My Family's Journey towards Sustainable Waste Management

The best place to start your zero-waste journey is right in your own home.

But this task does not come overnight.  It is a process that needs to be done and sustain one step at a time.

Let me reiterate that being zero waste is not about perfection, but about doing your best to make a difference.

 

And this can only be achieved by mutual understanding among family members of the importance of sustaining and reaching the goal for a zero-waste home.

Our own home journey started with a simple school project of my youngest daughter in support of their school's drive for zero-waste management.  From then on it becomes an on and off journey.  It is only on the second quarter of this year that we become dead-serious with it.

Here are some of the list we observe and practice at home to minimize our home share of garbage thrown at the landfill:

REFUSE what we don't need.

• Every time we go the nearby sari-sari store, groceries and wet market we made sure to bring ecobags, food containers and basket so that things we bought don't need to be put in plastics. 

• When buying our favorite "taho","buko" juice, and fries  we provide our own cups and bowl instead of the usual plastic and paper cups.

   REDUCE what you do need.

• We try as much as possible to buy what we only need.

• Also if my budget allows I buy items in bulks instead of items in small packaging such as laundy and dishwashing soap, condiments, soap and shampoos

• We prepare also our food meals for work in food containers, unlike before when my husband prefer putting it in food plastics.

• We also consider purchasing sustainable products.

REUSE what you have consume.

• Old bowls,plastic containers and cups are used as planters or seed beds.

• We convert old stair woods removed from my parent's house and made it into benches.

• We also consider buying second-hand items like clothes and home decors in japan surplus.

RECYCLE what you cannot refuse, reduce,or reuse.

• Tetra packs,single used plastics from groceries, supermarkets and wet markets are clean with soap and water to get rid of residual waste and later dried.

• Sachets are put into empty softdrinks bottle to turn into eco-bricks.  This will later be turover to waste disposal facilities that supports zero- waste.

• Clothes and things no longer used are given or donated.

• Old, worn-out clothes are turn into scrunchies, bags, tote bags, rags, or even ebike curtains and seat covers.

• Bubble wraps collected from previous online purchases  are given to online-seller friends for their e-commerce business.

• Cartons, bottles and cans are given to "Manong Mangangalakal" which they can exchange for cash in the nearby garbage facility.

ROT (compose)the rest.

All biodegradable waste we consumed are put in a compost bin/sacks.  In which these materials when compost  turns into small units and become plant soil and fertilizers.

• Egg shells are made as ornament and fertilizers for plants.

• Kitchen scrap such as fruit waste, vegetable peelings, dried flowers and plant prunings.

Here's the composted waste output after several days of composting.  It's amazing how waste turns into something which human can still be used.

My daughter also tried vermi composting.  

Vermicomposting is the process by which worms are used to convert organic materials (usually wastes) into a humus-like material known as vermin-compost.  However, we weren't lucky enough to continue with this project for so long as worms are very fragile to maintain.

         

It has been three months since we started this journey.  Lots of waste collected!  A little bit difficult at first as it eats a lot of time segregating and cleaning the waste we collected everyday.  But once you started doing it everyday it unconsciously becomes a habit that things becomes an ordinary and natural household activity.

I am glad to say that we had lessen our garbage ready for pick-up by garbage trucks from 1 and 1/2 sack a week to just mere pieces thrown at a small garbage bin.  A big development indeed!  Looking forward to fully refuse things that might end up as waste. 

 

Our family's journey towards sustainable waste management may be far from perfect and we still have alot to learn.. However, the satisfaction of knowing that you had given your share to preserve our environment is something which is incomparable.

There may be imperfection in the process but it is just okay.  There is no such thing as perfect.

And let me quote Anne Marie Bonneau,

"We don't need a handful of people doing zero-waste perfectly.  We need millions of people doing it imperfectly".

Till next on my update on our Family's Journey towards sustainable waste management.

Can you  also share your own zero-waste journey?  Please comment down below.

Related Post: 

Is Your Home Zero-Waste Friendly?

 

Happy reading!

Arlene 

Is Your Home Zero-Waste Friendly?

(Note:  The purpose of this blog is to promote environmental education and increase awareness on the garbage situation and handling at the very comfort of our own home.)

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You got a nice home, a happy family, a nice job enough to feed your family and a good spiritual relationship with God.

So what else is missing?

Isn't it about time that we start caring for our environment?

Recent studies show that the Philippines is the 3rd largest contributor of plastic waste in the world along with China and Indonesia. It uses almost 60 billion sachets a year (GAIA, March 2020).

And reality is that, we are contributors to this environmental disaster.

Until we start doing our part, we are putting our Mother Earth at risk.  Our earth soil, water and air will be greatly affected.  

When are we going to do our share on saving Mother Earth? 

We can start it right in our own place.  Our Home.

Difficult it may seem. But not impossible to do and you may never know the inner-reward for caring for our Mother Earth.

So how do we get started?

Let us use as guide, the Zero-Waste Management Principle.

REDUCE, RE-USE, RECYCLE

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REDUCE

We can start reducing our home waste by refusing garbage-contributor which we may unconsciously not aware of.  This is by refusing single-use plastics.

• When going to groceries and supermarkets or even at nearby sari-sari store we can instead bring  eco bags and food containers and refuse the use of plastics for our grocery items.
• When buying your favorite "taho" or "pandesal"  you can instead provide your own cups and bread container.
• If your budget can allow buying items in big sizes instead of items in small packaging or sachets  such as coffee, creamers and sugar instead of 3-in-1 packs. Note that packaging wastes contribute about 65% of our household trash.
• Go paperless with your bills.

  

RE-USE

These refers to products or components that are not totally waste and which can be used again for the same purpose for which they were conceived. 

• Containers such as biscuit cans, sandwich spread and even softdrink bottles can be reused at home or for school projects.  For example softdrink bottles can be used as planters.  Biscuit cans can be used  as condiment containers in our kitchen. 

• Buy beverages in returnable containers.  Patronize the old-school style of buy and return.  Softdrinks, cooking oil , refillable mineral waters (not the small bottles)

  • Reuse wrapping paper, plastic bags, boxes, and lumber.  Gift wraps can be reuse, old woods and lumber can be refurbished and turn into diy furniture.
  • Give outgrown clothing to friends or charity.  
  • A switch to reusable products such as traditional plates instead of paper  ones.  Glass cups instead of plastics.  standard knives, spoon and forks instead of plastic wares, skip to disposable straws and so on.

• RECYCLE

Recycling, recovery and reprocessing of waste materials for use in new products. 

• You can turn old clothes into fabrics for more useful item as table clothes, rags, etc.
• Kitchen scraps can be used as fertilizers for your plants.
• Or you can practice waste composting.  
• Soda bottles along with used sachet inside can be turn into eco-bricks.  

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To aid you on your Home Waste Management Journey you can also refer to some non-governmental organizations which can help address your concern on your solid waste sorted and collected.

Here are the links that may eventually help you:

https://www.theplaf.com/

https://www.facebook.com/greenhavenscrapmaterials/

By experience, I know that it takes a portion of your time to accomplish this great task.  However, by doing so, we are reducing the amount of waste we sent to our landfills.  

And this is a good start. Right at your very own HOME.

Nothing is too late to heal our ailing Mother Earth.  

You can do it.  We can do it.

And once you do it- YOU ARE ONE IN A MILLION. 

How about you?   Can you share how can you help reduce the use of plastic in your household?  

 Happy reading!

Arlene