Don’t worry I’m not being slack, I haven’t disappeared or given up.
In a minor deviation from the Netflix documentaries, I started watching The War on Waste which has become some what of a phenomenon here in Australia over the past couple of weeks.
The first installment of the three part series, talked about food waste and the high supermarket standards put on farmers, resulting in a large proportion of perfectly great food being thrown out simply because it wasn’t pretty enough.
To be honest, I couldn’t actually believe what I was seeing. Tonnes and tonnes of bananas just being thrown out.
I felt anger and sadness and frustration all at the same time.
I understand the farmers are in a tough spot. They are isolated in far north Queensland and shipping bananas that aren’t going to sell costs a lot of money. So what are the options?
I felt pretty helpless.
I could start avoiding the supermarkets and shopping at grocers but that’s not going to help much. I live in metro Victoria, the bananas get shipped from Queensland to Victoria, we aren’t seeing any of the “ugly” ones at any stores, they are staying on the farms and getting turned into very expensive mulch.
I could stop eating bananas but again that isn’t going to help anyone.
It’s a difficult circumstance and I don’t know what the answer is.
Another feature of episode one, was household waste.
I didn’t think as a family of 2.5 (two adults, one part time child) that we were generating that much waste until I saw what much larger families were throwing out.
It really got me thinking about what I was putting in the bin and I realized that a lot of it could probably be composted or recycled and the rest was plastic.
Plastic around food items, plastic shopping bags, general plastic waste. It seemed to be everywhere.
Until I started having a closer look at my rubbish bin, I didn’t even know what could be recycled. It was all too hard. Only certain items, must all be washed out etc etc.
Too hard basket, into the waste, well not anymore.
A quick google search told me what I could and couldn’t put into the recycling bin and I was surprised at just how much, it wasn’t as strict as I thought.
Ok I can hear you all saying, yeah yeah you watched a show big deal what did you do about it?
Well…
- I haven’t taken a single plastic bag from any store since I watched it. I’m carrying around a folded re-usable bag in my hand bag
- The compost bin is back up and running
- The recycle bin actually has stuff in it other than the weekly pizza box!
I’m pretty happy and I feel like I’m making some sort of conscious contribution.
Can’t wait to watch the episode on coffee cups. I might need a new handbag by the time I add a re-usable coffee cup, a re-usable shopping bag, a re-usable drink bottle!
Until next time folks,
Think a little
Mel