Let’s Talk About Waste, Baby!

by | Sep 4, 2015 | Zero Waste Home | 0 comments

I’ve been an environmentalist for over 20 years and for the most part I’ve accepted that everyone is at a different level in their eco awareness.

No-one likes a preaching greenie, so I’ve always aimed to inspire, gently educate, and lead by example in order to entice people to change their habits for the future of our planet.

But as the state of our local, regional and global environments continues to deteriorate, I’m finding it harder and harder to bite my tongue.

I’d love your advice on how I can influence my local townsfolk (including my friends) on the following…….

Like many regional towns in South Australia, our town landfill is in the process of closing. All waste from now on is to be trucked a distance of approximately 500 kilometres to be buried in a mega landfill close to Adelaide.

**There IS something wrong with this picture.**

Not the fact that our waste is to be trucked to a state-of-the-art waste facility, where day-to-day practices of the landfill are no doubt 100% better than our Outback tip. I’m more talking that we are generating shit loads of waste that needs to be trucked, at great expense to local rate payers, to be dumped in someone else’s backyard.

And meanwhile, so many residents in my town are complaining that their waste bins are too small.

Our town has a large percentage of young families and it’s particularly those using disposable nappies who are struggling to contain their waste in the standard general waste bin.

Now even when I had my two boys in nappies simultaneously, we struggled to fill 1/3 of our bin with waste each week…. possibly thanks to using cloth nappies and wipes…. but also as we run a pretty tight ship waste-wise. And… this bin also needed to accommodate waste from my retail business.

Giving cloth nappies a go is really easy for locals here thanks to a collaboration I initiated between my former biz Sustainababy and our local Council in early 2014; every new baby in town is entitled to a modern cloth nappy starter pack valued at $135 for a tiny fee of around $35.

In fact, during 2014, new parents could obtain this kit for FREE!

Yet still, there is a large number of parents who won’t even give them a go, citing their dislike of poo and washing (…hello….you still deal with poo when using disposables…). This group is asking for a larger or a second bin to help contain their waste.

Meanwhile….. overflowing bins are magnets for our local crows who rat through them and spread the waste all over town….. just yesterday there was a shitty nappy shredded by crows on my driveway thanks to a neighbours’ overflowing bin.

Soooooo…………. over to you….. what are your tips for helping people;

  1. take responsibility for their waste and not blame local government for not giving them a large enough bin and/or second bin;
    and
  2. care about the volume of waste they’re creating and want to try and reduce it.

I’m sick of people not caring because it sure ain’t gone when it’s gone.

its not gone when its gone

Laura
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