Starting out on the journey to reduce waste in your home can seem like an overwhelming task. Below is a catalogue of tools to help you get moving. A great place to get started is to map out what kind of waste you have and how much of it there is. This will help you identify the challenge areas you can focus on. You might decide to employ services (we’ll help you with that list below) or you can investigate ways to cut down or transition to an earth-friendly alternative.

If you’re lucky enough to be planning a wedding or party, check out this article on how to plan and host an environmentally-conscious party.

At home

WASTE AUDIT 

As part of our Open Sauce project, we have developed a free resource to help you measure and reduce waste. The first audit will provide a baseline of how much waste you have, what’s in your waste stream, and how it’s currently being sorted. You can then use this information to systematically plan how items in your waste stream might be diverted (e.g. food scraps to compost), re-used, eliminated, or be sorted correctly. Download the Waste Audit Tool.

CHECK YOUR LOCAL COUNCIL  

 The council waste systems here in Victoria differ from council to council. For some, you might automatically receive a food waste green bin and for others you might need to submit a request.  If you’re unsure of what services are available where you live, Sustainability Victoria have a handy index of council site links that take you straight to where the relevant waste info is. Easy as! 

Sustainability Victoria have lots of useful information on their website about recycling at home.

SHARE WASTE  

 Share Waste is like a dating app for your compost! This website links those who need to offload their organic waste (donors) with others (hosts) who are in the market for more food scraps to service their composting systems, worm farms and chickens.

This is a really useful tool for those in apartments without access to organic waste systems and no space for a compost bin! Find out more on their website.

BIOFILTA  

A no brainer element of reducing food waste is growing your own. How many memes have we seen on the internet about that bag of spinach left to rot, forgotten in the back of the fridge. But not all of us have the space or the garden to grow our own food and not all of us want to spend our mornings and evenings watering. Biofilta is a local Melbourne company that make versatile wicking beds or food cubes as they call them, out of 80% recycled food-grade plastic. There is also a slim version that will fit happily on a balcony or along a wall. The beds have many additional features like clip-on trellis’ for climbing vines etc. These wicking beds are a really clever way to keep seasonal foods you regularly rely on close at hand! Find out more.

GREAT WRAP  

For me, one of the hardest things to replace on my waste-reducing-journey was cling wrap. There is nothing that did the job it did as well or as easily. But some clever legends from Melbourne have created a 100% home compostable stretch wrap material from potato waste. Great Wrap will biodegrade in organic waste within 180 days and leaves behind ZERO micro plastics! Great Wrap is also made locally in Tullamarine. Find out more.