Small sustainable changes in a busy household

I work full time in a demanding job and have two small children, the oldest who will start school this year. My husband works very specific hours and there's not a lot of time left in the day once all the necessary jobs to keep our family ticking over are complete.

I spent the last year working out how, with no spare time, and very little cash left after the childcare fees, mortgage and necessary bills are paid, to live the most sustainable life I can. 

I had three aims: 

1. keep my family happy and healthy (always)
2. dramatically reduce our plastic use
3. minimise our food waste and transport emissions 

I am going to be honest with you - it was not/is not easy. I failed a number of times and was starting to get really cut up about it. However, after breakfast with one of the world's leading environment researchers, I realised we were actually doing our bit.

His advice was this: the Paris Agreement says that we should aim to reduce our emissions by two percent. On an individual level, this isn't actually that much. He gave me some examples which included using taxi companies that use hybrid or electric vehicles, eat less meat and dairy and try to eat local in order to minimise your salad's journey from farm to plate, ensure your power company is one that prioritises renewable energy and use your car two percent less per year. It's not that hard. 

Since that conversation I've been a bit less hard on myself but continue to strive to do more than my bit. Here are some of the little changes I've made as the main shopper and cook in the family: 

Plastic packaging 

I do my best to reduce how much plastic packaging even comes into our house (our own carry bags go everywhere with us) but what does come in goes straight back to the supermarket. Across New Zealand and Australia in the main super markets and large retailers are these large clear bins by the entrance that say to put your soft plastics in. That's part of a scheme that the retailers themselves signed up to which takes all your soft plastic (not just the bags but most forms of plastic wrapping including those that nappies, sanitary pads, pasta, you name it, come wrapped in). Any soft plastic packaging that comes into our house goes straight back to where it came from. They in turn process those into things like park benches fitness circuits for playgrounds. 

There are other initiatives out there - including TerraCycle which a competing initiative to the Soft Plastics one I mention above but the world needs more of these and this one is world wide. I just wish the manufacturers would stop using plastic packaging in the first place rather than them putting the onus on consumers to return it all. 

Cling film

I hate this stuff and stopped buying it a long time ago. No one needs it. I use beeswax wraps from Lilybee Wrap (there are loads of brands out there but these seem to be the strongest and prettiest - other patterns can be found here) for everything from sandwiches to leftovers, even to put my almonds and fruit in for snacking at work. I then wash them with detergent and cold water and they last for about a year. The only thing they can't be used on is raw meat - in this case, just use a container - no one needs cling film. 

The kids love these wraps by the way... any excuse to have lunch or a snack wrapped in more of this stuff.

Lily Bee Wraps

Composting

I will do another post on this soon. I tried and failed big time here and got very frustrated over this whole steaming pile of kitchen waste. What I did do though was look into ways to reduce our food waste regardless of whether we composted at home. I now send in total around one bag (not plastic) of kitchen waste to the landfill per week. I try really hard not to over-shop when it comes to the weekly food shop so we're not throwing out limp salads every week, and we try to give the kids tiny portions, then offer them more if they're still hungry rather than throwing out half eaten plates of food... Find a way that works for you. When we can afford it, I'm hoping to revisit the possibility of a decent compost bin that keeps pests out and nutrition in my garden. 

Transport

Another on-going journey here but I take the train or walk to work and we use our teeny weeny Daihatsu for around 10 minutes in total per day for daycare drop offs. When I travel for work I try my best to use taxi companies that use hybrid or electric vehicles. When we eventually need a new car (and can afford one) we'll be driving electric. Mr Environment told me that yes, they seem expensive up front but when you factor in how much you spend on fuel, they eventually make up for this. 

Plastic toys 

We asked our families and friends to stop buying plastic crap for the kids as presents, and it was received relatively well (with relief by some), even if we did feel like pricks to start with. After 18 months of this, we hardly receive any these days (though I still feel like a shitty person for asking this of people!). On a weird side note, I still have plastic toys that are close to 35 years old that still look freakishly brand new... raid your second hand shops people. 

Toothbrushes
The world throws away billions of plastic tooth brushes every year. There are loads of brands out there but I use bamboo toothbrushes by a company called Tooth Crush.  It sounds ridiculous to subscribe to a toothbrush company, but I love these and have them delivered to us every other month. When we're done with each toothbrush, the nylon bristles go into a used milk bottle and into the recycling while the bamboo handles go into our garden's stick heap for the wetas to play with. 

Disposable cups and plastic drinking bottles
Not hard at all team. I take my Keep Cup everywhere (fits perfectly in my handbag) and haven't needed a takeaway coffee cup in well over a year now. Same for water bottles. 

Straws

It is so good to see Wellington City Council and major drinks suppliers endorsing bars and restaurants to go straw free. Apparently straws account for an insane amount of plastic pollution. If you can't face life without a straw, here's a nice alternative to carry with you.

Further reading 

There's a fantastic book out there called Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson. It is thorough and I worried that I set myself up to fail by trying to follow everything to a tee, but I think her intention was to take what you can from the book and apply it to your life. 

So it's small steps and reducing our family's footprint on the world isn't going to happen overnight. But two percent isn't much and we can all do our bit. 

Kat