CW journalist Abbey Halter shares five sustainable things you can do from home during lockdown.
- Join a Zoom workshop with Canberra Environment Centre
CEC is offering some free online workshops, including: Introduction to Seed Saving with Arian from Canberra Seed Savers teaching how to grow more diverse, interesting and resilient varieties of food from waste; Setting Up A Small Farm with permaculturist and farmer Martyn Noakes teaching the basics of setting up your own small backyard farm; and even a course from ReCyclery teaching you how to fix your own bike!
- Sustainable spring cleaning with SCRgroup
We all love a good house clean out, but it’s important to maintain a circular economy and try not to contribute to fast fashion waste. SCRgroup has over 1,600 collections hubs across Australia where donated items are sent to local and international communities that need them more than us, and things that can’t be re-homed are turned into something new. When searching through your clothes and household items try to ask yourself: Would someone else like this? Can I sell it? Can I fix it? Remember, fast fashion ain’t fab!
- Educate yourself with environmental and sustainability podcasts
I’ve been on the podcast train lately and have really enjoyed listening to a few during the permitted one-hour walk around my suburb, so thought I’d share a few favourites:
- Sh!t You Should Care About: This one should be pretty obvious.
- Sustainable Minimalists: Stephanie Seferian is the queen of creating eco-minimalist, non-toxic homes with the slightest effort possible.
- Business of Biodiversity: This one hits a little close to home, so I only recommend if you’re not already on the verge of a climate anxiety breakdown, but this podcast is produced by the Grow Love Project for the NSW Saving Our Species Program talking about endangered Aussie animals.
- Start a compost bin for the house
I started doing this a few years ago and it’s easier than you might think. No need to go out and buy an expensive composting kit – that’s kind of missing the whole sustainability point. Simply find a little old bucket (preferably with a lid) for storing your food scraps in the kitchen and for the outdoor compost bin you could use a large plastic jug, cardboard box, wooden crate or even simply old bricks with some fencing on top. Just use whatever you can find in the shed and get creative!
- Buy vintage clothes from online, local second-hand sellers
I can’t get enough of vintage fashion (I’m partial to a retro ‘70s look) and have found some fantastic local online slow fashion and handmade sellers who really hit the mark. While the op-shops are closed for another couple of weeks at least, check out these funky online stores: Lost Vintage; Retrospect CBR; Love Twice; LLL Designs; and Dirty Janes.
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