Did you know food waste accounts for about 40% of Australia's household trash bins? It is estimated that each household spends $3,800 on groceries every year. One in five bags of shopping ends up in the garbage. OzHarvest is an Australian food rescue organization that has also revealed some other amazing facts about food waste. Almost half of the fruit and vegetable produced is wasted. One-third of all food is wasted or lost - around 1.3 billion tonnes - costing the global economy $940 billion per year. If one-quarter of food that is currently wasted or lost could be saved,...

Picnic season is here! Picnics often mean a lot of plastic-wrapped snacks in single-use, sliced portions on plastic trays and salads in single-serving plastic bowls or wrapping. The result is a mountain of garbage that needs to be dragged to the nearest trash can (hopefully not left there but taken! ). You can keep them plastic-free with some planning and thought when you have time. Or, you can use some trash less techniques during a last-minute picnic. Here are some tips for making picnics waste-free, including some easy and quick recipes. How to plan a zero-waste picnic You can prepare...

SUNCREEN IN A METAL TUBE! Finally, an option for sunscreen without plastic in a tube. Metal tubes make it easy to apply sunscreen and are better for the environment! Metal tubes are a great way to store sunscreen because they're durable and recyclable. They can be recycled and reused, unlike plastic tubes. The tubes also prevent spills and leaks, keep the sunscreen fresh, and make it easy to dispense without creating extra waste. So far, we have only found two sunscreens in metal tubes:   REFILLABLE SUNSCREEN APPLICATOR The compact and sustainably designed applicator for sunscreen can be filled again...

  Hemp textiles have become more prevalent in the past decade as environmental benefits were rediscovered. Hemp fabric is highly durable, breathable, and has a unique natural style. It's ideal for clothing, footwear, and homewares. Hemp fabric has been around for over 8,000 years. It made clothing, paper, rope, and many other products. Hemp requires less water and pesticides than cotton. The hemp plant is less space-consuming, produces faster, and improves soil health. Hemp fibers have many benefits, including being strong, moisture-wicking, antibacterial, and UV resistant. This means that you can wash your hemp clothes less often, saving water and...

The least wasteful practice is always using what you already have, so firstly, dig out last year's stationery and books with blank pages and resurrect what still works for this year's work. For those items that have come to their end of life, you can't recycle them in your curbside bin. Still, you can recycle old stationery through various other avenues like Biome's recycling program (AU), which accepts pens for recycling, and in a TerraCycle Office Separation Zero Waste Recycle Bin, which can be used to recycle any art supplies and office supplies. Another option is buying secondhand stationery or school bags from...

It can be difficult to live a waste-free life when many of the items we use every day are disposable or single-use. There are a lot of reusable products on the market, but they are not as widespread as disposables. You don't need to stop purchasing necessities in order to reduce waste. Reuse what you cannot refuse! Here are some other ways you can use items around the house instead of throwing it away. EGG CARTONSYou'd be surprised at how many uses you can get out of egg cartons. You can repurpose egg cartons in many creative ways. Use egg...

  Lucy received a Marine Biology degree in 2015. Lucy has been seeking opportunities to learn about the marine environment and has worked as a marine scientist on cruise ships. Follow Lucy's zero-waste journey on her Instagram account @zero_hero_movement, and find inspiration on her blog, The Zero Hero Movement.   I met Lucy, a fellow zero waster when I shared a video on my Insta Story of a cruise. The video was taken in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Vancouver is a coastal town by the Pacific Ocean, and you can see wildlife, such as seals, on the city's beaches. You can see whales...

  Cleaning. Cleaning is something I do more and more, I am sure. I'm aware that not everyone likes the idea of doing everything themselves, so I rounded up some of the best eco-friendly and all-natural cleaning products available. Before we get to the brands of eco-friendly products, let's define what they are. The government doesn't regulate terms like "eco," "natural," or "green." How can you ensure that the product you buy is good for you and the environment?   This post is sponsored. For more information, please read my disclosure policy. Cleaning companies in the US are not legally...