practice mindful disposal

Well, our rubbish now is :)

Sorted:

We bought a recycling bin and found the bin for biodegradables in the garage. The majority of our waste now goes in the recycling bin (kept in the kitchen) and all food scraps can go in the organic one (kept in the garage, supplied by a little container kept in the kitchen). The stuff left over (usually plastic wrappings and bags – pah! pah on that evil plastic!!!) goes in the regular bin (remains in the kitchen).

Communicated:

I’ve put lists of what goes in which bin, along with the collection timetables on the fridge so everyone else can learn what to do. Here’s hoping the flattymates dont think i’m too much of a rubbish eccentric and join me on the healthy disposal bandwagon :)

Benefited:

Aside from a happy conscience I’ve noticed some other benefits of this routine

• makes me more conscious to amount of plastic bags we consume
• reduces odour from food scraps emminating from the ordinary bin
• rubbish day is less of a hassle (no more carting out two weeks of sodden smelly rubbish bags!)
• my flatmate is happier the responsibility doesnt all rest on her shoulders anymore
• gives me a healthy sense of pride and productivity (sorting rubbish is dead easy and not that time consuming)
• i’m developing good habits of doing things immediately (washing or stacking dirty dishes in the dishwasher and rinsing containers for the recycling bin)
• the kitchen seems cleaner (this is a big bonus for me becos we dont have a lot of bench space)!

Toronto’s recycling and waste management program rocks!

An anti-litter initiative in the 70’s made “be a tidy kiwi” a popular slogan in NZ. It’s as much a part of our culture and heritage as beach-side pohutukawas in bloom at christmas, and the giraffe emblazoned longest drink in town milkshakes! Its kiwiana in action.

I want to help the revival of this concept. I associate fond memories of my childhood and national pride with it. I would love to see people of my community sport this slogan again and make efforts to practice mindful disposal. Hopefully inspiring others along the way.

Councils in the Auckland region relaunched the campaign last year with the angle of addressing peoples lame excuses for littering. While I’m not so keen on fingerpointing (as seems to be the trend in NZ advertising presently) I am supportive of the efforts they made and their involvement of schools in the promotion. Keeping a sense of community and encouraging these values in our next generation are two agendas that sit well with a goal to reduce littering.

When I return home I want to start monthly “litter crawls” – getting a group of friends together for a walk in which we collect litter to recycle or dispose of mindfully. I’ve already seen people doing this all over the world and I’m impressed by their conscientousnous. I’m hoping if we got some “be a tidy kiwi” T-shirts printed it might make the action more salient and contagious in New Zealand. A Tui billboard would be an uba-bonus!! (lol, reading the news on these lately somehow i just dont think littering is controversial enough)

My folks have the cutest photo of my little brother as a toddler, all chubby and grubby, wearing a “be a tidy kiwi” top. It makes me smile – there’s more than one reason for my fondness of it :)

not sure if my new flat is up on the play with it. but i’ll be making sure we all are!!! :)

So much focus on consumption, what about the stuff that comes out the other end???