CHRISTMAS sadly produces a lot of waste.
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The Grampians Central West Waste & Resource Recovery Group have put together tips and advice for the season to help reduce some of the waste.
Try to give zero-waste presents.
Zero-waste presents include baking treats, giving plants or gifting experiences rather than material gifts.
Alternatives to wrapping paper are reusable gift boxes, decorated newspaper for an artistic look, the Japanese method of Furoshiki or fabric wrapping, or environmentally friendly wrapping paper.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Don't use plastic or single use cutlery for your Christmas party.
Forgo the plastic cutlery and paper plates. If you don't have enough, your op-shop will have plenty of cups, plates and silverware.
Use cloth napkins rather than paper serviettes. You can make your own Christmas themed ones, maybe even give them as presents.
Plan out your Christmas meal to reduce food waste.
Use a shared document to see who is bringing what and how many people it will feed.
If you do over do it, why not start a compost for the new year.
If you have a backyard and like to garden then composting your food scraps and organic garden waste is one of he best ways of reducing your waste.
While it can be a little daunting, it is not hard to do. Over the next couple of weeks we will cover the tools and ingredients you can use and the best approach to layering and creating your compost.
Tools and ingredients:
- A standard plastic compost bin or a homemade compost bin that's made from timber, chicken wire etc
- A compost turner and garden fork
- 'Green' organic ingredients - Kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, small amounts of carbohydrates (rice and pasta), coffee grinds, teabags, green cut grass and clippings, flowers, manure (cow, chicken or horse)
- 'Brown' organic ingredients - Dried leaves, twigs, soil, straw, newspaper and shredded cardboard
Once you have your ingredients, composting is simply a matter of adding them to your bin in the right quantities. It's useful to think of your compost like a lasagne: you need alternating layers of green and brown ingredients to create good compost.
Position your bin so that you have easy access to it from your kitchen. It can be placed both in the sun or the shade; the warmer the location, the faster the compost will work.
Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to be zero-waste overnight, take small steps to reduce waste, one step at a time.
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