Bring lunch to work
Once youβre at work and hunger kicks in, it may be easy to reach for a packaged meal or takeaway, but those can be wasteful and expensive habits to maintain.
Food waste costs the Australian economy upwards of $36.6 billion annually. We throw away 7.6 million tonnes of food (or 312 kilograms per person) each year, according to the National Food Waste Strategy Feasibility Study. The same study found food waste accounts for 3 per cent of Australiaβs greenhouse gas emissions.
Bringing pre-portioned meals to work is a cost-effective way of feeding yourself without risking the waste of buying packaged food on your lunch break. This habit can also minimise the food waste you produce at home, if you take leftovers to work for lunch.
Other tips for cutting down on food waste while saving some extra cash include: creating meal plans before grocery shopping so you purchase only what you need; learning useful skills like preserving and pickling excess food; and shopping at farmers and wholesale markets, where produce is often fresher (and lasts longer) than at supermarkets.
Taking care of your clothes (and shopping sustainably)
After a long day at work, itβs tempting to chuck your clothes on the floor and hit the couch, but the way we care for our garments can play a big role in our waste output.
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Australians purchase and throw out clothing at one of the highest per-capita rates in the world. In 2020-21, 300,000 tonnes of clothing was sent to our landfills, an Australia Institute report showed.
Nina Gbor, director of the instituteβs circular economy and waste program, says the best ways to minimise clothing waste is to buy pieces from both sustainable retail stores and second-hand outlets, and importantly, to take care of the clothes you have.
Gbor says mending, and mindfully storing β by regularly airing clothes and keeping them in cool, dry places β can minimise clothing waste.
βPeople have a connection with their clothing, particularly if itβs something theyβve mended, theyβve looked after. That connection is lost when you talk about fast fashion. Sustainable fashion is bringing us back in connection with our clothes,β says Gbor.
Also a stylist and founder of clothing exchange platform Clothes Swap & Style, Gbor says her first piece of advice is to βignore trendsβ. βTrends are what fuel fashion waste because you are just consuming; youβre just buying like food,β says Gbor.
Shop consciously
Once work is done and dinner plans are on your mind, take a few steps to minimise the waste output of your grocery shop.
Packaging-free grocery stores are growing in popularity, and while they wonβt cover all your food shopping needs, their offerings may surprise you. From soaps and detergents to pasta and coffee, βscoop and weighβ style shopping may take some getting used to, but it is a fresh way to think about food consumption.
If going to a few stores doesnβt work with your schedule, consider reusable glass packaging over plastic, ditching single-use produce bags, and selecting less packaged meat and seafood at fresh counters when shopping at conventional grocery stores.
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