Perth Voice Interactive

FOR more than two months Ditte Eden’s family has been producing just one bag of rubbish a week.

The Mt Lawley family had been reducing its rubbish output for a while but recently, when Ms Eden’s partner, Merlin, prepared to take the Sulo out he found it was empty. That week’s waste was just a half-bag, still sitting in the bin under the sink.

Ms Eden says cutting rubbish was an organic process.

“We didn’t set any goals, it just kind of happened,” she told the Voice.

“When starting a family we got more into cleaning up our diet and getting rid of toxic chemicals and cleaning products in our house. And then one of the other things was plastic: I wanted plastic out of my life.”

Originally from Denmark, Ms Eden says, “I remember when I first came to Australia I read an article about an artist who hadn’t bought any bottles in a couple of years, and I thought ‘how do you do it?’” But now her family doesn’t drink soft drinks, cutting out plastic bottles, and keeps a few mason jars in the car to fill with coffee or smoothies instead of getting takeaway cups.

Composting takes care of most food waste, and buying fruits and vegies in a box from farmers’ markets means no styrofoam nor plastic packaging.

Using freecycle websites has helped Ms Eden offload things that might otherwise go in the bin: she listed online a broken radio that was junk to her, but it was quickly snapped up by someone who could either repair it or dismantle it for parts.

It’s not the only unorthodox measure the quirky family’s taken up: It’s also got rid of its couches, in line with ideas popularised by US biomechanist Katy Bowman, who says we should always be moving, readjusting and rebalancing to stay healthy and not sitting for hours in the same position on the couch.

Ms Eden’s hoping to inspire other people to cut down on their weekly rubbish quota too. She blogs all her tips at http://www.ditteeden.com

by DAVID BELL