Domestic Footprint

One of the misnomers about New Zealand is the clean and green substance behind its image. We're trying to do our bit though with our solar water heating, sheep wool insulation, heat pump heating and rainwater capture. MT has eyes for a wind turbine too!

The thing that's most concerning me at the moment is our waste management. That's rubbish disposal in plain speak.

Being in a rural area we miss out on luxuries like a postman and also trash collection. The options are pretty limited with the only polite one is to take it all to the landfill. So we did.

It cost us $8 so you don't want to trundle up with just one bag of rubbish. You need to save up heaps so you get your money's worth. What upset me most about spending that $8 was grossness of it all.

As I stood over the pit where you drop stuff (and then they shovel it with a digger into the land) for the first time I came face to face with the wastefulness of human beings and the impact we're having on the environment. The guy in the next lane chucked in a home gym. What is all that about? A pile of metal and junk that will never decompose is now ensconced below the earth (or ready to be buried) for ever.

I felt sick – literally. Not because of the stench (because there wasn't any) but rather because I'd come face to face with the gross negligent behaviour over waste management. Did I feel any better throwing in piles of polystyrene packaging, paper, debris and other miscellaneous waste from my own house? Heck no. I felt rubbish (sorry about the pun) and haven't felt much better about it since.

So, we need to get organised with our own waste disposal system. We'll have an incinerator unit so we can burn stuff (it will be a metal bin with lid) and other receptacles for sorting the recycling. I'm on a mission to try and reduce our waste so that whatever we do have to send to landfill it's not going to have the same damaging impact as the guy who threw away his fitness promises into the pit.

Top tips:

1. No more carrier bags from the supermarket – it's Pam's cloth bags for us
   
2. No more black bags – it's the large brown paper sacks from now on
   
3. No tomatoes, cakes and other foodstuffs packed in plastic boxes – loose and fancy free is best
   
4. Shred and recycle everything paper (to feed it to the compost or recycle)
   
5. Compost vegetable waste and other green matter
   
6. No more home gym equipment – a run in the country is better for the lungs!