Hello there!

I am excited to be writing about my new adventure – my mission to help reduce, reuse and recycle! For a while now I’ve been making small changes in my life to reduce the amount of plastic I use, how much food I throw out, where and how often I shop and how much I buy. I’ve found that by changing my habits, one at a time, I am reducing how much I throw away, and ultimately – my impact on the earth. I am being more mindful of my choices as a consumer and what I actually need (does all that stuff really make me happy?) and this has led me to want to write about what I’m learning and how easy it is to make some changes that seem small for one person but that can make a big difference at a collective level.

Today our lives are full of convenience, we have technology and machines to help us do daily tasks quicker and easier, to buy us more time to do the things we want to be doing (yet we are still so busy, what’s with that?!), we are more connected than ever before through social media (yet we don’t know our neighbours), and we have information at our finger tips – we want everything now! We have so many things we can buy from day to day, we have become great consumers, but with the convenience and all the options comes a lot of waste.

Back in the day…

In comparison, I look back at my grandparents who used to bake their own biscuits and cakes and use the same tins year after year, the same jars were used for the fresh jams and sauces they would make, and they grew their own vegetables in their vegie patch. While we definitely don’t have time to live that way now, we can take a leaf out of our grandparent’s book, reusing what we have instead of buying new, and treading more gently on the earth.

What can we do?

We are all pretty aware of the numerous coffee cups we throw away, the plastic bags that pile up and end up in the bin, and the number of plastic bottles that end up in the recycling. And that’s just the start of it. It seems a lost cause, what difference can one person make? But now I can feel the momentum shifting and I can see more and more people wanting to make changes to make a difference. The #waronwaste documentary really hit home to me and it has really got the conversation going about how much we waste every single day. Watching the episodes made me want to get more committed to making a difference too. Instead of just talking, thinking and procrastinating – I have decided to start doing! I want to encourage my community to get on board! If we all make small changes maybe we can turn things around and make a big difference!

I want to help my friends and family think more about their day to day purchases, how they are packaged, where they came from and explore alternatives to single use items. These are small changes, but they can lead to bigger actions to reduce waste and the impact on the environment – plumbing in the rainwater tank at home to save on water, starting a compost heap to turn those food scraps into great organic matter for the garden, solar panels to harness renewable energy, maybe even going off the grid! There are heaps of options to reduce our individual impact.

The mission begins…

My mission is to help protect and sustain our environment by shedding light on how we can reduce our demand on it. We can do this by reducing the need for new products, reusing the items we already have and recycling more and ultimately reducing what we waste.

So, instead of continuing to think ‘what can I do?’ and ‘how can I really make a difference?’ but not actually do anything, I’ve decided to start blogging to give practical tips to help people with their sustainability journey. As I find new ideas and options to help reduce waste I’ll spread the word and hopefully I can help others reduce their waste too.

I’ve also set up an online store to offer some really cool reuse solutions. If I can help with tips to save a bit of money and provide advice on good quality products that will last and mean more reuse, and less throwing away, then it’s a win for the environment. Many products I’ve sourced are made from recycled plastic, giving a second life to bags and bottles that would normally end up as landfill.

Initially I’m starting with tips that can be used day to day, whether at home or on the go, and I hope to build up to helping people choose sustainable options all around the home, through homewares and eventually the materials we choose to build our homes. That is my dream!

What next?

If we can continue to make more conscious consumer choices, adapt our shopping habits, reuse what we have and think more about where our products come from, then I think we can all make a difference.

I hope you’ll join me in thinking more about sustainability and taking action to make positive changes for the environment. Stay tuned for regular updates and ideas to reduce, reuse and recycle!

Thanks for reading,

Peta

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