Zero Waste, our path towards re-using products and removing waste

We live in a world where we are constantly consuming, because of this, and a growing population the re use of products purchased can really help the environment.

When you are looking to be zero waste, it takes many decision on how you will support your life and business in a way that allows you to follow the principles of re use that we want to adhere to.

Food packaging

Over the past years we have worked hard to ensure that we buy our food with zero waste packaging, or at the minimum packaging we can re-cycle. We look at the stores we purchase from, and how they package and manage their waste, we like to support local stores and hope that our business and attitude towards waste will be seen by other businesses as something that they can also move towards.

Water and drinks

Plastic bottles are one of the most polluting items, and with only 7% of plastic being recycled, removing the use of plastic when it came to water and drinks was high on our agenda.

In order to remove plastic from our water requirements we installed a reverse osmosis unit that produces hot and cold water, also with gas, this semi industrial unit allows us to deliver water to guests in reusable glass bottles. We chose to use a made in Italy product Shurity that would ensure we had great customer support and access to spares when needed.

Food waste

Our food waste is minimal, but is composted and used on the land, This ranges from vegetable cuttings, through to grape stems after processing the grapes to make wine.

Fuel and power

We have wanted to move to full electric and hybrid vehicles and now we utilise a mixture of both, we drive a Toyota hybrid car and use electric mowers and small tractors around the property. We do however still have a diesel land rover that I will be converting to electric next year and a diesel tractor that we hope we can replace or convert when either electric tractors become available or electric kits that could work in our tractor become available.

The future for Zero Waste

Zero waste is no fast fad here today gone tomorrow, it is a way that we can help the planet we live on, and thus help ourselves. When it comes to books about Zero Waste Bea Johnson’s book in 2013, called;

Zero Waste Home The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste

This book brings to us the five Rs for a living a zero waste lifestyle: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot. The book is the resource for creating your own zero waste home or business.

The key points of her zero waste focus is:

Refuse – Say no to disposable single-use plastic, coffee cups, utensils, straws, shopping bags, and anything that you could replace with a reusable option.

Reduce – Watch what you buy and buy only what you need, thus limiting consumption.

Reuse – Before throwing something away, could you repair or reuse it for a purpose other than its intended use.

Recycle – recycling is not fully sustainable but it is better than having waste go to landfills

Rot – this equates to Compost, composting options are available to everyone no matter where you live, in a city, suburb or in the countryside.

Anything you can do to support Zero waste is appreciated, we hope that through all our efforts we can make a difference.