Did you know that Australians are the second highest waste producers in the world falling closely behind the United States?
This is quite outstanding considering we only have 1/15 the population.
Here are a few green tips that can assist you with helping to lower our ranking. Every little bit counts.
Sort your different recyclable materials - most kerbside collections have bins dedicated to glass, plastic and aluminium, paper and cardboard and general rubbish.
Look for the recycling symbol on plastic containers. Most local councils collect numbers 1, 2 and 3 but some may take 4, 5 and 6.
When you put your materials in the recycling bin, don't put them in a plastic bag. Your local MRF (Material Recovery Facility) won't open the bags for safety reasons and they will end up in landfill.
Remove the lids from your plastic bottles and rinse out the left over contents.
Recycle your newspapers
Start composting. That good left over food will decompose and provide you with the best fertiliser for your garden.
Refuse plastic bags. Your major supermarket will offer reusable shopping bags otherwise, take your own bag with you.
Shop smartly. Avoid any unnecessary packaging and buy only what you need.
Support and select products using recycled content or are recyclable.
Take a 4 minute shower.
Place a bucket under the shower head while you're waiting for the shower water to heat. You can then use this water to water the garden or wash you car.
Invest in a water saving shower head and place a shower timer in your shower.
Use a pedestal fan rather than turning on the air conditioning or put on a jumper rather than turning on the heater.
Seal off gaps under doors to prevent hot or cool air coming in.
Turn off your electrical appliances when not in use.
Switch your normal light globes over to energy saving light bulbs. One of these is the equivalent of using 6 standard light globes and can save up to 80% energy
Stop your junk mail from landing in your mail box. Although the majority can be recycled, it's best not to stop it before you get a chance to do this.
Use an indoor plant to clean the air.
In most cases, we can spend up to ¼ of our lives in our office environment so it is important to put environment saving practices into place in our workplace just as we do at home.
Here are a few tips to get you going.
Car pool with some of your work colleagues. The benefits are immense. You reduce your carbon emissions, save on petrol money, decongest roads and it'll make you feel good.
If you can't car pool, take public transport. Public transport is now easily accessible and can often be faster in heavy traffic.
Don't print if you don't have to. Think before you print emails and when possible, ask for documents to be sent to you via email rather than by post.
If you have to print, print double sided. You can do this by setting duplex printing as the default on your printer.
Decrease the margin, footer and header and don't use double line spacing.
Print directly onto envelopes rather than print labels.
Make notepads from paper that has only been printed on one side.
Read newspapers online.
Recycle your print cartridges.
Turn off your computer monitors when you're not using them and when you leave the office to go home.
Turn off the lights when you leave a room.