I have been looking for my passion. The one thing I love, so I can then do it everyday. Truth is I don’t know what that is. However I do know that I have been complaining about packaging and our consumption of it for a while now.
I am going to run a little experiment. I am going to find ways to consume less packaging.
Some ideas as I lie here unable to sleep
1. Keep track of our landfill and recycling for a week
2. Buy compostable bags for rubbish
3. Use cotton thread instead of floss
4. Visit flannery store in taringa or (a bulk and organic store in Brisbane Australia)
5. Research my own cleaning product. Vinegar, baking soda and essential oil apparently.
6. Grow veges and fruit
7. Research worst and best packaging based on environmental impact.
Live the motto REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE
What do you think? Have you been successful in reducing package consumption? Let me know how!
Package free living 
Love it love it love it! All of the above sound great and are relatively easy to accomplish. Fun too! Except for the compostable rubbish bags. I’ve yet to see ones that work.
My personal learning and reminder is that of the 3 R’s, recycling has the smallest impact. Reusing and reducing take the cake.
Let us know how it goes!
Js
Hi! I did some research on the compostable bags and turns out they do break down in landfill quicker than plastic bags. This link talks about the bags that I have been using. http://www.monash.vic.gov.au/community/compostable-bag.htm
It was a funny incident. I went to Target, bought some stuff. She said their bags cost 10C each, expecting me to say No to them. I said oh cool, they biodegradable, can I have 50 please? 😉 I have been using them for trash. Also pleased to report, we only take the trash out about once in 2 weeks now! (not counting diapers). Unfortunately still a lot of recycling – mostly milk cartons. We go through 4 L of milk a week! we need a cow.
Great idea! I’m cynical about compostable bags for rubbish though, I thought that these bags needed sunlight to breakdown, and they don’t get sunlight pilled on top of each other in a tip.
One ironic things about shopping at a bulk food shop (if it’s BYO containers?), is that you end up collecting packaging to then reuse. Reusing is better than recycling, it’s just I wish I had more space to store my collection of glass jars 🙂
Cotton thread instead of floss? Never realised that floss was bad, could you tell us more about this one?
Here is a great tip sheet on Natural cleaning:
Click to access Natural%20Cleaning%20%20Home%20Detox%20Handout.pdf
Interesting on the rubbish bags. It makes sense. Do you have other ideas? I guess one thing is to use big rubbish bins and just tip the rubbish into the main bin instead of using bags. However that would be messy and not popular with the rubbish collectors I assume. Eitherway I am trying really hard to just reduce rubbish so I would have to worry less about what it goes in.
In terms of floss, its one of those things that seem to come in a lot of packaging that I end up throwing it. Cotton seems much more sustainable. What do you think? We could use this as per zero waste blog – http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/2010/01/zero-waste-bathroom.html
Dental Floss: Switch to a brass gum stimulator with a rubber tip. http://astore.amazon.com/zerowastehomestore-20/detail/B000RDTJFW
Hi! See my reply to Jason above re: compostable trash bags
I’m loving this! Huge fan of this experiment and can’t wait to follow your lead for more tips on how we can reduce our footprint 🙂
I have been trying to reuse lots of stuff that would normally go in the recycling bin – plastic containers & egg boxes are getting seeds planted in them, bits and pieces I put into our kids craft box so they can use to make robots etc.
I like to get plastic milk bottles rather than tetra pac because I’m not sure, but i think cartons maybe can’t be recycled as have a layer of foil or something inside.
Lots of stuff can go in the compost bin, including tissues, paper, hair & dust off the floor, and obviously fruit & veg scraps. I’m finding that It’s breaking down pretty quick too.
Good point about tissues and paper!