Waste Not

Book excerpt: 'This is a much-needed guidebook from a true agent of change.’ Sarah Wilson The one book you need to reduce waste at home and in everyday life. We need to talk about waste. Shrink-wrapped vegies, disposable coffee cups, clothes and electronics designed to be upgraded every year: we are surrounded by stuff that we often use once and then throw away. Globally, many individual households produce enough rubbish to fill a three-bedroom home every year. This includes thousands of dollars worth of food and an ever-increasing amount of plastic, which takes hundreds of years to break down and often ends up in our oceans or our food chain. But what to do about such a huge problem? Is it just the price we pay for the conveniences of modern life? What if it were possible to have it both ways – to live a modern life with less waste? That’s where Erin Rhoads, aka The Rogue Ginger, comes in. Erin went from eating plastic-packaged takeaway while shopping online for fast fashion, to becoming one of Australia’s leading eco-bloggers. Erin knows that small changes can have a big impact. In Waste Notshe shares everything she’s learnt from her own funny, inspiring – and far-from-perfect – journey to living with less waste, to help you tackle your own war on waste. Learn how to: switch out the disposable plastics from your shopping trolley make simple cleaning solutions free from harmful chemicals find your favourite beauty products without all the packaging give a baby shower present that won’t end up in the charity shop bag plan your own zero-waste wedding (and what ‘zero waste’ even means!) Edited, produced and printed using low-waste principles on sustainably sourced paper with soy inks