4.5 What can you do to help?

There is a lot you can do in your home, business and school to reduce the amount of waste you produce that enters a landfill. There are three main ways to reduce the amount of waste:

· Reduce the amount of waste that you buy. Check whether a broken appliance can be fixed rather then just buying a new one. Buy products with less packaging or more product in relation to the packaging. For example, buy a 2 litre of milk rather than two 1 litres and avoid fruit and vegetables that have excessive packaging.

· Reuse as much as you can. For example, use reusable products such as reusable shopping bags (available cheap at supermarkets) instead of plastic bags and use a washable plastic container for sandwiches instead of lunch wrap. Donate containers to local schools and kindergartens for crafts and plant pots to nurseries set up by landcare groups. Use waste paper as scrap/note paper.

· Recycle as much as you can. Buy products that are made with recycled materials and/or that are recyclable. Have a compost or worm farm at home for organic material including food scraps and garden waste.