Much of our household waste comes from packaging, or is made of paper and cardboard.  There are lots of easy little things you can do to reduce, reuse and recycle this waste in your house. 

Check out our interactive house of waste

Packaging

Packaging includes paper, plastic, glass, steel and aluminium that are used to preserve foodstuffs and protect other consumer goods from damage.  Between 1994 and 2002 about 83 kg of packaging was landfilled per person per year, although an increasing amount of packaging was also recovered every year during this time.

By weight, New Zealanders send more paper packaging to landfill than they do plastic, glass, steel and aluminium packaging. By volume, some packaging types take up more space than others.

Tips and ideas

• Buy products with less packaging 
• By products with recyclable packaging 
• Keep packaging and reuse it to wrap gifts or items you are going to store or move.  For example, bubble wrap and polystyrene can be reused to protect gifts being posted. 
• Reuse glass jars for jam, preserves, left over soup, or packet sauces.  
• Reuse plastic water bottles by refilling them with tap water or other drinks. 
• Use boxes and containers for arts and crafts, or donate them to a local school, kindergarten or community group.

Paper and cardboard

About 64,000 tonnes of paper and cardboard are landfilled in Canterbury each year.  But paper and cardboard is easy to reuse and recycle and can benefit both the environment and the economy.

• Reducing the amount of waste to landfill will extend the landfill's life.  
• Recycling paper is cheaper than sending it to landfill
• Commercial recyclers are creating local jobs. 
• Paper and cardboard recycling helps the New Zealand economy. 
• Processing recycled paper is faster and less expensive than growing trees for paper.

Tips and ideas

Reduce

• Set printers to print double sided and/or reduce copies to fit 2 pages onto one.  
• Check before printing. 
• Take yourself off mailing lists if you don’t read the information anymore
• Send e-newsletters using email 
• Opt for no paper statements when you use online banking
• Put lunches in reusable container rather than wrapping items in baking paper or plastic wrap.

Reuse

• Make notepads with paper used on one side only.
• Keep paper that has only been printed on one side for notes or arts and crafts.
• Reuse envelopes, folders and binders.
• Give your old magazines and journals to doctors' rooms, schools and libraries.

Recycle

Collect paper, newspaper, magazines, cardboard and paperboard for recycling. 
Buy recycled or recyclable products to support recycling businesses.

Buy recycled

As well as recycling your waste, it is important to think about how you can help 'close the loop' on recycling.  'Closing the loop' means that waste materials are continually reused, remanufactured, or recycled.  This results in the more efficient use of materials and energy and reduces waste.

As a consumer you can help to close the loop by buying items made of, and packaged in, recycled materials.  As demand increases for goods made from recycled materials the amount of materials being recycled will also increase.

Examples of products made from recycled materials:

• Writing paper, notepads, greeting cards, and other stationery supplies. 
• Household paper products, such as toilet paper. 
• Buckets, clothes pegs and other household plastic items.
• Products in recycled containers or packaging such as dish washing liquid.

To find out more about what recycled products are available in New Zealand have a look at the Buy it Back Guide.