Bulk buying can help you fit into a smaller household footprint.

WHEN Wendy Branagan puts out her rubbish bin, she takes note of the date. “I mark it on the calendar so I can keep track. I can normally stretch it out to once every two months,” she says.

The Blackburn resident has been unwrapping herself from packaging waste for over a decade. She has established relationships with local shopkeepers who are happy for her to bring reusable bags and containers. “I found a container at the opshop that fits two loaves of bread perfectly, so I take that to the bakery every time,” she says.

Nevertheless, Ms Branagan acknowledges the “embarrassment factor” of bringing your own bags and rebutting supposed health concerns. “Sometimes, even after all these years, I have to really take a deep breath and do it anyway,” she says. “People are normally very encouraging.”

According to Sustainability Victoria’s ResourceSmart website, Australians use about 71 kilograms of plastic every year, on average. Our manufacturing industries may have declined, but our rubbish production is booming – per head, we rank second only to the USA.

Ms Branagan is motivated by the link between household waste and broader environmental concerns. “Packaging contributes to land clearing, mining and water use,” she says. “There’s a connection between the packaging we accept at home, the giant pool of plastic accumulating in the Pacific Ocean, and climate change.”

Among other waste-minimising habits, Ms Branagan always prepares a shopping list, doesn’t buy too much food at a time and tries to cook from scratch rather than using more highly packaged processed goods. For more tips, she recommends the Simple Savings website. “I’m amazed at how much money I save by shopping this way and not wasting food.”

Nick Ray, from the Ethical Consumer Group, says that while many people make an effort to minimise packaging, we tend to take a certain level of waste for granted, rather than change our habits.

And while he advocates recycling wherever possible, he notes that it’s still the third preference in the “reduce, reuse, recycle” hierarchy.

“There’s a myth that we can recycle plastic – it’s really a process of down-cycling,” he says. “Food-grade plastic isn’t recycled into food-grade plastic. So if we can avoid it in the first place, that’s something I’m keen to do.”

Mr Ray and his family are part of the Western Organic Collective. They purchase a box of veggies once a week directly from the wholesale market, and order dry goods, including flours, nuts, dried fruit and honey, every few months. “The collective buys in bulk and we take our own sealable containers along and divide it all,” he says.

The Ethical Consumer Group’s website has a list of commercial outlets where you can buy in bulk without packaging, as well as more information about how to start and run a buying collective.

More broadly, Mr Ray argues that we need to recognise the significance of our shopping habits in our overall household impact.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Consumption Atlas measures the greenhouse gas pollution, water use and land footprint of Australian households. “It turns out that food component is very high,” he says. “In Victoria, it’s about one quarter of household greenhouse gas emissions. And there’s another third behind the other products we buy.”

Learn from people who’ve shrunk their footprint.

IN the last three years, Alan Cuthbertson has halved his family’s consumption of electricity, water and gas. Next weekend, he’ll open his door to the public at large, and reveal the tips and tactics that have made all the difference.

The family’s Lower Plenty home will be part of Sustainable House Day on Sunday, September 12.

It will be one of about 180 houses on show throughout Australia for the free event, including 50 in Victoria and 12 in Melbourne. The homes will be open from 10 am to 4 pm.

The event’s coordinator, Judy Celmins, says the residences range from those with simple, low-cost alterations, right through to new dwellings complete with every imaginable innovation. Details of the homes are available on both the Sustainable House Day and shmeco websites.

Ms Celmins says visitors find it invaluable to see first hand the way people have altered their homes, and ask them how they did it. “Whatever stage you’re at, you can learn something,” she says. “It’s our ninth year and even the people who come every year say they always learn something new.”

Mr Cuthbertson and his family have been living in the same house for two decades, but only began retrofitting in the last few years – prompted by their daughter, who was then completing her engineering degree.

“We had lots of discussions about climate change and it convinced me that we should be doing something,” he says.

His message for visitors is that it’s not difficult to make improvements. “It’s not something you do overnight, but you just keep working on it.”

The Cuthbertsons have ticked off all the usual retrofitting measures, such as thorough ceiling insulation and draught sealing around windows and doors. They’ve also stopped the gaps left inside the kitchen cabinetry and around skylights.

By way of big-ticket technology, they’ve installed solar photovoltaic panels, a solar hot water system and a large water tank that fills from a collection point in the stormwater drain.

When their old central heating system needed to be replaced, they paid an extra $2000 for an efficient model that could heat in zones. “We only heat the core of the house and turn on the other rooms as we need them. That’s made a big difference,” he says.

Mr Cuthbertson is a computer programmer, and a tinkerer, so visitors will also be privy to a number of his nifty innovations, including a mirror that reflects sunlight inside during winter and a retractable blind over the clothesline that lets the washing dry on rainy days.

He’s also done some DIY double-glazing, and fitted cardboard pelmets that rest between the curtain rail and the architrave. “It’s a nice solution – they’re effective and a lot cheaper than putting on proper pelmets,” he says. “I’ve been concentrating on things that don’t cost a lot but give a reasonable return.”

A series of eight temperature sensors around the home feeds data into Mr Cuthbertson’s computer, informing him about the efficacy of the changes he’s made.

“I’ve put in a bit of effort and achieved a fifty per cent reduction in energy and water use, so I feel the politicians are selling us short on climate change,” he says. “There’s nothing special about what we’ve done. It’s all applicable to other homes.”