the zero waste challenge of an everyday couple

We are two completely normal humans, happily and newly married, called Bel and Dunc  .Bel is social worker/counsellor in private practice at and runs willow brook cottage and Dunc is a federal public servant for good ol Centrelink. We are a run of the mill family with 2 poorly behaved dogs and a cat that is slightly neurotic (aka lives with 2 poorly behaved dogs).

We have decided to go a year without buying anything new,  while at the same time committing ourselves to producing zero waste.  By zero waste, we mean nothing to landfill. We will buy things in bulk, items that come in recyclable or reusable containers, but we will not purchase anything wrapped in plastic, or any other material that is destined to end up as landfill.

Why?

A few reasons this got kicked off. We spent our honeymoon in Bali and while we loved the people, the food and massages, the rubbish of the Island was awful. We felt we needed to come home and not contribute to this anymore. Add to this, two people who care a lot about people and the very hard fact to swallow that most people who make our “stuff” are paid shockingly low rates of money and live in conditions that none of us should have to bear. Quite simply, we wanted our values to really reflect our actions. Thirdly, and by no means least important, we both love a challenge. We knew it would be hard at times to go zero waste and zero new stuff, so we thought, why not!

The Rules

1. Nothing new: No new clothes, appliances, DVDs, furniture, music etc

2. All waste must be able to be recycled, reused or composted. Nothing to landfill.

3. All waste acquired during eating out must also be brought home to be recycled, reused or composted (eg no straws at the pub!).

Disclaimer

We have kept out of the mix medications if needed due to that not coming in recyclable wrapping and, well, we have our head screwed on and won’t go to extremes for health!

So, please join us on our journey and hopefully you and your families and friends will get into zero waste too! If you don’t, you may have a laugh at our antics.