Have you been thinking about being more eco-friendly in the new year? With more and more people turning towards eco-friendly and sustainable practises at home, it’s become easier and budget-friendly to make your home more eco-friendly.
Mount Gambier residents and businesses are turning towards greener methods to save money, improve their wellbeing and to make their footprint a little bit lighter.
Here are some great ways you can get involved.
Composting and recycling food scraps
Composting and recycling your food scraps is one of the easiest ways to make your home more sustainable. It doesn’t take a lot to set up, and gives you some great, nutrient-rich soil to use in your gardens. Composting your food scraps and using the soil in your garden also means that you are suppressing plant diseases and pests, which in turn means you need to use far fewer chemicals in your garden.
The City of Mount Gambier’s Compost Revolution offers some great discounts on composting equipment to residents, including free delivery, helping you get started.
Ditch the plastic
We know that supermarkets and stores are minimising their plastic products, including shopping bags, but one area where we still use a lot of plastic is via our fruit and vegetable shopping. There are two simple solutions to this problem – using reusable vegetable bags and shopping at bulk food suppliers like Unpackaged right here in Mount Gambier.
Lujo Home is a South Australian online eco-friendly homewares company selling reusable organic cotton mesh vegetable bags. These bags will fit the majority of your fruit and veg, and with a high durability, will certainly last longer than plastic ones. Their reusable coffee cups are another easy swap for disposable ones.
If you’re shopping at a weigh-and-pay bulk food store or butcher, take along some containers or glass jars you already have at home to fill and reuse. Unpackaged also sell a range of calico and fine mesh bags, as well as reusable bread bags – an easy way to start to ditch the plastic in your life.
Upcycling
The Mount Gambier ReUse Market gives you the opportunity to pick up good-quality second-hand items. With everything from building materials and garden equipment through to sports gear, vintage plates, furniture and spare parts, this is a great way to give something a second life – and it means less waste going into landfill.
Have household items that are still in good condition but you just don’t need anymore? The ReUse Market accepts useful items in good condition.
Food Swaps
There’s a good chance you’ve heard of “meat-free Monday” and we all know that shopping locally is a great way to be a bit more sustainable, but it’s not always easy to make those changes to our diets and habits.
Meat Free Mondays have some great recipe ideas that will suit the whole family (and they certainly aren’t boring!). With everything from samosas and curries through to pastas and soups, you might even decide to do a few more meat-free days each week.
Shopping locally is an action that is much easier to swap. It doesn’t just mean shopping at your local stores – more thinking about where your food comes from and how many food miles it has done to reach its destination. Living in Mount Gambier, we are completely surrounded by fresh food that is well worth checking out including wines, fresh rock lobster and pick your own apples.
If you’ve been considering going a little bit more eco-friendly at home or in the office, there are so many small steps you can take that make the biggest of differences. Find more useful tips at the City of Mount Gambier website.
Are you looking to live a more sustainable lifestyle? Mount Gambier is the place to be.
If you’re looking for information on buying, selling or living in Mount Gambier, contact the friendly team at Complete Real Estate today.
