In The Garden
An easy way to cut down on waste and lower the cost to get a healthy-looking garden is investing in a worm farm or compost bin. Not only is this a fun project that the kids can get involved in, it’s fantastic for your garden and your hip pocket with the Northern Beaches Council’s initiative, where you can learn about ecological gardening and receive a $90 voucher to put towards your new compost bin or worm farm. Check out the link for more information.
Ever notice that after the rain, your grass looks greener? That’s thanks to the nitrogen in the air being forced into the grass by the rain, similarly if you put a few buckets out when it rains, you can use this to water your indoor plants too creating the same ‘greening’ effect. Or why not shower with a bucket at your feet – and use the water to water your garden.
Recycling
As a community, we have come leaps and bounds when it comes to bin night, and it’s now the norm to make full use of the blue and yellow bins. However, perhaps it’s worthwhile to pause before heading to the recycling bin and consider, ‘can it be re-used again?’ Some items could be used for note paper, or are good for keeping the kids entertained with some art and craft activities.
Energy Efficient
Reducing your carbon footprint around your home is an easy and effective way to go green. Simply turning off lights when leaving the room and opening the curtains to allow lots of natural light in the room.
Look at investing in energy efficient light bulbs that not only use less energy, but they won’t need to be changed as often and of course try this in conjunction with installing solar panels, which will not only reduce your power bills, but at certain times of the year make them close to zero. Although the upfront cost is substantial (generally between $7,000 – $10,500) some banks such as Commbank are advertising a ‘Green loan’ where eligible customers can access a low, 10year fixed rate for an amount between $5000 – $20,000 for borrowers to use to install ‘eligible’ clean energy products such as solar panels, battery packs and solar hot water systems or rainwater tanks at the property secured by an existing home loan.
These are just a few ways to make a positive impact on our environment and are mostly an excellent way to save money too!