Reduce your waste

Victoria is working towards shifting to a circular economy to benefit the community, economy and environment. We as individuals can help by reducing the waste we create in the first place.

Here's some local ways you can avoid, reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle and buy recycled. Let us know other simple and local options and we'll add them to the page.

Avoid

Only buy it if you really need it 

Say NO to single-use items

• Plastic bags - carry a reusable bag with you

Plastic bag ban
Better bag habits 
Nillumbik Boomerang bags

• Takeaway bottles - use a reusable drink bottle

• Disposable cups - drink your hot drink at the café or use a reusable takeaway cup. Find a Responsible Cafe near you that offers a discount if you bring your own clean reusable cup

• Straws - drink straight from the cup or carry a reusable straw with you  

• Balloons - use bubbles, reusable flags or bunting instead of balloons

Reduce

Buy items with less packaging

Choose loose fruit and vegetables over wrapped or shop at local markets

• St Andrews Market
• Hurstbridge Farmers Market
• Eltham Farmers Market

Reduce your food waste at home

• Find tips from the Love Food Hate Waste campaign

Buy electronic household items that are higher in quality and last longer

Put a 'no advertising' sign on your letter box 

Reuse

Choose reusable and refillable items over disposable ones

Use reusable containers and cups for takeaway food and drink

• Find businesses that accept reusable containers at Trashless takeaway
• Local social enterprise Green Karma supplies a wide selection of fresh and healthy pre-made meals and offers discounts when customers provide their own reusable containers
• Bridge to Eden Café have no takeaway cups and will lend china cups
• Zen Café in Eltham and Earthbound cafe in Eltham stock beautiful Change Cups created by the local Ceramics Collective 

Use bulk purchasing options for shopping by filling a reusable container

• Natures Harvest Whole Food Health Store in Hurstbridge supplies bulk products including cleaning detergents, honey, peanut butter, olive oil and more
• Organic Fix Health Food Store in Eltham supplies bulk foods, grains, nuts and more
• Thrive bulk wholefoods in Eltham 
• Refill your cleaning products with Roving Refills – coming soon to more areas in Nillumbik

Try supplying reusable containers when shopping at the deli and butchers

• Ritchies SUPA IGA Diamond Creek  
• Yarra Valley Poultry in Eltham

Switch to milk in returnable glass bottles

• Buy Schulz milk from Eltham Farmers Market and Hurstbridge Farmers Market 
• Buy Barambah Organics Milk at Dynamic Veggies Eltham and Hurstbridge Deli and Larder

Use reusable nappies and sanitary items

• Visit Going Green Solutions in Hurstbridge (sanitary items only)
• Try Modibodi underwear
• Search online for reusable nappy library services

Repair broken items rather than replace

• Bring your broken item to Warrandyte Repair Café 
• Contact The Little Speckled Hen in Hurstbridge - they have classes to make and creatively repurpose things

Buy, borrow, donate, sell or give away your good quality unwanted household goods or clothes 

• Search for your local Op Shops
• Eltham clothing bin is located near the Eltham train station car park
• Use online options for buying and selling secondhand items through Banyule and Nillumbik Buy Swap and Sell Facebook page, Warrandyte Secondhand Facebook page, Ebay and Gumtree
• Try buying, selling or sharing second hand fashion online using Depop or Tumnus
• Visit the toy libraries at Eltham and Diamond Valley libraries instead of buying new toys

Repurpose

Make unwanted used or broken items into new things

Contact Edendale Farm – they accept some items that could be used in community art activities

Repurpose old sheets beyond repair by cutting up and using as rags or cleaning cloths

Recycle

Use the kerbside recycling system correctly and make sure there are no recyclable items in your red landfill bin

Recycle all your food waste using a home composting system or your kerbside green bin

Collect any soft plastic packaging and plastic bags and take to Diamond Creek Coles or Eltham Coles and Woolworths

• Visit Redcycle for more drop off locations

Recycle your e-waste (any unwanted item with a plug, cord or battery) at:

• Nillumbik’s Recycling and Recovery Centre
• Small e-waste drop off point

Recycle your clothing though various programs

Edendale accepts a range of items for recycling

Visit Going Green Solutions to recycle: 

• various items through the Terracycle programs 
• old bras through Project Uplift
• mobile phones
• household batteries
• printer cartridges

Look up your item on our A-Z Recycling Guide to make sure you are disposing of it correctly

Buy recycled

Buy items made from recycled materials, such as gifts, copy paper and toilet paper

• Going Green Solutions sells bulk recycled toilet paper, sustainable catering supplies, containers and recycled products

Something to add? Please tell us