Reduce, re-use, recycle

Reduce, re-use and recycle.

Meet Kristie from Blakeview. She is passionate about the three R’s –reduce, re-use, recycle. Every day, in so many simple ways, Kristie is making a personal contribution to saving our environment. We hope you can take some inspiration from her lead.

Here are some of Kristie’s tips for the festive season and everyday:

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Avoid wrapping paper: try colourful fabric and re-usable ribbon to wrap any gifts, or use gift bags you’ve been storing.

Gift experiences: give gift cards for movies, or adventures that can be enjoyed with family or friends rather than buying another ‘thing’ which will eventually need to be discarded.

Fix it: all gifts don’t have to be new. Hand make something, or buy second-hand and refurbish. The kid’s cubby house pictured was purchased on Marketplace and carpeted and repainted by Kristie – it’s as good as new!

Cut festive food waste: have everyone bring a dish for Christmas meal, then divide up the leftovers and send it home with your family to eat over the next few days.

Spring clean in January: when the tree comes down, go through the house and clean. Dispose of unwanted toys and household good by donating anything useful to second-hand stores, and book a hard waste collection for anything that isn’t salvageable.

Meal plan and shop: prepare around planned family activities.

Take reusable bags: be sure to bring reusable or mesh bags for fruit and vegetables to the supermarket. Avoid buying plastic packaged products.

Eat the fridge: whatever food remains in the fridge on the night before shopping, create a pot luck meal out of it and start with an empty fridge ready to re-stock.

For more Kristie tips and some great advice on how to organise your ‘bin life’ go online to

playford.sa.gov.au/recycle-with-kristie

RECYCLING

Kristie at the refurbished cubby house which was purchased second-hand.