Appliances

Avoid – The best thing for the environment is to avoid buying new appliances. Realistically we can’t live without the basics but I do avoid as much as I can and really enjoy the extra space in the kitchen. No bread-makers, rice-cookers, waffle makers or yogurt makers for us. I prefer to do it by hand if I can or buy an appliance that can do as many things as possible. Check out our life hack bread and yogurt recipes.

Quality – To reduce landfill rubbish buy the best quality you can afford, and try to buy items made of steel rather than plastic, most notably jugs and toasters.

Repair – If something does break, it could be repaired; try a yellow pages search, e.g. appliance repairs, or try re-homing it through Freecycle or with a no reserve Trade Me auction to someone who can use the parts or has the skills to repair the item and keep it going. 

DVD Player – Eric wrote in with this great suggestion: “An old DVD player might not play DVD’s anymore, but more than likely can still play audio CD’s, so take it off the TV and connect it to the sound system.”