Tips to save money, reduce waste

Photo by urbangarden (Flickr) CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

All general household waste collected in Mosman goes to landfill at Belrose. This landfill will soon be full to capacity, at which time a new landfill site will have to be found.

Waste disposal is a significant cost to all residents, through council rates and government taxes. Reducing your waste to landfill is the only way to reduce the detrimental impacts of waste on our environment.

Try these smart tips to reduce the amount of waste you produce.

Smart Shopping

  • Rethink your purchases – only buy what you really need.
  • Avoid excessive packaging, try to buy items with recycled packaging.
  • Say NO to plastic shopping bags – use cardboard boxes or cloth bags.
  • Buying bulk is often cheaper – don’t always buy single serve products.
  • Buy reusable items instead of disposable products such as plastic and paper plates.
  • Choose products with recycled content, such as recycled paper.
  • Mosman Council has partnered with the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water, to raise awareness among our community about the impact of the food we waste each week. Did you know that each household in Mosman, on average, throws away 40 Litres of food waste each week! If you love food but hate waste, then you can join the Love Food Hate Waste community for great recipes, smart shopping ideas, how to store fresh foods and more!

For more information on living more sustainably at home, work and play visit the Department of Environment and Conservation’s Climate Change website Our environment – it’s a living thing. Information topics include Recycling, Chemicals, Transport, Water, Energy, Volunteering and more.

Composting and Worm Farming

Instead of throwing out organic material such as food scraps, garden clippings, tea bags, coffee grounds, vacuum dust, soiled paper, cardboard and saw dust, consider composting or worm farming.

Both are a great way to make garden fertiliser for gardens and pot plants, while reducing waste that goes to landfill.

Mosman Council has quality compost bins and great little worm farms for sale at subsidised prices. And – we deliver!

Reducing food waste

Top celeb chefs give their advice on how to cut back on food waste – from lovefoodhatewaste.com

Find out more about how to reduce food waste:

  • Love Food Hate Waste – this campaign shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will ultimately benefit our purses and the environment too
  • FoodWise – an Australian campaign to help people become food wise
  • My Zero Waste – making the world a cleaner place
  • Stop Wasting Food – a consumer movement founded to raise public awareness about the food waste subject and hopefully to eliminate food waste in Denmark
  • Food waste – Wikipedia entry
  • Food waste – info & tips from sustainability.govt.nz
  • The Food We Waste – a report of the ground-breaking study that provides, for the first time, reliable information about the nature, amount and origin of food waste produced by UK households

Reuse It

Don’t throw things away – someone else might be able to put it to good service.

  • Consider offering goods to neighbours, friends or family members.
  • Many charities accept clean and presentable goods including furniture and clothing.
  • Second-hand traders will accept goods in a saleable condition.
  • E-cycled.com or Freecycle Today are easy ways to get in touch with people in your area who are looking for things you don’t need any more, and that you want.
  • Reverse Garbage, located at the Addison Road Community Centre Marrickville, is a not-for-profit co-operative that sells industrial discards, off-cuts and over-runs to the public for creative and practical uses, reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. For more information visit www.reversegarbage.org.au or contact 9569 3132.

Natural cleaning at home

Many cleaning products contain chemicals that can harm the environment and human health. To green clean your home, just follow these principles:

  • Reduce the use of cleaners, and only buy what you need.
  • Reusable cloths can do the job just as well as disposable cleaning cloths.
  • Read the labels and choose the safest cleaning product available.

To clean your house safely, you only need a few basic products from any supermarket.

  • Bicarbonate of soda – cleans, deodorises and softens water. It’s also a good scouring powder for kitchen and bathroom surfaces.
  • White vinegar – cuts grease, and is a deodoriser and a mild disinfectant. It is great for cleaning windows.
  • Pure soap – a biodegradable general purpose cleaner.
  • Lemon juice – a mild bleach, a deodorant and a cleaning agent.
  • Washing soda – cuts grease and removes stains.

See this guide from the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water:


Photo credit (top of page): urbangarden (Flickr) CC BY-NC-SA 2.0