plastic bags. It seems, that following a State Government ruling yesterday, this will become a reality. Woohoo!

Last week I was able to go on another (this was my third) tour of the Tamala Park landfill. These tours are always incredibly informative and a huge eye-opener. The people that deal with our waste do such an amazing job. One of the aspects that always amazes me is the number of single use plastic bags that are at the site. These are so lightweight that once they get caught on the breeze they seem to be off on their own adventure.

I strongly urge you to get in touch with your council and ask if they operate tours of your facility. The rubbish truck that comes around and empties our bins is not a magical fairy that can make the waste disappear. It all needs to go somewhere.

Even recycling in an interesting topic. Many think that because they are filling their recycling bin that they are doing a great thing for the environment. Now, it is so much better to recycle than have it buried in a hole, but please be aware that this all needs to be transported, sorted, a buyer needs to be found, and then transported again (sometimes overseas) to be processed. Paper and cardboard can be dealt with easily on-site (at home) through compost. Why buy bags of compost for your garden when you could be making your own? Paper and cardboard are great sources of carbon, something very important for healthy compost. Please reduce, reuse, (repair) and then recycle.

I will now get down off my soapbox. Gosh, I went off an a bit of a rant there.

Remember that I will draw the winner of the giveaway tomorrow morning so if you want a chance to win Homemade Pantry leave a comment on the last post.

Take care

Compost Update

For  the past few weeks the weekend weather here in the west has been wonderful. There have been many hours spent out in the yard weeding and raking and generally getting things in order for Spring.

I have three compost bins on the go at the moment at varying stages of decomposition. The one that has been sitting the longest is ready to get taken out and added to a garden bed. At the moment we have six beds in the front yard with another waiting to be put together in the upcoming school holidays. This is where the compost will go when I get this next no-dig garden put together. (A post about this bed will follow in a few weeks.)

I get such a buzz each time I open the lid of the bin knowing that all of the food, garden and paper scraps we gathered are being put to great use and being dealt with on-site. There was no need to send any of this off in rubbish trucks to be recycled, or worse, turned into landfill. All of this wonderful compost will go towards growing our beautiful summer vegetables.

If you don't compost due to fear of the unknown, have a bit of read through the information at the top of the page and feel free as ask as many questions as you want. It is so worthwhile.

If you do compost, how is yours coming along?

Take care

Assembling My Dalek Army

This year I have undertaken a bit of study and decided to do a Diploma of Sustainability. I'm not really sure what I want to do at the end, but needed a bit of a change in direction.

The current assignment involved designing and implementing a program the supports a behavioural change. I have decided to go with a topic that I am really passionate about; composting. For my assignment I am hoping to change the behaviour of five households and get them to eliminate all food scraps from their kerbside collection.

This is where my Dalek Army comes in.

In the weeks leading up to the assignment I kept my eyes out on Gumtree, the Quokka and even bulk rubbish pickups, and managed to collect five preloved bins for less than the cost of one new bins.

Asking people to undertake this sort of change could have been a little tricky but being able to tell them that I had everything ready to go made it a little easier.

With the barrier of 'not having a bin' sorted, I am now going to each household armed with a bin, newspaper, straw, food scraps, cow manure and some of my own compost to help select a site and get the program started.

It is interesting that when I was trying to find people to be my guinea pigs participants, quite a few said that it was something they had thought about but weren't really sure how to get it started. With the chance to get someone to come and help them take the first steps, all four people I approached said yes straight away. My fifth 'composter' overheard one of the conversations and actually asked to join!

There are so many great sites out there offering suggestions on how to get started, but I am a big fan of these girls.

Each of us has some amazing skills that can be passed on to others. Perhaps you could see if a friend if they need a hand getting a compost bin started. Help them overcome that first hurdle of not knowing how to start.

One setup complete, four to go.

Take care

Update
I have just returned from the morning school run and managed to score another bin in the bulk rubbish collection. Woohoo!