365 Sustainable Decisions Challenge

I sometimes find bags with dogs poo next to the road. I always wonder why someone would leave a bag like that behind, because where I live you have to dispose it and when leaving it, it takes a lot, lot longer for the poo to degenerate. If you know the reason, I’m eager to learn about it.

A while ago, I learned about a campaign to inspire each and everyone of us to bring outdated or unused pills back to the pharmacy. By doing so, they can be disposed of properly. Otherwise they can for example pollute water. 

I have never tried this before, but like the idea, as I'm looking for alternatives to synthetic sponges. And in case I don't need a sponge, I can eat them as cucumber.

As hair can be used as fertilizer, we decided to give my boyfriends’ beard hairs after shaving to my plant. I hope my plant likes it :).

Where I live, glass is collected separately (#96). But there are different bins, depending on the color of the glass. So I make sure I put the correct color in the correct bin.

During my holiday, I played ping pong after a long time. As I was playing, I noticed that the rubber had dried out so much that it crumbled. Instead of leaving it there or sweeping it on the ground, I picked it up and put it in a bin.  

As my partner loves to drink coffee, I wondered whether the coffee grounds can be put to good use as well. I learned that there are many ways, including using it as fertilizer.

A long time ago, I learned that natural waste is left in forests in The Netherlands as it is better for nature including biodiversity. So, every time I see an untidy forest, I'm happy!  

Why is composting organic waste better than sending it to landfill? In landfill, organic waste rots due to the lack of oxygen. Result: CO2 and methane. When composting, oxygen is available. Result: CO2 only. Good, as methane contributes 25x more to climate change than CO2.

#Composting is not only a great way to reduce the mount of biological waste that goes to landfill, we can also put it to good use when growing our own food. #sustainableLiving Loading... Twitter Embed Code Retweet text: How satisfying and rewarding, the first of my very own compost, going onto the veggie #nodig beds, for next Spring. . Worth the 2 year wait for the compost 🥳👏🏻 #compost #GardeningTwitter #garden #gardens

In my parents garden, I found some of these plastic containers. I asked whether my dad still needs them or whether I can dig them out. He didn't need them anymore, so I took to prevent plastic from ending up in the soil, I put them into recycling. And, I put the little plants that were growing in them back in the earth.    

O no! I didn't think of putting the bins with paper waste out this morning. As it is collected every 4 weeks, I had to rent a bus (I don't own a car) and drive about 2 miles/3,3 km to recycling. Very inefficient! So, I'm grateful that normally a truck collects it for us all!

A while ago, a built a compost bin (#128). Since then, I’ve been gathering things that can go in there. So I’ve started composting my biological waste. Now all kind of animals can get some food there and the waste company doesn’t have to collect it.

Many wrappings are made of paper and plastic. I have been wondering how this works in the recycling machines. Reading a bit more on this on the internet taught me that it is important to separate as much as possible so that scanning machines can do there job properly. This wrapping is even designed for this.

Recently, one LED light and one halogen lamp (I couldn’t replace this one by an LED light) broke. As I’m not sure how to dispose them so that they can be recycled properly, I informed myself online. I learned that I can bring them to shops that sell lights, as they will be able to dispose them properly. So I will do so when I go there anyway.

In the ladies toilet, I often find a sign not asking us to NOT throw sanitary towels in the toilet.  I always wonder why these notes are still needed.  Well, I now understand after watching a TED-talk about this. Apparently there are a lot of people still doing this.  Even though I never do this, I add this item as it is so important to keep using the bin for waste.

The times it was my turn this year to push away the snow, I decided to just shovel it aside instead of using salt. It worked perfectly and saved a lot of resources.  

I recently realized my drain got clogged. As I refuse to use chemicals to clean it, I started with taking the drain apart and clean the tubes. I admit it was disgusting at times, meaning it was very worth it. And for the bit I can't take apart, I use baking soda and vinegar.

Where I live, a lot of rubbish is separated to make sure that as much as possible can be recycled. One thing that needs to be separated is glass. I bring it to a glass container instead of throwing it in my bin.

To make sure that the toxic contents of batteries are taken care of and don’t land in our environment or can even be recycled, I bring my batteries to a special battery disposal place. I found this box at the supermarket, so it’s easy when I go there anyway.