Eco friendly waste management begins at home, or at your workplace. There are a number of proactive things that you can do to ensure that your waste management practices are eco friendly. A good first step is to take note of the amounts of organic waste/food that you or your household throw out, as compared to recyclable packaging waste. Composting can dispose of a large portion of this organic waste. Basically, just burying your wet rubbish in your garden will take care of the majority of this waste matter.

What if you live in an apartment, as many Australians residing in cities now do?

Here is an opportunity to compost on your balcony, or perhaps, approach friends with houses and gardens and arrange a swap to contribute to their compost levels. Communities deal with issues like waste management much better than individuals, or individual households. Compost can be a valuable commodity to keen gardens; your trash can be their treasure. Enrich a friend’s garden today!

Workplaces offer a range of opportunities to reduce waste matter generally and to create eco friendly outcomes for this shared management of waste. We are all in this together and we need to work together, both labour and management, to take responsibility for our rubbish. Organic matter, once again, is best composted, and setting up a communal compost point can be both fun and productive. Things like this bring people together!

Recyclables, like wastepaper, can be reused in offices and factories to reduce waste matter; and this will reduce costs as well. When recycling empty bottles make sure that they are empty and remove the lids.  Do not recycle paper and cardboard spoiled by food, like pizza boxes and takeaway bags. Help the recycling process along with smart choices.

Plastic bags are a major waste management problem at work and at home; reduce your use of them. Recycle plastic bags for your own personal uses, don’t just throw them out and get another one. Remember to take your re-useable green bags to the supermarket with you; keeping them in the car is a good idea to make sure that they are accessible when needed. Go to supermarkets and shops which encourage re-useable bags. In South Australia the free plastic carry bag has been outlawed at supermarkets, which has reduced the number of these plastic bags in landfill. There is, however, still a very long way to go in the battle against plastic bags in landfill, in Australia, and globally.