Litter Savings Tips

Australia is the second highest producer of waste per person. Each person is producing approximately 650 kilograms of waste. The average Australian family of four people makes enough rubbish in one year to completely fill a three-bedroom house from floor to ceiling. (Clean Away)

We need to take action and the first step for families is to reduce household waste. The next step is to become more aware of how we create waste and the variety of ways we can reduce, re-use and recycle.

Nothing is waste—until we throw it away.

Simple changes made at the supermarket each week can have a great impact on reducing household waste.

Changes in the way we buy packaged foods can help to reduce waste. Take popcorn for example. One bag of popping corn produces double the amount of popcorn compared to pre-packaged popcorn. That is 1 piece of non-recyclable plastic compared to 22 pieces of non-recyclable plastic. Not only are you reducing household waste you are saving money. 1 bag of popping corn cost $1.43 and this makes the same amount of popcorn as 20 individual bags costing $8.34. That is a saving of $6.91, if you saved this every 2 weeks that would be a saving of $179.66 each year. By replacing the popping corn for pre-packaged popcorn you would be producing 26 pieces of plastic rather than 572 pieces of plastic.

By replacing the pre-packaged cheese and biscuits with a block of cheese and boxes of biscuits a family can reduce their waste from 90 pieces of plastic to 5 pieces of plastic. A 1kg block of cheese can cost as little as $6, 4 boxes of biscuits cost $13.16 a total of $19.16 compared to the cost of 90 pre-packaged cheese and biscuits costing $74.25. That is saving of $55.16. A family of four could easily go through 90 pre-packaged cheese and biscuits in one quarter. By the end of a year that would be 360 pieces of plastic packaging compared to 20 pieces of plastic packaging. If a family of four bought the pre-packaged cheese and biscuits for a whole year that would cost $297 compared to $76.64 for block cheese and boxed biscuits. This would be a saving of $220.36.

By replacing individual packaged chips with a bulk bag of chips it would reduce plastic packaging from 14 pieces to 1 pieces. One bulk bag of chips cost $2.96 and this is equivalent to 12 individual packaged chips costing $6.90. If a family of four consumed only 6 individual bags of chips each week that would cost them $179.40 for a year. If they consumed the same amount of chips from a bulk bag it would cost $76.96 a saving of $102.44. Making a simply change by buying in bulk, in one year a family of four would be sending 26 pieces of plastic to landfill rather than 364.

If a family made these 3 simple food choice changes for 1 year they would save $502.46 plus they would reduce plastic packaging from 1296 pieces to 72 pieces. Now that is what I call making a difference.