The Good, The Bug and Ugly!

So which bugs are the good ones?

The Good, The Bug and The Ugly

Bees (the really good guys) play a central roll in pollination, but to do this they need a year round supply of flowers - free from sprays.

Ladybugs (the bug) generally bright red and polka-dotted, they can devour a colony of aphids in no time; even the larvae can devour 100 aphids an hour.






Praying Mantis (good but oh so ugly!) the praying mantis eats many nasty insects which can damage the garden. These predators take out more than just aphids and mites, they can also help you tackle infestations of mosquitoes, houseflies and moths.

After lots of replanting and replacing a very boring collection of box hedges and grasses with fruit, trees, vegetables and flowers we regularly see all three in our garden.

 

Last year we planted cosmos between all of our apple and pear trees

Why do we encourage these guys (especially the bees)?

The primary motivation for planting a bee friendly garden is our fruit trees and vegetable crops. When we moved in we planted nine apple and pear trees. Not long after they went in the ground we realised that we hadn't seen a single bee in our (very boring) garden. So we did some research and planted as much bee friendly food as we could manage in our relatively small garden.

What's a bee friendly garden?

One rule, and some suggestions.

• Rule #1 don’t use pesticides. Most pesticides are not selective. By using pesticides, you will kill the good with the bad.
• Plant local plants, they are attractive to honeybees; and adapted to your soil and climate.
• Plant a range of colours and flower shapes. Bees have good colour vision. Bees are particularly attracted to blue, purple, violet, white and yellow.
• Plant flowers in clumps.
• Provide accessible water. Bees need water. Provide easy access through wet sand or pebbles; do not drown the bees!
• Plan a garden with a wide range of plants - flowering across all four seasons.

What do our bees eat for lunch?

Ok so here's our menu:

A sample of a bee's menu

• Lavender
• Marjoram
• Rosemary
• Mints (lots of different types)
• Pineapple Sage
• Thymes (at least six different types on offer)
• Salvias
• Cosmos
• Comfrey
• A selection of fruit trees (apple, pear, lemon and lime)
• Berries
• Basil
• Bottlebrush
• Hakea

The seasonal menu includes:

• Tomatoes
• Pumpkin
• Rockmelon
• Cucumbers
• Passionfruit

All of these plants will attract bees and many need bees to ensure their pollination. The Australian Government has published a fantastic bee friendly planting guide, which you can access for free online as a pdf. Here's a sample of one of their planting guides.

Spring in our Garden

What space do we have in our garden?

Our house - shiny and new two years ago

We bought a 'battle axe' block - think long driveway with our house built in what was once our neighbours back yard. So we have 28 metres of driveway (with garden beds on both sides) , a small decorative garden bed at the front, a small courtyard and long narrow side and rear gardens. One of the  nice things about our garden is there's no lawn to maintain (there's a huge park across the street).

Since we bought our house a little over two years ago the biggest changes have occurred in the garden. Our priorities were edibles, or native.

What did we do?

Our courtyard (Oct 2013)

Firstly we brought in a lot of organic matter, and dug out a lot of clay! We built up the garden beds along the driveway. One side for fruit trees, the other for vegetables. Closer to the house we raised the main bed in front of the house and created a herb garden. In the courtyard we removed stones and box hedges and replaced theses with lavender, rosemary and 'snow in summer'. We also planted Wisteria. We also planted a lot of climbers, which are trained onto wires in front of the garage. 

So just how many fruit trees can you fit on a 500m2 block?

Quite a few! We've got six apple trees, three pear trees and a lemon and a lime. In addition we've got passionfruit, a grape vine, a tayberry (a cross between a black berry and a raspberry), kiwiberries, rhubarb, three types of raspberry and lots of strawberries.

Apple and pear blossom, apple tree, strawberries, rhubarb and passionfruit flowers

What are we growing for spring and summer in the veggie patch?

While we still have lots of greens (think lettuce and spinach) right now we are gearing up for spring and summer so we have lots of seeds and seedlings on the go (pumpkin, beetroot, leek, beans, lettuce, rocket, watermelon, tomato, cucumber, zucchini... to name a few). More photos to follow.

Powered down

How much power does the "average" household use each day?

While it's hard to pin down a figure (a five person household would use a lot more than a single person household) most estimates are around 18 to 20 kWh. The Australian Energy Regulator has a handy little online tool that provides a more meaningful average household usage for your 'localised zone' (you provide your postcode) and number of people living in your home. 

For a two person household in Melbourne's east here's the averages:

Just what is a kWh?

Thankfully one of us has a degree in physics and can explain this one!

A kWh is 'kilowatt hour' - which is a unit of energy (not power). 

Energy is power multiplied by time, so the 'kW' is the power and the 'h' is the time (in hours). So if you have a 1 kW appliance running for 1 hour, then you've used 1 kWh.

As a point of reference:

• A typical electric kettle about 2 kW
• A split system air conditioner is between 3 and 9 kW 
• An electric oven around 1 kW

How does the typical household use their electricity?

About a third goes on heating and cooling - so good insulation and putting on a jumper when you get cold can make a huge difference. White goods have the next biggest impact - so think about what you need plugged in and running year round and buy the most efficient product you can afford, it will make a difference to each quarterly bill. Lighting while around 10 percent can easily be reduced by replacing old inefficient bulbs with compact fluorescents. Better yet replace them with LEDs - expensive just now, but prices are coming down and the range of options getting better every year.

What's our average electricity usage?

About 4.5kWh (per day) in winter; about one third the average use. Here's some of what we do to use less electricity:

• We have gas hot water
• Heating and cooling - our house is well insulated, so we use a lot less of both. Our heating is underfloor hydronic heating, so uses very little power. In terms of cooling we have invested in good quality outdoor blinds and inside we have thick curtains. Last summer we ran our air conditioner no more than half dozen days, and when we run it we have it set for 24 degrees.
• We make an effort to turn off lights when we leave the room. All of our lighting is compact fluorescent, which use less electricity. We are investigating the use of LED lighting which would reduce this further. 
• Other than the fridge we don't have any appliances on standby, even our wireless Internet is off at the mains when we're out.
• We've bought the most efficient appliances we could afford - washing machine, fridge etc.
• We try to run a full load in the dishwasher and washing machine - and we line dry the washing, no tumble dryer in this house.
• And finally a confession we don't own any of the following: TV, microwave, stereo, toaster or hair dryer - which also has an impact.

The Power of Gas

Why choose gas?

Gas is much more efficient for heating than electricity. For example an efficient gas heater is estimated to cost $159 a year to run. This compares with an electric radiant heater at $471 and an oil filled column heater costs $330 a year. There are also savings to the environment (and your household budget) when it comes to hot water systems. Gas hot water systems produce about a third of the greenhouse gas emissions of electric storage hot water systems.

Why should we aim to use less gas?

Gas is more efficient than electricity, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't aim to use less of it. Australia's households account for almost 20 per cent of our national greenhouse gas emissions. Choosing efficient appliances and making simple changes to the way energy is used means you can reduce your impact on the environment (which is what this blog is all about) and save money.

How much gas does the average Victorian household use?

Well the short answer is after a bit a research we’re not entirely sure. There's quite a lot of data on electricity usage (and more on that from us in a future blog) but very little on reticulated (mains) gas usage. We found this a little odd because according to Department of Environment and Primary Industries Victoria has the most extensive reticulated gas network in Australia, so why the lack of data on average usage? The closest we came to an estimate was 52,000MJ / year - and this was from a NSW electricity company.

How much gas have we used in the last 12 months?

Easy! We've done the calculations and know that we have used 13,582MJ, or around a quarter of the average Victorian annual household usage. To put this in perspective we have gas heating, hot water and a gas stove top.

What can every household do to use less gas?

• If you are buying a new gas appliance (or building) buy the most efficient appliance you can afford - it will pay for itself over time. Consider a solar hot water system with a gas booster. We were fortunate to purchase a home with gas hot water and a hydronic central heating system.
• Check your household insulation - more is better.
• Consider what is cold, can you put on a jumper and leaving the heating off? Broad estimates are that for every degree you decrease your heating setting you can save 10 percent of the running cost. 
• Avoid running heating when the house is empty, timers are great but use them to their best advantage, not just as a default for winter.
• Open curtains during the day - and close them at night. This allows for passive heating from the sun during the day and keeps the heat in at night. Curtain Pelmets, while ugly also make a big difference.
• Buy a door snake - draft excluders trap the warm air in and keep the cold air out.
• Assuming you have gas hot water, use cold water where possible.
• Reduce your water heater thermostat to 60 to 65 degrees Celsius. Do you even know what temperature your thermostat is set at?

Finally have a read of a post by Tom Murphy on how to slash domestic gas consumption by a factor of five - be warned it gets a little technical in places!

How to grow fresh air

On Wednesday we finished off with a piece of advice about clean air and indoor plants. Tonight we wanted to follow up on that comment.

What's the problem with indoor air?

"The indoor environment is five to ten times more polluted than the exterior"
(1994 CSIRO review)

"In recent years, comparative risk studies performed by the US EPA and its Science Advisory Board have consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health" (US EPA, 1993)

The average Australian spends 90 percent or more of their time indoors. Despite this, relatively little research has been done on the quality of air in our homes, schools, recreational buildings, restaurants, public buildings, offices and cars. According to the Commonwealth Government many chemicals present in indoor air environments have not been thoroughly tested and little is known about their long-term health effects. Even less is understood about the health effects from constant exposure to mixtures of these chemicals.

Peace Lilly

Can indoor plants really make clean air?

Yes!

There is a wealth of scientific evidence that supports the beneficial effects of indoor plants including a large NASA programme.

Plants can remove toxins from air, up to a staggering 87 percent of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) every 24 hours (according to NASA research). Modern climate-controlled, air-tight buildings trap VOCs inside. VOCs include substances like formaldehyde (present in rugs, vinyl, cigarette smoke and grocery bags), benzene and trichloroethylene (both found in man-made fibres, inks, solvents and paint). The NASA research discovered that plants purify that trapped air by pulling contaminants into soil, where root zone microorganisms convert VOCs into food for the plant.

When you breathe, your body takes in oxygen and releases carbon dioxide. During photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. This makes plants and people natural partners, as indoor plants can increase oxygen levels.

What are some of the other benefits of indoor plants?

... During photosynthesis plants release water vapour which increases humidity of the air around them. By placing several plants together you can increase the humidity of a room, which helps keeps respiratory distresses at bay.

... According to researchers at Kansas State University adding plants to hospital rooms speeds recovery rates of surgical patients. Compared to patients in rooms without plants, patients in rooms with plants request less pain medication, have lower heart rates and blood pressure, experience less fatigue and anxiety, and are released from the hospital sooner.

... The Dutch Product Board for Horticulture commissioned a workplace study that discovered that adding plants to an office decreases fatigue, colds, headaches, coughs, sore throats and flu-like symptoms. 

... In a study by the Agricultural University of Norway, sickness rates fell by more than 60 percent in offices with plants.

... A study at The Royal College of Agriculture in Circencester found that students demonstrated 70 percent greater attentiveness when taught in rooms containing plants.

Still not convinced? Check out this four minute TED talk.

How are we growing our fresh air?

With indoor plants of course! Here's a couple of photos of our fresh air generators around the house.

Which plants are best for clean air?

Bill Wolverton (of NASA fame) wrote a great book called "How to Grow Fresh Air", a fantastic resource for anyone interested in this topic. The best indoor house plants to grow fresh air include:

• English ivy (Hedera helix)
• Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
• Golden pothos or Devil's ivy (Scindapsus aures or Epipremnum aureum)
• Peace lily (Spathiphyllum 'Mauna Loa')
• Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
• Bamboo palm or reed palm (Chamaedorea sefritzii)
• Snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata'Laurentii')
• Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron oxycardium, syn.Philodendron cordatum)
• Selloum philodendron (Philodendron bipinnatifidum, syn.Philodendron selloum)
• Elephant ear philodendron (Philodendron domesticum)
• Red-edged dracaena (Dracaena marginata)
• Cornstalk dracaena (Dracaena fragans 'Massangeana')
• Janet Craig dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Janet Craig')
• Warneck dracaena (Dracaena deremensis 'Warneckii')
• Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina)
• Gerbera daisy or Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
• Pot mum or florist's chrysanthemum (Chrysantheium morifolium)
• Rubber plant (Ficus elastica)

In addition here's some really basic tips:

• Consider the amount of sun your indoor plants are likely to receive (some can survive on less light than others).
• Keep watering schedules regular (use a calendar).
• Periodically clean each plant with a damp cloth to ensure proper absorption of air particles and toxins.
• Keep their soil replenished with organic compost. 
• If possible use rainwater for your plants.

Finally if you’re looking for the plants of least resistance try Peace Lilies, Dracaenas or Golden Pathos, they're all quite hard to kill!

Squeaky Clean, Green Home!

How toxic are your cleaning products?

What cleaning products do you use to clean your house? Can you pronounce all of the ingredients listed? Do you know which ones are harmful to you and the environment? We believe it's important to know what's in the products we use to keep our house clean. With a little reading you might be surprised at just how harmful many cleaning products are - not to mention the damage they are doing to our aquatic ecosystems once flushed down the drains.

Despite the myth that most cleaning products fall into one of two categories toxic or expensive, we believe that there are other options that don't cost much and are not toxic. So this blog is about an awesome squeaky clean and green cleaning product that we've started using.

So what's in your average collection of cleaning products? 

The average household contains a large number of toxic chemicals, which we're exposed to on a regular basis ranging from synthetic fragrances to the noxious fumes in oven cleaners. Ingredients in common household products have been linked to asthma, cancer, reproductive disorders, hormone disruption and neurotoxicity. While manufacturers are keen to point out that in small amounts these toxic ingredients aren’t likely to be a problem, we are exposed to them routinely, and in combinations that were never tested.

Some of the common nasties include:
Phthalates
This one is found in fragranced household products (think air fresheners, soaps etc). If 'fragrance' is listed on the label, there’s a good chance phthalates are present. Phthalates are suspected endocrine disrupters associated with reproductive effects, including reduced sperm count in men.
Ammonia
A very common nasty found in polishing products and glass cleaners. People who get a lot of ammonia exposure often develop chronic bronchitis and asthma. Ammonia can also create a poisonous gas if it’s mixed with bleach.
Chlorine
Toilet bowl cleaners, mold removers and laundry whiteners can all contain chlorine, as did chemical weapons in World War I. Do you really want this in your house.

So what do we clean with?

One of the cheapest and most simple cleaning products we've started using is Vinegar. It cost just over  $1 for 2 litres last time we shopped. Vinegar is a weak form of acetic acid that is edible (and can't harm your stomach).


Vinegar (with a citrus twist)
We've recently discovered that soaking citrus peel in vinegar for 2 weeks, before discarding the peel creates an even better product. Our citrus vinegar has cut through greasy pots and cleaned up our stainless steel cook top up an absolute treat. We think the addition of the citrus (we used orange peel) also removes most of the sharp vinegar smell. We've also used it to clean all our kitchen surfaces and the shower, where it cleaned up the tiles way better than any other product we've paid a lot more money for!


PS One last piece of advice - don't waste your money on an air freshener - open the window and buy some indoor plants to help filter the air.

Travel to work

What does it cost to get to work?

There are many ways of calculating the household cost of driving. We could dedicate a whole other blog to the environmental and social costs - but not tonight. The purpose of the table below is to show some of our thinking around the cost of travel to work. So to make it easy we've worked out the cost based on mileage reimbursement in Australia (for 2012). For a small car, like ours with an engine capacity of 1.6l or less it's 63c per kilometre. If your car has an engine capacity of 2.6l or more it's 75c per kilometre. 

A daily public transport ticket (in Melbourne) costs $11.84 (for zones 1 and 2) and $4.84 (for zone 2 only).

As for running or cycling to work it's pretty much free - aside from the extra food needed to fuel the body; and it makes your legs look great!

So every day we catch public transport (and don't drive) we save $8.52! And if we cycle or run to work the savings are even bigger.

It's worth remembering that we live 28km from the centre of Melbourne, and at present neither of us work in town. However when we bought our house (2 years ago this weekend!) we were looking for property that was within a 10 minute walk of the Belgrave / Lillydale train lines. This criteria was an absolute deal breaker - we didn't view any houses where we couldn't comfortably walk to a train station on these lines. We own one (small) car and neither of us have any desire to be dependent on a car as the only means of travelling to work every day.

How do we travel to work?

Clearly if you've been reading our blog you'll have worked out that our default option is not driving.

Most days Stephen gets a train into Richmond and then changes lines. Nicole gets 'SmartBus' from the end of the street direct to work. Stephen is a fair weather cyclist (which is understandable given it's an almost 60km round trip) and Nicole mixes up the bus to work with cycling or running to work. That's not to say we never drive to work - we both drive on average once a fortnight, depending on late night meetings or early starts.

But don't you just hate public transport?

No. We use the time to play games on the iPad (one of us - Nicole - is obsessed with Candy Crush), watch podcasts, catch up on the news or listen to music. What ever it is that we're doing we don't descend into road rage. An added bonus is sometimes it can be quite sociable, Nicole regularly sees friends and colleagues on the bus.

We'd love to know what you think - and how you travel to work, feel free to comment.

Whole food

What do we mean by 'whole food'?

For us whole food is about unprocessed, unrefined real ingredients, no additives, preservatives or funny numbers. It means we buy ingredients not processed food. If your Granny wouldn't recognise something on the list of ingredients chances are it's best avoided! This week our shopping basket included fresh meat and chicken, tinned tuna slices in olive oil, dried (Australian) chickpeas, Potatoes, Carrots, Broccoli, Spinach, Beetroot, Lemons, Whole native peppercorns, Spelt flour, selection of Australian grown nuts, Oranges, Cheese, Milk, Eggs and Yoghourt. Pantry basics include Cornflour, Rice, Oats, tinned Australia Tomatoes, and a whole lot of herbs and spices.

Why whole food?

Less waste - both food and packaging. When we buy meat, poultry or seafood we try to buy whole cuts and make use of all the 'left overs'. This week we had Roast Lamb for Saturday lunch, with local spuds, carrots and broccoli. The leftovers made over a litre of amazing stock and Shepherd's Pie for six. Some of the stock went into the pie, the rest will be used over the coming weeks as a flavoursome base for soups, slow cooked casseroles and possibly even a risotto. It's not only less waster in our kitchen - but within the whole food supply chain. For example there is more packaging required for a chicken breasts on a tray than for a whole chicken. Thanks to Woolies for these images to prove a point.

Finally we believe that you can't beat homemade stock! Meal planning is an important part of buying and using whole food. Thinking about whole cuts of meat means we tend to plan our meals for the week ahead based on what cuts we buy. By buying only the food we need for the week we tend to have less food waste.

What's on the menu this week?

This week we stocked the fridge and the pantry with food from the Dandenong markets and the Heathmont farmers market. So far this week we've had two roast dinners (lamb and chicken). We've also made Shepherd's Pie, Chicken Salad and a whole lot of stock. Also on the menu bean chilli (with Australian chick peas and local organic mushrooms); another spanish omelette (local organic eggs, cheese and spuds); and later in the week we'll make curry and a risotto.

If you haven't worked out by now we love to cook! Favourite recipes to follow in another blog.

Compost

What are the benefits of compost?

According to the City of Whitehorse food waste currently makes up 44 percent of items currently found in the average rubbish bin. So the first and obvious benefit is we are reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. Better yet making compost - and applying it to your garden improves the soil by releasing the nutrients back into the soil, saving money on fertilisers along the way. 

How do you make compost?

According to Clean Up making your own compost is a lot easier than most people realise, and we agree.  A composting system can be started in specially made containers, wooden boxes, or in a simple heap. We opted for a system that looks like a Death Star! We chose this system because we have a small garden, and we can roll the Death Star to where we want to empty it.

Composting organisms require four equally important components to work effectively:

• 'Green ingredients' such as kitchen scraps, fresh lawn clippings, weeds pulled from your garden - they supply nitrogen to the compost. If all you have is green stuff, your compost will turn into a stinky slime ball!
• 'Brown ingredients' that supply the compost with carbon for energy (heat). These items are often drier than the green ingredients, leaves, branches, straw, etc.
• Oxygen to enable the decomposition process (turn your compost regularly, or take the Death Star for a roll!)
• Water, compost should be moist, but not soaking wet.

How do we collect material for our compost?

We bought a compost caddy for our scraps, which we keep on the kitchen bench. We use compostable liners and it snaps shut to keep in the moisture and the smells. Our Death Stars are located next to the Laundry door - making it easy to access them - no trips to the bottom of the garden path for us! We also add fallen leaves and straw to keep the green / brown balance. 

What's our secret ingredient?

No it's not 11 herbs and spices, just one herb - Comfrey. The leaves are a useful addition to compost as they contain silica, nitrogen, magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron. Comfrey leaves are about 15 to 30 percent protein which is as high as most legumes.

A Little bit of Rubbish

Why does the amount of waste going to landfill matter?

Last year the disposal of almost 31,000 tonnes of rubbish from household bins in Whitehorse (our Local Council) cost rate payers $3.8 million. $2.2 million of of this is attributable to the state government landfill levy and the carbon tax. Reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfill will therefore reduce pressure on our Council rates.

From an environmental perspective - we think it's clear why we should be aiming to throw less rubbish into a decreasing number of landfill sites across the state.

How big is our rubbish bin?

City of Whitehorse have recently introduced a smaller (80 litre) standard rubbish bin. If residents want to keep the large bin (120 litre) they need to pay an annual fee. They have also reduced the fees for the 'optional garden organics bin service'. Despite some negative press in the local paper we think all of this is a good thing. 

Why does our Council supply a Smaller Bin?

One of the proven strategies to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill is the use of a smaller 80 litre rubbish bin as standard. The average Victorian council with an 80 litre standard bin sends 402kg of waste per household per year to landfill. Whitehorse households currently send 508kg to landfill each year.

How much rubbish did we throw out last week?

Where we live Monday night is rubbish night. This week we threw out two bags of rubbish, which weighed in at 1.8kg. Multiplying this by 52 weeks equates to 94kg a year; which is less than 20 percent of the average Whitehorse household. A little bit of rubbish indeed!

Seasonal Produce

Why is eating seasonal produce important?

"Being able to eat whatever we want whenever we want is convenient, but it isn’t great for the planet, or even for the cost or flavour."

Source: Environment Victoria

Food that isn’t in season has usually travelled huge distances, which means that a lot of energy has been used to get it to your local store - a whole lot of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not just the distance, it’s also the refrigeration along the way, and the energy that goes into packaging and storing it when it arrives. Produce which is in season tends to be local, which means much lower greenhouse gas emissions.

 

Eating seasonal produce — means produce is picked as close to the time it will be eaten as possible, which means lots of flavour, colour and nutrients. Out of season produce and produce that is transported long distance is harvested early so it doesn’t rot during transit. This doesn't do much for the taste or nutritional value of the food.

What's in season?

According to the Victorian Farmers' Markets Association right now produce in season includes:

• Beetroot
• Cabbages
• Carrots
• Leek
• Parsnips, Swedes and Turnips
• Pumpkins
• Cauliflower and Broccoli
• Silver beet, Spinach, Kale
• Oranges, mandarins, grapefruits etc
• Rhubarb

As part of our low impact lifestyle one important change we will be making is eating more seasonal produce. 

What's for dinner at our house this week?

Note - this is not an invitation to our friends!

On the weekend to supplement our small veggie patch and source some protein for the week we went to the Coburg Farmers markets. It's part of the Melbourne Farmers Markets; which are: "dedicated to Victorian food and producers, regional food cultures, seasonal produce, biodiversity, sustainable farming practices and the strengthening of relationships between the consumer and the producer." We think this is a great fit with our goal of a low impact lifestyle.

Shepherds pie for dinner tonight!

This week we brought a whole lot of lovely seasonal produce - including Kale, Bok Choi, Carrots, Cabbage, Mushrooms, Beetroot, Spuds, Oranges and Limes. We also bought fresh rye bread, cheese, organic eggs, streaky bacon, mince lamb and lamb chops for protein (we tend to eat a couple of vegetarian meals each week).

The challenge (because one of us likes to be organised) is that menu planning has to take a back seat and be done on the basis of what's in season - and available. So rather than plan our meals, and then head out with a list; we are going to be more flexible and enjoy what's on offer. The menu for the week includes: bacon and egg sandwiches, veggie soup, shepherds pie (with left overs for lunch), a vegetable stir fry, spanish omelette and lamb chops.

 

Household Waste and Recycling

How much household waste do we throw out?

According to Australia Bureau of Statistics in 2007 the annual waste generated per person was 2,100kg! This is a up from 1997 when it was 1,226kg. The average Australian family (of four) generates enough rubbish in one year to completely fill a three bed room house from floor to ceiling!

We are tracking the amount of waste we place in our red landfill bin each week. Last week it was two bags of rubbish. But starting Monday we are going to be more scientific about this and will weigh how much waste we are sending to landfill each week.

What do we throw out?

So we all know there are lots of things that shouldn't end up in landfill. According to Cleanaway Australians throw out:

• 414kg of food
• 330kg of paper
• 552 Aluminium cans
• 118kg of plastic
• 74kg of metal
• 206 glass bottles/jars

Almost all of the above can, and should be recycled or composted. We have two compost bins (more to come in another blog) for food and garden waste. We recycle as much as possible with regards to the other items listed.

What about plastics?

We've recently found out that most Coles Supermarkets have introduced an initiative to collect the soft plastics that can't be be placed in household recycling bins.

"In an Australian first, The Red Group, in partnership with Coles, has developed and implemented an innovative closed-loop recycling initiative, the REDcycle program. The program is set up as a product stewardship scheme involving 10 of the biggest food companies in Australia. These companies are taking responsibility for their product packaging, and covering the costs of the collection and recycling of the soft plastics.

The program is aimed at collecting the soft plastics you can't put in your kerbside recycling bin. The processed materials will be converted into outdoor furniture and signage for schools and communities by program partner Replas."


They accept plastics such as: bread bags, frozen food bags, confectionery packets and plastic shopping bags.

In terms of volume of waste we think this initiative will divert around a quarter of our waste from landfill - and we think we don't generate much in the way of soft plastic waste. If your in Australia please separate out your soft plastic waste and drop it off at Coles. That's not to say we support Coles, just this great initiative to divert what is largely food packaging waste from landfill.

What else do we do?

• Reduce
• Reuse
• Recycle

We take 'green bags' when we shop, to reduce our reliance on plastic bags. At the moment we are in the process of making some nice new calico bags. For food shopping we also have a collection of home made reusable 'care bags' which are mesh bags for storing fruit and vegetables, in place of plastic bags. To date no markets or stores have refused to accept us using our care bags. When we do have plastic bags we reuse them, before recycling.

Ethical Food Shopping

What do we want to achieve?

We want to have a low impact on the planet when buying and consuming food. Things that are important to us are:

• to buy food produced locally; ideally Victorian, but definitely grown and/or raised in Australia;
• try to only buy food from companies that are 100 percent Australian owned;
• identifying which companies are environmentally and socially responsible; and supporting these companies.

Why is this important to us?

“A typical Melbourne shopping basket has travelled a staggering 70,000 kilometres – equivalent to almost two trips around the world. By purchasing an orange grown in Mildura rather than California you reduce food miles from 12,879 km to 567 km.” 

(Shop Ethical!)

We think that buying Australian is a good thing. We live on an Island with a huge range of climates and can grow almost any food; so buying food from overseas seems more than a little crazy! 

We are using the Shop Ethical! Guide as a starting point to find out which companies are environmentally and socially responsible.

Two examples of why this is not straight forward...

Identifying companies that are 100 percent Australian owned is lot harder than we first thought. For example we buy Edgell Canned Chickpeas. We know that the Chickpeas are grown in Australia and the product is 'Made in Australia'. Therefore we are supporting Australian farmers and buying Australian. Shop Ethical! gives Edgell's parent company a tick and they are a signed up to the Australia Packaging Covenant.

However Edgell is owned by Simplot which is one of the largest food and agribussiness companies in America, so a cross when it comes to being an Australian owned company.

We've been buying SunRice microwavable rice cups - the perfect side dish to a reheated curry or home made stew. We know SunRice is Australian owned and the rice is grown in Australia (one of us has even been to their rice fields). No problem so far. BUT while the packets of uncooked rice are made in Australia - the rice cups are not. They are actually a product of Thailand. We assume this means the rice is grown here, sent to Thailand, processed and then sent back. That's a lot of unnecessary food miles!

So what's next?

Back to the wonders of google and the world wide web to find out more... 
and we'd love your comments on these examples or others.

• Where do you draw the line?
• What should be the most important consideration when buying food?

Water

Just how much water did we use this quarter?

Today we received our water bill. Our average daily usage during the last quarter was 133 litres a day - or 67 litres per person. This is down from 84 litres per person during the same time last year. For those of you in Melbourne who remember the previous State Government campaign 155 aimed at reducing water usage to 155 litres per person per day.

What have we done so far to reduce our water bill?

We replaced both shower heads with low flow versions when we moved in.

In addition to a 2,000 rainwater tank which was installed when we bought our house we have installed two 100 litre rainwater tanks. While they are relatively small we use them for all our hand watering. We installed them so a 9 litre watering can fits nicely under the tap.
replaced both shower heads with low flow versions when we moved in.

We also have an ASKO dishwasher which is also very efficient in terms of energy and water use. The quick was uses approximately 10 litres per quick wash.

In terms of appliances we have an ASKO front load washing machine which we selected based on energy and water efficiency ratings. We only wash with a full load and we use the quick wash cycle almost all of the time.

Outside the house we've added lots of mulch to the garden beds (more on our garden in another update).

So what's the average daily consumption?

According to the Melbourne Water Weekly Water Report this week the average is 142 litres per person. So we think we are doing well at reducing our use of water.

What's next?

• A basin in the kitchen sink to capture cold water while we wait for the hot water to come through. We will use this to water indoor plants, or empty on a thirsty garden bed.

• This spring we will rethink what we plan to grow in the garden and try to reduce the amount of thirsty vegetable plants. And did we mention more mulch for the garden beds!

Our first blog!

"Brown is the new Green"

So what's this all about?

Recently we've been inspired to make our house and lifestyle as low impact as possible. We think we're doing quite well, but know that there is more that we can do. We plan to use this blog to explore and share our experiences (good and bad) as we try to make Brown the new Green!

Who are we and where is home?

We're a professional couple who call the City of Whitehorse in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne home. Our house (built in 2011) is single storey and has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Living in a new house means we are fortunate to have excellent wall and roof insulation, low power lighting and a decent rainwater tank (which flushes both toilets). In addition we are lucky to have double glazing, and hydronic underfloor heating. Since moving in we have installed a 2.4kW solar power system, which was the largest possible system for the available roof space.

What do we want to do?

Over the coming months and years we want to make sustained changes to our lifestyle, that reduces our impact on the environment. Some of the areas we want to start with are:

• reducing our garbage
• making great compost
• growing more indoor plants
• using less power, gas and water
• growing more of our own produce
• reducing the "food miles" of the food we buy
• supporting local and/or independent traders
• buying less 'stuff'