Lazy boy tips to reduce Plastic/Polythene waste at home

Regular observation and categorization of my garbage bin gave me following insights about it’s content:

Regular visitors of my garbage bins are empty packs of:

1. Dairy Products – Milk , Yogurt, Cheese etc.

2. Chips, Biscuits, Bread, Snacks etc.

3. Grocery Items – Pulses, noodles, soups,refills etc.

And, My dustbin is covered everyday with a new trash bag made of polythene. Hah!

I created a 3 step rule for my family as follows:

Step 1 : Buy products with Sustainable or Recyclable packaging:

First of all, my trash bin cover should be recyclable.I reused old polythenes adn newspapers but that’s not sufficient.

Peiroks have a solution for me on Amazon.in: Garbage Bags Biodegradable. Many such variants are available at our disposal. What are you using? Do share in Comments.

Buying Milk: For a family of 3 to 5 members, on an average about 5 to 8 litres of milk is used in a week depending on age of members and consumption. If we are buying milk packets then every week 8 to 16 packets of 1L or 500ml enter the trash dump by one family. How do we reduce that?

Every state in India has variations of the brand of milk supplied, however below information is applicable everywhere:

• Look for local Dairy supplier i.e. our Traditional Milkman.

• Milk packed in reusable Glass Bottles as in Delhi-NCR and Haryana BINSAR Farms does it.

• Buy Milk in Recyclable Virgin LDPE Film. These are Low Density Polyethylene. Read more about LDPE here . Interestingly in Delhi-NCR, Amul Dairy products are shipped in 100% recyclable virgin LDPE film. Same way in other states in India and around the world look for recyclable packaging solutions with marks like below:

Step 2: Buy in Bulk

Yes, Instead of 4 small packs of noodles or chips or cookies, Buy 1 big pack. That way you will generate less trash and chances are that bigger pack can be cleaned and reused. We can always use sealing clips to seal the used pack.

Keep decent storage at home.

Storage in Mason Glass jars looks classy. These are easily available online and in stores near you. You can also buy trendy looking Tin or Metal boxes. Avoid wooden boxes because last thing we want is to increase demand of wood and cut more trees. Ceramic containers are also trendy, long lasting and are available in beautiful variants.

Remember we are NOT throwing away existing plastic storage boxes. We will use them for as long as possible. However, we are NOT buying any new plastic.

For milk, instead of buying four 500ml packs buy two 1L or one 2L milk pack. Ditch all 500ml packs of milk or curd.

Go for biggest available pack as per your family needs. Go Big, Buy Smart.

3. Pledge to save, reuse all polythene wrappers that your family is using.

But how?

Let’s assume, You bought a 2L milk pack and now you want to transfer it a container.Generally, we cut milk packs from a corner, we snip off that little corner from the milk packet right?

Video showing correct way of cutting milk packets can be found here.

And just wash it before you throw.

This way, you can use it to store something else and also, even if we throw,it is recyclable. Unwashed packets stink and need additional treatment before they can be recycled.

We or our kids are generally very harsh on chips packets while opening them. Infact, as kids we used to love the sound of popping a packet of chips 🙂 Same goes with packs of bread, cookies and other snacks. We cut them from middle and the pack is of no use afterwards.

So trick is to cut them thoughtfully, wash and reuse. A few months ago, Karnataka BJP Vice-President Tejaswini Ananthkumar had tweeted that if milk packets are opened without separating a small piece of it, about 50 lakh such pieces can be prevented from making it to the garbage. More details of benefits and correct technique can be found here.

Infact, you know milk packets, snacks packets etc. can also be donated to local plants nursery and also to your local scrap person? There are NGOs who collect plastics from home on-call. More on these, in subsequent blogs.

So can we train ourselves and kids to follow 3 step rule,

1. Buy products with recyclable packaging.
2. Buy in bulk- bigger the pack the easier it is to re-use. Use sealing clips or mini bag sealer as needed.
3. Open the pack thoughtfully, such that you can reuse it. Wash it before throwing as it can be recycled easily.

Thanks for being with me in this journey. Please share about your experiments, experiences and ideas in comments section. Happy reducing and recycling!!