5 Easy Ways YOU Can Save the Planet (Yes, Really!)

The fact that climate change is an ever-growing, man-made risk is shockingly still a divisive debate among the general public, with most people unable to grasp the severity of the situation and how they’re contributing to it. They don’t realize that 2016 was the hottest year recorded since 1880, that sea levels are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years, that global flooding is predicted to triple by 2030, or that 21.5 million people have been displaced since 2008 as a result of climate change-related weather occurrences.

If they did, they would join the 43 percent of UK residents who do, too and take proactive measures to counteract their carbon footprint. Here’s how you can start helping now:

Walk more and utilize public transit

If possible, opt to walk or bike more often than driving. Not only will this reduce greenhouse emissions, but it will save you money on gas and parking, and help improve your cardiovascular health! If walking is not an option due to weather, distance, or general health, take public transportation as often as possible. If you have the kind of job you can perform at home, you may want to discuss telecommuting options, even part-time.

Buy second-hand instead of new

While there may be key things you only feel comfortable buying new, consider giving gently-used items a second home. Buying second-hand furniture, clothes, books, and more are instrumental to sustainability. This delays the amount of time before these items will reach over-crowded landfills, as well as saving the resources it would cost to manufacture more of them. Think that cost is too low to make a significant difference? Consider the 2,700 litres to make one cotton t-shirt, or the 6,800 litres it takes to create one pair of blue jeans! 

Reduce water usage

Studies have found that the average person in the UK uses approximately 150 litres of water every day—so, where is all our water going? Ever leave the tap on when brushing your teeth? That wastes six litres per minute. Have a leaky tap in your home? That can add up to 5,500 litres of water a year! Sure, you can turn off the water while you brush and fix that leaky tap, but what about your toilet? There are approximately 45 million toilets in the UK, using a whopping two billion litres of water every day! If you truly want to make an environmental difference, consider an alternative. Specialist companies like Mr John furnish portable toilets that can save over 470 million litres of water every day!

Read: How Improper Waste Disposal Can Affect the Environment!

Donate or recyclable electronics

Longevity is a feature you look for when you purchase a computer, smartphone, or other electronic, but that same benefit becomes an environmental nightmare when you’re ready to part ways with your e-waste. The glass alone has the potential to take 1 to 2 million years to decompose! Greenpeace has found e-waste to be extremely toxic, thanks to the rechargeable batteries’ cadmium, LCD screens’ lead, printed wiring boards’ mercury, and much more. While the raw materials can be recycled, they often find their way to landfills or overseas. Donating your electronics will help reduce e-waste and also give someone the opportunity to own something they may not have been able to afford otherwise—it’s a green win-win!

Eat less meat

While no one is forcing you to become a vegetarian, cutting out meat (especially seafood) one or two days a week and limiting your portions can make a huge impact. This will take the burden off of the cropland that grows the food your food eats, as well as limit the amount of antibiotic- and hormone-treated animal waste that could infect our water. An increase in seafood consumption is even more detrimental to sustainability efforts. With commercial fishing operations working to meet the demand, many species of fish are in danger of extinction. In fact, certain conservation experts fear our oceans could be empty as soon as 2048 if no changes are made. So, the next time you reach for a second helping of beef or order fish for dinner again, consider how easily you could make a difference instead.

Now that you have a better understanding of the current climate change issues we’re facing and how your everyday decisions affect them, join us in taking the first step toward a more sustainable tomorrow.

Hazardous Household Waste Items You Should Be Aware Of

Given that waste disposal is something that we all need to do, it pays to know a little bit about the kinds of different wastes we produce around the house and even at work. Some items, for example, can be hazardous not only to the environment but to our own health too. Importantly, many of these cannot be legally disposed of with your other regular trash items.

A good bin hire service provider or waste disposal professional will be able to dispose of these items in an environmentally-friendly way. It is, however, important that you identify and possibly limit hazardous items in your home, disposing of them thoughtfully and responsibly.

Let’s take a look at some of the most common hazardous waste items you may have around the house.

Household Cleaners

There are many cleaning products on the market that contain toxic chemicals. These can pose a risk to your family and often produce fumes that can be quite harmful. We’d highly recommend always looking for natural, bio-friendly cleaning products when you’re at the supermarket, as there are plenty of highly competent ones out there.

Batteries

Used batteries generally contain heavy metal and if not disposed of correctly, leakages can occur that are quite harmful to the environment. Under these circumstances, the pollution can damage soil and water. The majority of people will dispose of alkaline batteries in the regular trash, which is usually fine. However, we’d recommend looking at investing in rechargeable batteries if you can.

Lead-acid batteries, such as car batteries, are a different story altogether. The lead and/or sulphuric acid that is contained inside them is corrosive, posing a risk to health and safety. Car batteries should usually be taken to a hazardous waste drop-off point.

Paint, Solvents and Paint Thinners

If you’re renovating or brushing up around the house, the best thing to do with leftover paint is to quite simply use it at a later date. More to the point, you should try to buy as much paint as is needed for the job - obviously, this is sometimes easier said than done. We’d generally recommend that you buy organic, water-based paint if possible as this is more environmentally friendly. If there is simply no way to use your leftover paint, try to give it away to a friend. Remember that you should never be running it down the drain or throwing it in with your regular trash under any circumstances. If worst comes to worst, get in touch with a waste contractor.

Tyres

Tyres remain one of the most problematic household waste products, given that a large percentage are dumped illegally and many end up in land-fill. They are also often burned in stockpiles, which poses serious health and environment risks, releasing toxic gases in the process.

Luckily, the material from used tyres can be used for other things, and there are places you can take them to ensure they’ll be recycled. You can also arrange for disposal of your tyres when originally purchasing them in some cases.

Remember that there are many resources online that can provide additional information about how to properly dispose of hazardous waste materials, so if you’re unsure you can always do some research online.

How the Council is Helping to Keep Public Spaces Clean

If you’re like us, you know the importance of keeping the environment healthy. Concern for the environment is on the rise and more and more people are starting to recognise that we all need to do our bit to ensure the planet’s well-being for future generations. This not only means reducing our impact on the environment and trying to keep our carbon footprint to a minimum, but also helping to keep public spaces clean. 

Let’s look at a few of the things communities have been doing to help ensure that this happens.

More Rubbish Bins

You’ll notice that there are more rubbish bins than ever before in the street, in parks and in other public places. It stands to reason that this encourages people to use rubbish bins; people are rarely littering on purpose and will generally put rubbish were it belongs if there is a bin nearby. Nowadays, it’s also about having the public sort their waste according to bins for glass, paper and cardboard and food waste. More bins have cigarette trays as well, which can encourage smokers to bin their butts.

Hiring Ample Cleaning Staff

Cleanliness breeds cleanliness; if people see that a park is sparkling clean, for instance, they’re less likely to litter themselves. That why it’s been important for these areas to be properly staff by cleaners and council workers. Keeping a clean public space increases the likelihood that it will remain clean. Festivals organisers, for instance, will always invest in grounds staff to take care of the litter problem, which they know is inevitable.

Prohibiting of Alcohol and Smoking

Part of the reason that alcohol is prohibited in some parks and on the streets is the litter problem. People loitering around these areas drinking are much more likely to litter than if they were doing so in the comfort of their homes or at a licensed venue. Of course, this is not the case for all parks, and often these rules won’t be enforced unless it’s taken to excessive lengths.

There are also rules against smoking in some parks and certain public places, again lessening the impact of cigarette butts in these areas. Studies show that 50% of littered items are cigarette butts, which is a staggering proportion. As time goes on, laws that encourage people to do most of their smoking at home may help to reduce this figure.

Fining Litterers

Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that people will litter and it can be difficult to spot them.

Ensuring that there are strict fines in place can act as a deterrent and reduce the amount of littering in the community. It’s also important that people are aware that there are fines, so having signs around reminding people has been important too. In one sense, littering like speeding on the roads, which can be lessened, but never fully stamped out, by putting fines in place.

These are just a few of the ways councils have been trying to tackle the littering problem to ensure public places stay clean. Community awareness is also very important in order to lessen our impact on the environment and the cost not only to the planet, but to us as well. If you’re looking for more information about waste management and bin hire in Dandenong and surrounding suburbs, speak to the team at Metro Bin Hire today.

The Top Interesting Facts about Waste Management

With environmental concerns facing people’s lives the world over, it is little wonder that so many governments, companies and individuals are turning to more environmentally friendly approaches to their waste. As landfill sites become mountains in their own right, there are many things people can do to help save the environment, local wildlife and even the money in their pockets. Here are some interesting facts about waste management that may change your opinion on going green.

  

Each person in Europe on average creates over 3.5 tonnes of waste per year - this equates to over 1.8 billion tonnes of waste in Europe each year in total.

With more and more people using their recycling bins to dispose of their own personal waste, thankfully this figure should come down in the future. But where does all this waste go? Many landfill sites are chock-full of rubbish, creating no-go zones in many rural areas across Europe.

Many of these land-fill areas of the past have been turned into residential areas that have to be specially piped to ease off some of the marsh gas that is released by the rubbish that has been dumped underneath the city’s suburban areas.

In 2010, Americans recycled 85 million tonnes of waste, accounting for a 34.1% recycling rate.

Recycling rates in western countries are on the rise, but with many third-world countries coming up to speed when it comes to industrialisation and modernization, the world recycling rate is set to fall as more of these nations grow and use more items to turn into waste.

More has to be done to combat the problem of landfills, but more can and is being done to combat the problem in different ways. Biodegradable food packaging is one area of interest for ethical food manufacturers as we move into an era of green living, with many companies being set up that offer edible food packaging or package-free items readily available in many modern supermarkets.

Over 40,000 tonnes of plastic waste is dumped into the world’s oceans each year

This shocking statistic not only says a lot about the way we recycle plastics around the globe, but it also says a lot about how we treat the environment around us. Having already filled many land-fill sites in many countries, we now pollute the seas which have devastating effects on marine life. In the video, there's an example of the effects of dumped plastic waste into the ocean in marine life.

The plastic that is dumped into the seas is having a terrible effect on the mating cycles of many animals, with particular chemicals in the plastics affecting different species in tragic ways. A recent study showed that certain fish have changed their mating habits due to higher than average toxins in the seas, thought to be caused by the chemicals contained in some plastic packaging.

Each year, over 24 million tonnes of grass clippings and leaves are disposed of and not recycled.

By changing the way we use packaging, paper, and even grass clippings we can have a drastic beneficial effect on our environment. Interesting facts about waste management like this show that if the grass clippings alone were to be composted rather than thrown in a landfill, major areas in land-fill space could be conserved, and we would be able to recycle and compost even more than we do presently.

Waste management is an important aspect of modern life that none of us can afford to ignore. We can save the environment, save on our shopping bills and not have to rely on old methods of burying our problems in the sand for future generations to discover.

How to Create a Zero-waste Home

Recycling, minimising waste and saving money is high on most people’s list when it comes to creating a harmonious home that has a better impact on the environment compared to a few years ago. With many different authorities offering waste management services, as well as recycling bins for every home, the damage to the environment has had such as impact from waste, that many are turning to creating eco-friendly homes to help ease the burden on mother nature.

A zero-waste home doesn’t just mean putting the newspapers in its assigned recycling box, or taking out the garbage in an eco-friendly way – a zero waste home encompasses the entire home and aims to reduce waste not just in terms of garbage, but in terms of power, space and money to create a more efficient, environmentally-friendly home.

Re-think Your Wastefulness

To create your zero-waste or near-zero waste home, you will have to re-think everything in your home and create a checklist to minimise on all waste that comes in and out of the door on a daily basis. This means buying food in bulk to minimise the waste associated with plastic packaging, filling your fridge with food to ensure your refrigerator is working at its optimum output.

Eating fresh fruit and vegetables will help reduce the harm on the environment when it comes to unrecyclable plastics. Not only will you help the health of the environment, you will be able to feed your family with good, wholesome produce that is rich in vitamins and minerals instead of processed foods.

Even something simple as choosing a carpet can have a drastic effect on how you run, and pay for your home. We all love a big fluffy rug in the middle of a room, but you can save money, power and time by choosing a carpet that helps insulate your room as well as being able to clean with a broom instead of employing a powered vacuum.

Get Creative with Cleaning Supplies

When buying cleaning supplies, think of the harm that can be done to the environment from the use of harsh chemicals, cleaning acids and substances that can also have a negative effect on your health. Take some time to find old remedies for cleaning your house, such as a newspaper for the windows instead of that horrible pink stuff, vinegar and natural cleaning substances for work surfaces, as well as lemons and oranges to mix with other ingredients to help your house shine and smell wonderful!

Huge Money Savings to Enjoy

Not only will creating your own cleaning products and washing powders save you a lot of time and effort at the supermarket, you will also notice a drastic drop in your grocery bills at the end of the month. Saving money will be a great incentive to keep up the zero-waste policy around the home, with extra money available to treat the family in style.

Helpful Waste Management Tips for Homes and Businesses

Having a big clear out? Renovating your home or business? Then finding the right way to dispose of your waste is very important! If you are having a big clear out of your home or business, making sure that you are conforming to all the regulations regarding waste disposal is vital in ensuring your waste is taken care of properly.

One of the best ways to ensure that you are disposing of your waste in an environmentally friendly way is to enlist the services of a professional waste disposal company to dump your trash. Bin hire in Melbourne is a sought after service, so finding a local company that can deliver a skip for you to fill should be high on your priority list.

Recyclable skip hire

Most skip bins hire companies will be able to help you find the ideal size skip for your waste management purposes and allow you to set a delivery and pick up a date of your skip to allow you to remove all of your unwanted goods in a single visit. If you require larger, industrial-sized skips for your business, a regular skip bin service may be required.

Waste management can be a troublesome problem for many businesses who have to deal with large amounts of packaging, deliveries as well as paper waste, general trash and confidential customer documents. It is essential in cases where confidential data or documents are disposed of to follow all of the regulations regarding the disposal of such documents in a confidential way.

Creating a disposal plan every month is a sure fire way to ensure all of your waste is managed properly. You must ensure that to help the environment, necessary bins or skips are reserved for waste that can be recycled. This is a great way to ensure that your business relies on a green model for others to look up to and follow.

Your business can benefit by recycling

You may even be able to benefit from government schemes that champion local businesses that are environmentally friendly, as well as spearhead local schemes that aim to educate others to go green. The environmental impact of waste has a huge effect on the local area that you live in, so working together with partners may allow you to further boost your businesses carbon footprint.

Even the smallest amount of waste may have an impact on the environment, so choosing a Melbourne bin hire company that deals with the local recycling centre are a great step in the right direction. Ensure that your waste is disposed of by professionals who understand the environmental impact of waste, and your business could end up saving money in the long run by using recycled paper and other disposable products.

Choosing the Greenest Waste Removal Service in Melbourne

Since the turn of the century, more and more electrical items have become so popular around the world for their labour-saving tasks around the home, but the troubles sand difficulty in disposing of televisions, refrigerators and other electrical items has become more and more apparent. Many electrical items in both household and industrial applications contain toxic chemicals, dangerous metals and waste products that not only pose harm to life but also a danger to the environment.

Many people regularly upgrade their household electronics to the latest models, leaving millions of tonnes of television sets, computer monitors and old PCs as well as microwaves and mobile phones each year. Contaminants such as cadmium, lead and flame retardants are contained in such items and need to be disposed of in a safe and cautious manner. Around Melbourne’s landfill sites, special disposal waste bin hire and skips are provided to ensure that these electrical items are separated from household waste and other products.

Sorting through this waste before disposal can prove a hassle especially considering the multitude of different scrap items a regular household disposes of, and many people choose to enlist the aid of a specialist e-waste disposal contractor to do this for them. There are many benefits of hiring a waste management contractor, as hassle is kept to a minimum. Most contractors can supply specialist skips to sort your electronic waste from regular trash and will be able to collect your waste on site.

Your professional waste removal contractor will dispose of your e-waste carefully and in accordance with state laws, ensuring no electronic waste will enter an all-purpose landfill where groundwater contamination and occupational safety are minimised. The environmental impact of electronic waste disposed of a non-cautious manner can have cause serious harm to health and the environment. Many carcinogenic toxins, gases and heavy metals can be released into the environment, polluting water systems and air purity.

Not only does disposing of electrical items pose a safety and health risk to people and the environment, but not properly disposing of computers, mobile phones and hard drives can allow the potential theft of data. When disposing of items such as computers, laptops and hard drives ensure that all data is wiped from them before disposal to reduce the risk of data theft.

Potential theft of personal data, banking details and credit card numbers is on the rise, so ensure your data is protected. A professional service for electronic waste removal in Melbourne such as a licensed contractor will be able to inform you or your business as to the necessary steps to ensure data protection.

Recycling plays a huge role in the disposal of electronic waste, and with many companies providing waste bin hire around Melbourne, as well as being able to offer their services that both collect, sort and scrap electronic items down to their raw materials.

You can ensure that you or your business can help reduce waste, minimise the risks of environmental impact as well as dispose of data-containing hardware securely. It has never been easier to dispose of your e-waste, with more contractors than ever ready to lend a hand in freeing your trash burden in the greenest way possible.

Sustainable Waste Disposal Methods

Rubbish disposal can be a confusing task these days. There are different types of skip bins for different types of wastes. What if there's only one dedicated bin for throwing out every type of rubbish? Disposing of waste requires that you have a means of taking the items to a disposal facility. Carrying rubbish with you can leave your vehicle dirty and smelly. And, you could be up for any number of trips to the disposal facility to dump the rubbish. A Professional skip bin provider can save you from the bother of dealing with it.

Hiring a Skip Bin

With many people deciding to undertake large renovations to their homes, DIY tasks and the removal of large amounts of unwanted furniture, it's necessary to hire the services of a waste removal specialist. Skip hire is an ideal way of making sure that all of your unwanted items, rubbish materials and general waste are taken care of.

Skip Bins Ensure Proper Sorting of Your Waste 

With a skip bin a simple call away, it couldn't be easier to take care of your waste disposal needs. Your rubbish will be sorted for recycling at a disposal facility, giving you peace of mind and ensuring environmentally friendly methods of disposal. However, keep in mind that a large proportion of waste that is disposed of is building waste and general garbage, which can't always be recycled. In these cases, it is often incinerated or put into landfill.

So What are the Advantages of Hiring a Waste Disposal Specialist?

The obvious benefit comes from the service itself; you're able to dispose of large quantities of waste quickly and without giving it another thought! But value for money is also something you should consider. Many companies' skip prices are based on the size of the skip itself, so it pays to think about what size you need and planning accordingly. The company will be able to advise you as to the most appropriate bin and size for your needs and they should also make you aware of what should and shouldn't be put in a skip. For instance, it can be unsafe to put hazardous materials and substances into the skip bin.

In many instances, a skip can be delivered within 24 hours. This is a great benefit, especially during renovation and redecorating work when time constraints are at a premium. The skips can be placed onto your driveway or front yard, provided there is enough room. This is ideal if you are intending to dispose of heavy items that are difficult to lift and carry over long distances.

Whether you're renovating, doing some home improvements or just removing household goods, you can get a great deal on skip hire by utilising the professionals in waste disposal throughout Melbourne and indeed statewide. It's as easy as filling your skip and having your rubbish taken away, leaving you free to continue your work with the peace of mind that your waste management is taken care of.