The Waste Management Project

In July I stumbled upon a Plastic Free July challenge in Facebook. I printed out the campaign poster which had a checklist of actions for platsic free behaviour and put it on our fridge at home. That way it was always in sight and although I didn't strictly follow any of the points on the poster, it was something I thought about from time to time. Our (not a private) house had recently gotten a paper and cardboard recycling bin, which was a nice step towards recycling more. But then around autumn I started to think about why we didn't then have a package waste container. I started to research how to recycle our packaging waste too. I looked at where the larger pacaging container in our area were. I looked at a list on the Estonian Environment Service page and wrote down the locations of the nearest containers. Then, I visited the places determining which suited the best and settled on a container that was both the closest (about a minute walk) and the most easily accesible (no lid to hold open while putting in trash, just open holes). I also got my mother to buy a large colourful reusable bag for our home's packaging bag. At first it took some taking use to to put all the packaging waste to the designated packaging bag not to other bins like the one in my room, but it is now, after a couple of months a settled routine. I usually take a little walk to the big container on Sundays and hopefully this routine will continue to be in place. It is quite amazing how much less garbage is there now under our sink in the all-other-waste bin after packaging and paper don't go there anymore. Now it's mostly biodegradable waste, but the next plan is to also get a compost? container. Me and my mother have looked into those as well and the plan is to have one in place some time in summer. I really think that our waste managment is of great significance to the global population and the future of us all and Estonians generally do not recycle half as much as they should. These have been some of my attempts to decrease my ecological footprint.