We asked the experts for some tips on how to be less of a trash monster. 

Do you ever just look around and freak out deep within your soul about how much crap there is literally everywhere? Whether it’s the inner-city gutters riddled with discarded vapes or the unimaginable scale of textile waste, it’s very easy to start feeling very stressed out about how much rubbish we create every day. Add to that the fact that the world dumps 2.12 billion tonnes of that into landfill a year, and that New Zealand contributes roughly 12.59 million of those tonnes, and you’ve got a lot to stress about this festive season as you mill about the mall buying a swathe of probably unwanted Christmas presents. 

So, as we look ahead to 2023, what can we do about *gestures around* all of this? We asked two experts to weigh in with their top 10 tips to reduce your waste in the new year. 

Look at your food waste

Hannah Blumhardt from The Rubbish Trip has been living without a rubbish bin since 2015, and says that food waste is the first useful place to start. New Zealanders throw out 122,547 tonnes of food a year – enough to feed around 262,917 people for 12 months. “The biggest thing that people can do, if they’re not doing it already, is to start composting or finding another system like worm farming or Bokashi,” says Blumhardt. If your living situation doesn’t lend itself to composting, ShareWaste (aka Tinder for food scraps) will find your food waste a good home. 

Curb the online shop

Nicola Turner from Mainstream Green worked in fast moving consumable goods for over a decade, explaining her role as “orchestrating things to get people to buy more.” As she began living more sustainably, she left the corporate world to “use her powers for good” and encourage people to cut down on consumption. Her top tip for buying less, particularly when it comes to online shopping, is to sleep on it. “Shut down your computer or just leave it in your cart for 24 hours, and just take a step back,” she says. “Do whatever you can do to break up that real instant gratification and focus on becoming a bit more conscious.” 

Plan for gifts

If you get stressed out buying presents for birthdays and Christmases, Turner suggests you keep a running list of things that you and your family really wants. “Then, if I really need something or there’s something that one of us really wants, then I can use the list to consciously take advantage of sales rather than be tempted by a whole lot of other stuff.” Blumhardt also recommends giving experiences, rather than things. “Think about buying movie tickets, or taking someone out for dinner, or even paying for someone to go to the dentist.” 

Cut down on packaging

“Most of what goes into people’s rubbish and recycling that isn’t food waste tends to be packaging, which tends to be associated with people’s grocery shop,” says Blumhardt. She encourages people to consider places that sell essential food items without plastic packaging, and even created this handy shopping guide for different regions across Aotearoa. “Not shopping in a big supermarket is a big part of it,” she explains. “Think fruit and veggie markets, zero-waste grocery bins, all those kinds of places.”

Buy secondhand

It’s not just the everyday items that cause waste problems, but larger items like electronic waste, clothing, and furniture. “We really encourage people to buy as much of that stuff secondhand as they possibly can,” says Blumhardt. “Having a ‘buy nothing new’ pledge in the new year is quite a good approach.” If something breaks or needs mending, take a look online and see if there is a repair cafe operating in your area. “If you’re committed to getting things repaired, you might also find that you’re giving a job to someone in your community that has specialist skills, like shoe repair,” says Blumhardt. Viva la cobblers!

Research for summer

If you are heading out of town for summer, there’s no reason why you can’t take your new low-waste lifestyle with you. Blumhardt recommends perusing the council website of your chosen holiday destination to see what the waste and recycling situation is. “A lot of people on holiday actually are using recyclables, but they might not know how to operate the system,” she says. “Just spending 30 minutes before you go somewhere is a really useful thing to do.” Speaking of summer, Blumhardt also warns against buying a cheap tent that you are going to chuck out after one festie. Also, don’t buy any novelty inflatables. 

Down with gift wrap

“I reckon that there’s probably enough pieces of paper in the world that, with a little bit of resourcefulness, we never need wrapping paper ever again,” says Blumhardt. If you find yourself wanting a waste-free Christmas, she recommends upcycling old newspaper, magazines, art projects, whatever you’ve already got lying around the house. For the most advanced waste-free wrapper, Blumhardt recommends Furoshiki, the ancient Japanese art of fabric folding. “It’s basically just a reusable cloth wrapping paper. You open the presents and then the cloth wrapping paper just goes back in the box for the next round of presents,” she explains. “There’s definitely no shortage of used textiles in the world to make squares of fabric with.” 

Go reusable

“Think about all the single use items that you tend to use when they’re out and about,” says Blumhardt. “We really encourage people to think about bringing their own containers for takeaway food or coffee, if they don’t want to carry containers around, just sit down, and have here.” She recommends you pack a daily kit containing cutlery, a multi-purpose jar and a couple of tote bags just in case you get caught short on the run. 

Start small

Turner’s sustainability journey started with changing her husband’s hand cream to something more environmentally friendly. She recommends taking things slow, one product or area of your life at a time, rather than trying to everything all at once. “It’s a lot more sustainable to keep things going in small, incremental changes,” she says. “If you try to do too much at once the beginning it can become really overwhelming, but when we slowly make those achievable changes we’re rewarded with all of those feel good endorphins for taking action.” Blumhardt says that for those with a bit of time on their hands over summer, the first small step could be learning how to make their own crackers, or muesli bars, or nut butter. Every bit counts, after all.