Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

Hey all,

In case you didn’t know, plastic is graded into seven types. However, not all of them are safe for reuse. Remember the motto-reduce, reuse, recycle? Well, here’s another one- 2, 4, 5, keep yourself alive. David Suzuki’s handy guide to reusable plastics can be found here. Essentially, the idea is to reuse plastics that are safe for you, and recycle ones that are not. There is a caveat though; some recycling facilities cannot manage some types of plastic, so you should refer to the local council recycling guide to see what can or cannot be recycled. (If in doubt, I just throw it in the recycling)

Reuse comes before recycle, although reduce comes before both of them. We’ve been trying to reduce our waste, by various methods. We tried to see if we could stop taking out the rubbish for the entire EMF competition, but it’s getting perilously close to the point where we have to sneak off rubbish bags into our neighbour’s bin. 

We have also been shopping at Bin Inn, which is a bulk food/household product shop. Basically, you take your containers there, get them weighed at the counter, fill it up with whatever you need, and then the weight of the container gets subtracted from the total weight when you are ready to pay.

Another way our flat reduces material consumption (is there a pun here?) is by using jars for preserving food. The ones with the pop up lids can be used to store beans (yes, no more beans in a can!) or tomatoes or whatever you like. Hopefully Emma will elucidate everyone on the exact process, because she does all the preserving. The beans (which are all she does and all we need in terms of preserved protein) that she uses come from Bin Inn. Great Idea ™, don’t you think?  

That’s all for now, ladies and gentlemen. Remember, first reduce, then reuse, lastly recycle.

Ning