A good way to deal with the problem of garbage is to reduce the amount of packaging you bring into your home. I won't buy anything that is over packaged now, and I try to find someone in the store to explain that I want the product but won't buy it because it's over packaged. The more people who do this the better, otherwise manufacturers don't know. I won't buy little packets of anything that are packaged in a bigger pack; I try to buy large containers to decant into smaller ones at home and long ago I gave up on those packs of biscuits (cookies) and chocolates that are individually wrapped, placed in a plastic tray, in a box, covered with cellophane. pfffffffft! My general strategy on packaging is to buy in bulk when I can, buy products stored in paper, cans or glass. If it's in plastic I always check what type of plastic it is and if it's recyclable in my area, I buy it.
Save old bottles and jars for your preserves and cordials. If you buy a larger pack of something like coffee or tea, use your old clean jars to store the product when it's opened.
Not every local area recycles every type of plastic. You need to check your own shire council or local authority to know what it is they recycle. If you're in Australia, click here to check your nearest recycle station. If you click here, you will see what types of paper, cardboard and plastic my local rubbish dump accepts. You should do a Google search for your own recycle station and rubbish dump. There you will find out exactly what they accept and you can monitor your shopping to buy only that type of packaging.
A great side benefits of making compost, keeping chickens and dogs and having a worm farm is that most food scraps and vegetable waste is used to feed them. All our garden waste is given to either the chooks, the worms or the compost. Food scraps go to the dogs, worms or chooks. Our paper products and plastics are recycled - we have a special bin supplied by our council that is collected every second week. Our recycle station also accepts old computers, mobile phones, printers etc and they have information of their website about how to correctly dispose of oil and batteries.
As you can see, we don't have a lot of rubbish and what we do have is dry waste so it goes straight into the bin, without a liner. If I have a lot of smaller items, I wrap them in newspaper and put them in the bin. You could do this with your moist waste if it's not too wet and you use a few sheets of paper. So that is the short answer to the question of plastic bin liners - you can either line the bin with newspaper, or wrap the waste in newspaper parcels.
But the overall answer is to reduce your waste. This is one of the important things you will do in your simple life and it's vital you work out your own strategy for dealing with your household waste. Start by checking out your local area websites so you know what they recycle, then look at your own garbage and work out what you are throwing out. Then make a plan to reduce, reuse and recycle. Everyone's plan will be different but this is an area that we can all share what works for us in the comments section. Please let us know what you do, because I am always looking to improve what I do and I am sure there are many others who are working on this same problem.
