Reduce waste It’s a cinch!
Meet the family who’ve binned wastage for good
When Nic Turner drags her wheelie bin to the kerb, it rattles with a few broken toys that couldn’t be fixed or recycled. The only other things in there are some worn-out fabric from her family’s well-loved clothes.
Unlike her recycling bin that’s placed on the street every two months, it’s rare to see a rubbish bin outside Nic’s home because, incredibly, she and her husband Mike Ryan produce just one binful of garbage a year.
In 2012, the parents, who live in Auckland, NZ, with daughters Asha, four, and Makhi, two, completely changed the way they approached shopping and waste.
“We made one e small change at a time so it didn’t dn’t feel like a big deal,” says Nic, 40.
The family embraced braced the minimalist lifestyle yle six years ago after Mike developed oped dermatitis, leading the duo to question if something they were using on their skin had caused used the rash.
‘We focus on qualityy over quantity’
Ththe The couple started omitting certain soaps, moisturisers, cleaning products and laundry powders. They then began reducing their food waste, which Nic says forms a huge part of the average household rubbish bin.
“We got better at buying in bulk, freezing leftovers and creating compost – and wemade we made a worm farm!” she says.
Nic has also changed her clothes-shopping habits. “We focus on quality over quantity – fewer, better items that work well together,” she says.
The less-is-more concept has other benefits, too. “My washing pile never gets too big,” says Nic, who founded Mainstream Green, a website to share her wastereduction tips with others.
So what’s her advice to people wanting to ditch the waste? “It’s about having that micro-pause while you’re out shopping to think, ‘Do I really need this or want it?’ ” says Nic.