The Low Carbon Challenge involves three months of prayerful action to shrink our carbon footprint. So what action to take? Nice as it would be, not everyone can afford to shell out for “big ticket” items like electric cars, solar panels, and Tesla wall batteries, so what are some less costly things we could do? Eileen tells us how she and her husband John are responding to the challenge.

Our little team-of-two from the Onslow Parish has chosen to focus on waste. First up, we have tried to reduce buying new “stuff” and to adopt the war-time mantra of “make do and mend.” Why buy new, using up more of the world’s resources, when we could perhaps repair or adapt something we already have? It’s amazing how satisfying it can be to come up with cunning ideas for ways to do this! Do we really need to by a brand-new scoop to clear out our guttering when we could fashion one from an old drink bottle? Solution nailed!

On the food and household shopping side of things, though, that strategy isn’t so easy. Yes, we can try to “grow our own” but we only have a very small garden. One solution has been for us to at least try and cut down on packaging – so, for example, taking our own net bags for putting loose fruit and vegetables in; buying liquids in larger bottles so as to cut down on the plastic-to-content ratio; buying from our local butcher, who does not pre-pack his meat; and trying some old-fashioned cleaning remedies using store-cupboard items we already have (who knew that using baking soda to clean an oven could work so well?!).

As to food waste, yes, one can find ways of using up oddments of food rather than just throwing them out, but there will always be vegetable peelings and other scraps. With Wellington not having a green waste collection service, what to do with them? Well, we already had a “worm farm”, but worms can be a bit picky! They don’t much like acidic, fatty or spicy foods and you can’t feed them bread, dairy, meat or seafood, so what to do with those? Then we came across the bokashi system, into which we can happily put all the things that the worms don’t like. (The one we have is a Zing Bokashi system, which you can get from the Sustainability Trust, but we have since discovered that a cheaper one called Maze is available from Bunnings.) In either case, you need to buy a microbe powder or spray to sprinkle on the layers of food waste as you add them, but they are both sealed with lids so don’t smell and can conveniently be kept in the kitchen. A disadvantage is that we have to leave our bin for 2 to 4 weeks once it’s full, so have had to buy a second one to use in the meantime. However, we then just dig a hole and bury the contents in the garden. It makes excellent fertilizer!

The other strategy we have adopted is to try to be much more careful with our recycling of non-compostable waste. Again, this is an area where we are not well served by the Wellington collection service. The pick-up trucks will collect glass, aluminum tins and drink cans, and paper, but only some kinds of plastic. Currently, plastics marked 1 and 2 can be recycled in New Zealand, but items marked with a 5 are shipped offshore (so not ideal). However, even within these “accepted” categories, there are rules and regulations: everything must be washed; lids must be removed (and not put in the bin); nothing except cardboard cartons must be squashed flat; and so on…

So, what to do with some of the stuff that can’t be put into the recycling bin? Well, we’ve discovered that the Sustainability Trust is great for smaller things. Everything has to be washed and pre-sorted, but they have collection bins for the plastic lids from milk bottles and fruit juice containers; metal jar and bottle lids; larger plastic lids like the ones from margarine cartons and yogurt pots (as long as they are numbered 2, 4 or 5); and used dental care products such as empty toothpaste tubes. They will also, for a charge, take collections of dead torch batteries and the like, and they are happy to accept curtains and child car seats for re-distribution to those who could use them. For a full list of what they take.

As to other things, we can put soft plastics like empty bread wrappers in a bin outside our local supermarket; and we have discovered a metal recycler at the bottom of Ngaio Gorge.

A couple of last points that we’ve become aware of. Reducing our use of plastics is important because most of them are derived, at base, from crude oil, natural gas or coal. Similarly, keeping stuff out of landfill is important, because as landfill waste decomposes, it emits gases that comprise over 90% carbon dioxide and methane.

In the end, every little bit helps!

By Eileen Barrett-Whitehead, Onslow Parish

See our Low Carbon Challenge page for more information on how you can get involved.