Written by Greta Porter
National Recycling Week takes place from the 7th to 13th of November and this year it aims to explore the idea of ‘Waste isn’t Waste until it’s Wasted’. National Recycling Week was first established in 1996 and encourages everyone to get involved at home, at work, at school and with their local councils and communities to better their recycling habits.
Ways you can make better decisions when it comes to recycling include:
- Giving items a second life
- Reducing the need for newly produced resources (ask yourself, can I get this second hand, or do I need a new one?)
- Bettering your knowledge of what can and cannot be recycled by following the recycling guide
- Learning about the Australasian recycling label
- Thinking twice about impulse purchases
National Recycling Week is also the chance to take a look at things such as food waste in your household, especially considering each year Australians waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food across supply and consumption.
Are you composting? Are you using your green bin if you have one? Reducing our waste from plastics, bottles, cans and cardboard to food waste/scraps helps in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and although there are definitely other much bigger companies and corporations that are contributing significantly to the emissions, it’s still good to do what you can as an individual.
National Recycling Week isn’t a matter of changing your entire lifestyle but being more conscious of waste and trying to improve just one area of recycling/waste in your life.
As a uni student, my mission is to check exactly how my waste should be recycled and to start a soft plastics bag in my kitchen that I can later drop off to my local supermarket as part of the soft plastics recycling campaigns that both Coles and Woolworths have. What will you be doing this National Recycling Week?
For more information, tip and resources or to find an event near you…
Happy recycling!
