Green Living: Eco-Friendly Practices for Home Rubbish Removal

While climate change, deforestation and pollution have caused a lot of damage to the environment, these factors have at least highlighted that our daily choices and habits play a huge role in shaping the health of our planet.

As a result, more of the world’s population is now embracing sustainable living practices in an effort to reduce their carbon footprint – and a huge part of this involves the removal of their rubbish.

Unfortunately, traditional methods of waste disposal place an immense strain on our ecosystems. In addition, they also perpetuate a cycle that significantly depletes resources and degrades the environment. That said, for those who want to be socially responsible, there are some ways you can dispose of your rubbish in a manner that is kind to the environment.

This article will shed some light on these ways by helping you adopt a zero-waste mindset and incorporate eco-friendly rubbish removal practices into your everyday life. If you follow them, you’ll go some way towards making the world a more sustainable planet.

The Environmental Impact of Traditional Rubbish Removal

Before we outline these eco-friendly practices for disposing of your rubbish, it is worth mentioning what makes the more traditional methods of rubbish removal so bad for the environment.

Sadly, most of the waste that gets chucked out of regular households and businesses ends up in landfills, where it produces harmful greenhouse gases like methane as it decomposes. Moreover, when this waste is incinerated, it releases pollutants that pose significant health risks.

Plastic waste is particularly troublesome because it can take hundreds of years for it to break down. During that time, these items can leach harmful chemicals into the environment, causing a severe threat to ecosystems, marine life and human health.

Adopting a Zero-Waste Mindset

If you truly want to adopt an eco-friendly approach to rubbish removal, one of the first steps you should take is to develop a zero-waste mindset. This involves being mindful about what you consume and making deliberate choices to reduce waste at its source level.

You can go a long way towards reducing your carbon footprint by following the five ‘R’s’ of refuse, reducing, reusing, recycling and rotting.

This strategy has two main benefits. Initially, it reduces the amount of rubbish that needs to be thrown away. However, it also ensures that the rubbish that does need to be disposed of is done so in a way that does not harm the environment.

Here is how it works. Firstly, you should refuse to buy products that are made of or wrapped in plastic. However, if you absolutely need to buy something that comes in plastic packaging, you should make a conscious effort to minimise your overall consumption of it. Likewise, you should also always opt for reusable items such as water bottles, shopping bags, and containers that have been designed to last for years, instead of disposable ones. 

Additionally, when you have finished with them, you should always recycle materials like paper, glass and metal to prevent them from reaching landfill. Finally, when disposing of organic waste like food, don’t put it in your household bin. Instead, place it in a compost bin to create soil for your garden that is rich in nutrients.

Eco-Friendly Rubbish Removal Practices

Adopting a zero-waste mindset is one thing. However, to really reduce your carbon footprint in the long term, you need to back it up with eco-friendly rubbish removal practices at home, too.

By doing this, you will minimise the impact of the waste you dispose of on the environment and also ensure that the items you throw out are disposed of responsibly.

Here are some ways you can do that:

1. Separate Waste for Recycling

Setting up separate bins for different types of materials like plastic, metal, glass and paper is a very effective and eco-friendly way to dispose of your household rubbish.

Just by segregating these items into dedicated bins it will help your local authorities make the whole recycling process much more effective than it currently is. Additionally, companies like 1300 Rubbish can further enhance the process by disposing of your trash in a responsible and efficient way.

2. Electronic Waste

While electronic devices such as phones, laptops and iPads have become integral to our lives, they often contain hazardous materials that can seriously harm the environment if they are not disposed of in a proper manner. 

For this reason, rather than just throwing them away, it is important to take these items to the nearest, e-waste facility (most local councils run them). They will be able to recover valuable materials from what you drop off at it and handle any harmful substances they may have, in the safest and most responsible fashion.

3. Donate or Sell What You Don’t Want

They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. So, before throwing anything out, it is worth exploring what can be donated or sold. 

Most charities will gladly accept clothing, furniture and household items if they are in good nick. Additionally, online platforms such as Facebook Marketplace, DePop and Gumtree can be a good way to make a little extra cash while getting rid of things you don’t need.

4. Other Hazardous Waste

Just like electronic devices, household items such as batteries, light bulbs and cleaning products contain hazardous materials which need to be disposed of in a safe and responsible fashion.

Again, you should ensure they are taken to a council run facility that will do this in a way that prevents environmental contamination.

5. Reusable Bins

It might be convenient to use a single-use plastic bag to store your household rubbish, especially from the bathroom or bedrooms, prior to throwing it away. But this is not a good idea, as doing this will only mean that more bags get produced to replace them.

Instead, make sure you store your rubbish in reusable non-plastic bins or containers and put it in bio-degradable bags when it’s time to chuck it out.

6. Take Part in Community Clean-Ups

As well as making sure you responsibly dispose of your rubbish at home, you may want to go a step further and participate in initiatives that help to clean up your community.

Your local council’s website and library’s notice board should have a calendar of clean-up events you can partake in. These programmes are important as they have a dual purpose.

Not only do they help to clean up the environment, but they also raise awareness about the need for doing so. In addition, they also allow you to spend time with likeminded people, who you may even become friends with!

Sustainable Alternatives for Common Household Items

Disposing of your rubbish in a responsible manner is a good starting point for reducing your carbon footprint. But beyond that, you should also make sustainable choices in the products you use, as this will further contribute to eco-friendly living.

Outlined below are some excellent sustainable alternatives you should use for common household items.

1. Sustainable Cleaning Products

Whether it be for the toilet, sink, kitchen benchtops or the floors, cleaning products are something we regularly buy. So, it is a good idea to make the switch to environmentally friendly brands that use biodegradable and non-toxic ingredients.

That said, if these types of products overstretch your budget, you might want to try making your own cleaning solutions with ingredients like vinegar, baking soda and lemon. You will find they work just as well in keeping your home clean.

2. Cloth Diapers

If you have babies or young children that require nappies, cloth diapers are a much more sustainable option than disposable ones. 

Indeed, if everyone embraced this reusable option, it would significantly reduce the impact that the production and disposal of regular nappies has on the environment overall.

3. Menstrual Products

Similarly, instead of using tampons and regular pads, women may want to embrace reusable ovulation products like menstrual cups or cloth pads as a more eco-friendly alternative.

Adopting this simple change, results in far less waste in comparison to disposable menstrual products. At the same time, it will save you money in the long run.

4. Sustainable Kitchenware

When it comes to kitchenware, utensils made from bamboo or stainless steel provide much more durability and sustainability than those made of plastic.

Likewise, reusable silicone bags and beeswax wrapping paper are a much better option for storing food than plastic packaging, as it will significantly reduce the levels of kitchen-related waste you produce.

5. Eco-Friendly Furniture

Furniture is another area where you can make more eco-friendly choices to furnish your home.

You can do this by buying new pieces made from sustainably sourced materials or opting for second-hand items. If you are creatively minded you may also get a lot of satisfaction from upcycling and repurposing old furniture, which will give you the added benefit of creating something unique.

Conclusion

Sustainable living is something we should all embrace and a big part of this involves removing our rubbish in as eco-friendly way as possible. The five R’s of refuse, reducing, reusing. recycling and rotting is a good starting point. But beyond that it is all about a mindset.

At the end of the day, every little bit you can do to facilitate zero-waste and separate waste for recycling, helps to preserve our planet for future generations. Moreover, shifting our focus towards integrating sustainable choices – in all our daily habits – sends a powerful message of encouragement for our children to follow suit.