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Household
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Change your subscriptions to digital format
February 15, 2015
One easy way to decrease paper waste is to receive any publications we subscribe to in digital format.
Many publications now make a subscription to digital available.
Having publications in digital format means you can access and read them anywhere, provided you have your phone, tablet or computer handy.
This is presumably cheaper for publishers, as they save on the costs of printing and distribution.
Environmental savings include decreased need for paper...
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Calculate the size of your carbon forest
November 10, 2014
This is an exercise which you can take as far as you wish.
We are often told that we have large carbon footprints. In Australia we emit an average of around 25 tonnes per year of CO2
I had often wondered just how many trees I would need to plant to be soaking up the carbon I am producing.
Here I have provided links to sites which can help you to calculate you carbon emissions and how big your footprint forest would need to be.
If you are really keen - you can go ahe...
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Urban farming, sustainable living innovations : Spurtopia
July 28, 2014
Self watering garden beds, organic cleaning products, solar ovens and more....
Spurtopia is a truly inspirational website which details the work of Roman and Jana Spur.
Their home in New Farm (Brisbane, Australia) is a wonderful example of how we can live in a sustainable environment, producing fresh food and saving resources using a small amount of land.
I highly recommend visiting the site to find out what you can do to transfor your home in to a sustainable urban farm.</...
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Biogas
July 28, 2014
Methane is a gas commonly used for cooking and heating. It can be obtained through drilling, including accessing coal seam reserves (CSG), and it can also be produced from our household compost. This process is suprisingly simple, and can potentially provide enough gas to run a cooker for 15 or 30 minutes per day, using food scraps.
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Eating for the future
July 14, 2014
Understanding the origins of what we eat, and the processes which bring it to our plates, might change our dietary choices.
We might want to know how much time, energy, and space is required to produce various foods.
Raising livestock and seafood for human consumption on a large scale requires copious resources. How much meat and seafood we eat will collectively determine the amount of land and water which is available to support animal habitats, and ecosystems such as forests.</p...
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Re-using beer bottles for home brewing
July 14, 2014
It would seem that beer manufacturers sterilising and refilling glass bottles is an obvious way to save waste and energy.
Unfortunately this practice has not been adopted on a large scale.
However there is another way to bypass the process of glass collection, sorting, recycling, re-labelling and re-sale.
With a little trial and error, developing a tasty home brew may save money, waste and energy expenditure.
In Brisbane, Australia, BrewsBrothers help customers to make...
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Recycling (when we can't reuse)
July 13, 2014
When plastic products can no longer be re-used, most can be re-cycled.
The Plastic Identification Code is helpful in confirming which products can be recycled, although not all centres are able to recycle every type of plastic. (See link)
If you can make it to the Recycle Expo in Brisbane, QLD, Australia in April 2015, come along to learn more about recycling (See link)
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Reject the concept of 'single use' items containers
July 08, 2014
Re-use always trumps recycling for reducing waste.
For example, takeaway containers are made for holding and transporting food. These products have value, and take a toll on the environment when discarded.
Recycling requires the transport of products to collection centres, and reprocessing of materials to form new products.
Every time we re-use a container, we save the energy that drives these recycling processes.
The cost of re-using your containers is a small amount...
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Optimise your household energy efficiency
July 05, 2014
Energy savings through domestic efficiency can save you money as well as reducing your carbon footprint.
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Growing in season, eating in season
May 28, 2014
Many of us enjoy the luxury of eating our favourite foods all year long. While this is obviously very nice for us, the amount of domestic and international transport behind this luxury is phenomenal.
By growing our own food and/or eating locally sourced foods, we not only avoid excessive transport of foods, but eat fresher food without the need for preservatives.
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