War on waste: readers share their top tips for reducing their environmental footprint

It’s the show that’s captured our imaginations. The ABC’s recent TV series War on Waste, presented by The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel, has inspired Australians to tackle overconsumption and waste in their daily lives by recycling soft plastics, switching to reusable coffee cups and composting food scraps.

These were the quick fixes, but we knew there was more we could all be doing. So we asked readers to share their tips.

We got a flood of responses, including advice on using reusable mesh produce bags for fruit and vegetables, setting up a worm farm on apartment balconies, visiting charity shops for clothing and other goods, ditching coffee pods entirely and generally consuming less.

And then there were those who knew how to take it to the next level. So here are our favourite tips for recycling and reducing waste:

• Line your compost bin with old newspaper. It keeps the bin cleaner and forms another layer over your food scraps when you empty it. – Bob Paka, Canberra
  
• Use a jamjar for takeaway coffees. It’s stupidly obvious that having a closeable lid is convenient. Bonne Maman is a good shape (no lip at the top). Did I say it was achingly hip? – Tim Motz, London
  
• I can’t recommend a Bokashi bin from Bunnings highly enough. All my food scraps, except meat, goes in there, then every time you put stuff into it you spray the Bokashi. You can tap the decomposing liquid runoff as fertiliser or stick it in your toilet cistern to help introduce friendly bacteria into your pipes. When it’s full, I bury the mush in the garden and my soil and plants go ballistic. – Darren Goldnerd, Melbourne
  
• Chooks! Since we got our backyard chickens no leftover food ever goes to waste. They particularly love it when we accidentally cook too much pasta or rice, or if the bread goes mouldy. And we get lovely fresh, free-range eggs in return. – Nyssa Maisch, Hobart
  
• Aluminium foil that can form a ball can be recycled but the smaller pieces end up in landfill. I avoid this by putting all my small pieces into an aluminium can. When the can is full, I place it in my recycling bin and it is all recycled. Plastic straws and cutlery are also too small to recycle. However, if you enclose them in a plastic takeaway container or plastic drink bottle, they will be recycled. – Amanda Robertson, Canberra
  
• I signed up for composting with Brisbane City Council and now attend the community composting initiative weekly to drop in our family’s compostable waste. We put waste into large yoghurt tubs, and once they are full, start a new one so there is never a smell. We don’t have space for composting in our rental home so this is perfect. – Mia Downes, Greenslopes
  
• No more freezer bags! I wrap bread rolls, quiche and pie portions for my freezer in oven parchment sheets. They freeze well and can be used to put serves directly into the oven. Frozen bread rolls or slices are lovely and fresh when lunchtime comes around ready to be unwrapped in paper. – Julia Nolan, Coffs Harbour
  

• I’ve made my own yoghurt since Easter this year, using the same two plastic storage jars and a couple of small yoghurt incubators I found in an op shop. It just takes a few minutes every couple of weeks; I’ve reduced my waste and saved around $5 a week, plus improved my diet with fresh yoghurt. – Anonymous
  
• I bought some 80 grams per square metre brown paper “shopping” bags (without handles) for our garbage. We wrap the wet things, like teabags and vegetable peels (we are in an apartment so can’t have a compost bin) in newspaper and each bag lasts us about three days. It’s not the cheapest way to get rid of your rubbish, but we feel it’s a small price to pay for a large problem and gets rid of another huge plastic bag. – Annie Webster, Brisbane
  
• Using mending products such as sugru helps to extend the life of products. I’ve got extra wear from favourite boots after deploying sugru to fix the soles; it has also mended things including a neoprene lunch bag, sports equipment, electric toothbrush button and lamps. – Anonymous, Brisbane
  
• Attach an extra length of laundry hose to the washing machine outlet and put it out the window to drain into the garden. Attach a tarpaulin to your washing line by means of cable ties through the eyelets to dry your washing in all weather. Also prevents fading, spiders and “bird strike”. And use 100% essential oils to clean and deodorise toilet. – Marie-Lise Bouic, Newcastle
  
• For the ladies – invest in a menstrual cup. It will save you money in the long term (tampons are expensive) and prevent a large volume of sanitary products from ending up in landfill. – Lily van Eeden, Sydney
  
• Home-brew beer. Why don’t we clean and reuse glass bottles like when I was a kid? All that crushing, melting down and reforming glass (or aluminium) is hideously inefficient and expensive. Home-brewing reuses those bottles multiple times and saves transport fuel use. – Andrew Donoghue, Brisbane
  
• Our kitchen bin has a layer of garden soil in the bottom. This layer of soil soaks up any odours and the contents can be easily distributed in our red food waste bin, yellow recyclables and green garden waste. The kitchen bin soil layer is put on the garden after each emptying and replaced with fresh soil. No bin liners. No odours. – Ros Simms, Sydney

And then Anonymous laid down a challenge to us all:

• I cancelled my council rubbish collection – that put the pressure on to reduce waste! With composting, reusing, recycling and reducing in the first place, my rubbish doesn’t even fill a 1L milk carton per week – which goes into a neighbour’s bin (with permission).
  

*Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity