There is an argument, of course, that our economy relies on all our spending and consumption. That's true, but someone else can waste their hard-earned money.
My own journey is paying financial rewards. Here's how:
I paid for that stuff
One of the things that hits home for me when anything goes in the bin is that I paid real money for it.
Each and every item was bought because I was convinced I needed it. Yet it's astounding how many things are rarely used. This knowledge has resulted in me buying fewer homeware items and clothing in particular, just when the rest of New Zealand is going crazy for Kmart and big fashion chains such as H&M.
Packaging = dollars
The more packaging on something and the fancier the branding, the more you pay, yet that packaging ends up in the landfill.
It's best not to buy it in the first place and save the dollars. What amazes me is how primary produce such as apples and kiwifruit becomes "premium" as soon as it's branded Zespri or Yummy and sold in plastic bags for a considerably higher price and more waste.
Last weekend I bought loose turmeric tubers from the Lotus Supermarket for $7.49/kg. Less than 200m away in New World vacuum packed fresh turmeric works out at $24.95 a kg.
It's not just food
Clothing, toys, tools, home decor, sports gear and so much more makes up a lot of our waste.
That $79.99 toy vacuum cleaner or $49 industrial style bookshelf could well end up in the skip when people move home.
Try using toy libraries, sharing tools with friends, going to community workshops, op shops, school fairs, recycling centres and so on. Less things bought means less waste.
Why do we need two of everything?
I have resisted buying a standalone freezer. Constant cycling through my fridge freezer ensures we have just enough space available.
Owning two of the same thing means twice as much goes to the landfill.
Cheap clothes eat holes in our wallets
The cheaper clothing gets, the more fast fashion we buy and the fewer times we wear each item.
Research from Australia and the UK suggests we may dispose of tens of kilograms of clothing each year and wear the average item fewer than seven times.
Op shops simply can't sell everything we cast off any more. In our house we have made an active choice to buy high quality second hand items to reduce our waste and packaging footprint.
Nappies and sanitary products
Both of these are hugely expensive and unnecessary, in my view. Modern cloth nappies are easy and way cheaper than disposables.
As for sanitary products, the modern alternative is a menstrual cup, which is healthier, saves money every month and lasts for years. Figures from the Ministry for the Environment suggest 3 per cent of solid waste going to landfill is nappies and sanitary products.
Cleaning products and plastic bottles
I've started doing much of my cleaning with diluted vinegar or bleach in re-usable spray bottles.
Vinegar isn't far short of miraculous in the shower. Ordinary Janola bleach costs $1.80 a litre from Countdown compared to $9 a litre in a bottle labelled "Bathroom Spray".
All these individual bottles contribute to the eight per cent plastic waste in our landfills.
