Best tips for reducing waste over Xmas and summer

December 18, 2017

In the week after Christmas, New Zealanders send 50,000 extra tonnes of waste to landfill. 

That's enough to fill 14,286 twenty-foot shipping containers, which, if stacked one on top of the other would stretch 105 times higher than the Sky Tower, or three times the height of Mount Everest.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way!

Hannah and Liam, the two no-waste nomads behind The Rubbish Trip, share their top tips for reducing waste over the silly season.

Their insights are based on their own experience of living, since the beginning of 2015, without a rubbish bin.

Six months into The Rubbish Trip, they’ve produced only a handful of rubbish between them – showing it’s possible to travel New Zealand, without creating mountains of waste.

Here are their best festive season tips. 

CHRISTMAS! 

1. Gifts and wrapping

• Cut down on Christmas shopping by making gifts at home, like chai tea blends, preserves and baking; sewn, knitted or crocheted items; or homemade cosmetics.
• Give ‘experience gifts’ rather than stuff – taking someone for a picnic or to the beach; giving tickets for the cinema, a massage, concerts or even the dentist; going skydiving, bungee jumping or rafting; or even the age-old book voucher. 
• Reassess whether you want to be buying and receiving so many gifts this year – chat with extended family, friends and colleagues about alternatives to material gifts. 
• Avoid Secret Santa, which so often results in the exchange of poor quality, cheap, gimmicky and/or unwanted gifts.
• If you’re into spreading the low-waste living message, gift a zero waste starter pack to help your friends and family reduce their waste everyday – things like reusable cloth produce/bulk bin bags, reusable takeaway coffee cups, reusable drink bottles, reusable metal straws, beeswax wrap (you can even get vegan wax wraps here in Wellington from What the Vegan), stainless steel lunchboxes/containers, compostable bamboo toothbrushes, and wooden dishbrushes with replaceable, home compostable heads.
• Wrapping paper is expensive, often non-recyclable, and resource intensive to produce. Did you know you can wrap your presents in reusable fabric? Whether it’s a cloth bag, an elf bag, or furoshiki. Alternatively, wrap your presents in material that is both upcycled and compostable, such as newspaper, or leaves and flowers. You can get curtain offcuts to use for fabric wrap from Sustainability Trust's EcoShop. 

2. Christmas dinner

• Avoid panic buying on Christmas Eve. Instead, plan your meals so that you just buy what you need. Have a plan for your leftovers too.
• Opt for homemade treats rather than packaged ones – try your hand at making homemade mince pies, plum pudding, pavlova, and even panettone!
• Buy your ingredients and meat with minimal packaging by bringing your own bags and containers to stores that have bulk bins and delis. For a full list of stores that offer low-waste shopping options, see The Rubbish Trip’s Greater Wellington Region Zero Waste Shopping Guide.
• Over the festive season, use real crockery and cloth napkins rather than disposables.
• Instead of buying Christmas crackers, make your own out of upcycled newspaper, three toilet rolls and some string. Making your own cracker has the added benefit that you can put WHATEVER YOU WANT in it!

3. Christmas decorations

• Avoid tinsel and glitter, which shed micro-plastics into the environment. Opt for natural decorations, such as flowers, leaves and pine cones. You can also make paper chains and fabric bunting.
• Make an upcycled Christmas tree out of old pallets, drift wood, cleverly stacked books, or even felt with attachable felt decorations!

SUMMER HOLIDAYS!

4. Before going away this summer, get to know your destination.

Check the local council website for what is and is not recyclable in the local area, and how the recycling system works (be prepared to take your recycling home with you if there are little or no services in the area you visit).

Look out for low-waste stores in your holiday destination where you can stock-up on essential food items in BYO bags/containers, i.e. places that stock bulk, unpackaged food and produce (like Bin Inns and local markets), and cafes and takeaway outlets that will put your food or drink in BYO containers. The Rubbish Trip has produced zero waste shopping guides for most regions in the North Island, which you can refer to.

5. Be prepared – fill your life with reusables so you can avoid disposables (and remember to take them with you!).

Whenever we're out and about we carry a 'day bag' that has all our essential waste-avoiding items, including a reusable takeaway coffee cup, a container for takeaways (whether a lunchbox or just a plain old ice cream container), reusable cutlery, washable cotton cloths, reusable metal straws, and several different sized cloth bags (in case we pop into a supermarket or store to buy food).

Armed with your day bag, you'll be ready to refuse some real problem waste items, including plastic bags, disposable coffee cups, plastic straws, disposable takeaway containers, throwaway cutlery and disposable napkins.

6. Sort your toiletries!

We make toiletries like toothpaste, deodorant, mouthwash, shampoo and face cleansers out of simple, everyday ingredients (check out our recipes in our Bare Essentials booklet). We carry them in small glass jars for easy transportation, as well as back-up baking soda and coconut oil in case we need to make more (this self-sufficiency is particularly handy if you are in an area with minimal stores!) Don’t forget your compostable bamboo toothbrush, reusable razors and menstrual cups/washable pads!

If you're not keen to make your own, there are some cosmetic companies like Ethique which are providing ethical alternatives that are sustainably packaged in compostable cardboard.

7. For food on the go when day-tripping, tramping or camping:

• Take homemade and/or unpackaged snacks around with you rather than buying pre-made snacks in a packet. Some great options are homemade crackers and muesli bars, fruit and nuts, and pick and mix from supermarkets or Bin Inns that you can put into BYO bags and containers. Wrap your food up in reusable cloth bags, furoshiki and/or beeswax wrap instead of plastic ziplocks and Glad Wrap.
• Learn to love sprouting! We take a sprouting jar or mesh bag of legumes with us wherever we go – it’s easy to stock up with dried legumes from a bulk bin and sprouts are a great, light source of protein that don’t require cooking. It might sound a bit wacky, but trust us, it’s easy peasy to hang a sprouting bag of lentils to your pack and dig in in the evening time without having to get out any pots, pans or gas cookers!
• Forage - Edible wild weeds are an abundant source of free kai around NZ – our faves are nasturtiums, chickweed, onion weed and blackberries. Please make sure you know what you are picking (trial and error is not safe because NZ has poisonous plants and berries) and don’t pick off the side of roads.

8. Avoid getting sucked in by post-Christmas sales. 

Avoid buying brand new and/or poor quality holiday equipment like beach umbrellas, plastic sand toys, barbecues, outdoor furniture and tents just because they're on sale.

Think outside the box: question whether you really need some of these things in the first place; look for second hand deals at your local recycling centres (for example, Second Treasures in Wellington or Trash Palace in Porirua); see if you can swap and borrow items, like tents and boogie boards, with your friends, family and neighbours; and borrow toys at your local toy library (note that old gardening tools and glass jars make great alternatives to plastic sand toys).

Let’s do what we can to enjoy our summer holidays while being kind to the natural environment whose beauty allows us to rejuvenate and recharge at the end of every year!

Want more? Check out our Sustainability Advice section. 

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