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The easiest way to reduce your household waste
Composting is the secret to cutting down everyday waste, and it’s easier than you think
By Anita Vandyke, A Zero Waste Life
When I did my first bin audit, I was shocked by the amount of food I was throwing away, and it turns out I’m not the only one. In Australia, over a third of household rubbish is food waste! I was initially daunted by the idea of doing my own composting – I worried that it would be messy, smelly and attract rodents. But it turns out there are simple solutions for all of these issues and it’s turned out to be much easier than I thought. Here are three ways to compost:
Store and take away
Once a week, take your scraps container (which you store in your freezer) to your local community garden, school, nursery, neighbour’s backyard or wherever there is a communal compost bin and deposit your compost there. Google ‘local compost bin’ to see what is available around you, or just go for a walk to explore and meet your neighbours.
Best for: apartment living
Compost in your backyard
Local councils often provide discounted compost bins and run workshops on how to maintain them. Make sure you have a good amount of wet and dry compost. Wet compost is your daily food scraps, dry compost is things like leaves and paper.
Best for: anyone with a garden
Worm farms
You can’t feed your worm farm animal products, but it is a much quicker process than normal composting. Worms are odourless and stay within their farm, so there is no chance of them escaping! They love all vegetables and fruit (except citrus) and are my husband’s pride and joy.
Best for: large families