Paper Guide
Find out how you can help reduce your paper use.Plastic not so fantastic: Life beyond plastic bags
Plastic bag dump
TAKE URGENT ACTION: Planet Ark has established an online petition: ‘Kill off Plastic Bags, not Wildlife’ that will be sent to State Environment ministers. Sign the petition now and make your voice heard. more »
What's the problem with waste?
Each Australian household produces an average of 1.14 tonnes of waste per year. The majority of this waste ends up in landfill or as litter. Either way, household waste is an environmental problem.Almost all products take water, energy and materials to produce. What we send to landfill is a waste of those resources. Even recycling processes consume some resources. To address the waste problem, we need to consider the entire product cycle and focus on reducing consumption, as well as reusing what we already have.
In nature there is no such thing as waste, everything gets used and reused in continuous natural cycles. If industrial and household waste cycles were more like natural cycles with no waste build-up anywhere, our impact on the environment would be significantly reduced. There are easy things everyone can do to reduce the waste produced by their household.
More information on recycling and reusing products, from mobile phones to motor oil.
Top 5 tips
1. Use your green waste
On average 50% of rubbish sent to landfill is food and garden waste... more »
2. Buy reusable, not disposable
The best solution to waste is to avoid it in the first place... more »
3. Become a best practice recycler
Find out what is currently accepted for recycling by your local council, and only put these items... more »
4. Ask yourself, Do I Really Need This?
If yes, is there an environmentally friendly alternative, can you buy it second-hand... more »
5. Go for No Junk Mail
Put a No Junk Mail sticker on your letterbox and you'll reduce the amount of paper that goes to waste each year... more »