a few weeks ago, i realized that i wouldn’t have needed to take out the trash bin if it wasn’t for chip packets. bron reminded me that i can save and recycle soft plastic at coles, so i decided to challenge myself to be zero waste and see what happens!

after 2 weeks, this was my trash:

things i learned from my trash this week:

• some rice cracker packets can be put in the recycling! but i had 1 that couldn’t-so don’t buy the sweet chili flavoured rice crackers.
• 2 plastic q-tips. i’m pretty sure these are still leftover from my sangam days, but i did learn that you can put your paper q-tips in your composting! so you should buy those in the future!
• coffee bags are not recyclable. this is a huge bummer, and something i refuse to stop buying. BUT i can go back to the days where i would save my cool looking coffee bags and make wallets out of them! (this one isn’t cute so trash it is.)
• spice packets and those weird silver foil things you pull off bottle tops are just weird and i don’t know why they are made or what the purpose of them is. but i can’t buy a large thing of taco seasoning here, so packets that end up in the trash will have to do.
• styrofoam trays. how in this day and age are we still making those stupid things? can’t we make something that is actually recyclable? the reason i ended up with this is because i wanted corn and it was the only corn available in the shop. note to self: plan ahead and shop at a bigger store.

i have 1 plastic bag full of soft plastics that can be taken to the coles recycling bin next time i go to town. and the rest of my ‘waste’ went into the regular recycling bin!

i’m not sure if it is humanly possible to be zero waste, especially in this day of age when the things we buy are in so much packaging! BUT we can be smart consumers and ensure that what we buy is recyclable where we live. if it isn’t? do you really need it? is there a substitute that you can purchase instead that IS recyclable?

all things to keep in mind to try and reduce our impact on our beautiful planet!