Been thinking of giving your time to those in need, but not sure where to start? These worthy causes are always looking for helping hands.
1. Travel by public transport. Not only will you save carbon emissions created by individual cars, but Melbourne’s tram network is entirely offset by solar power.
2. If you do need to travel by car, consider joining a car share service, like GoGet. After all, most cars are parked 95 per cent of the time.
3. Walk or cycle when you can. Melbourne has just been ranked one of the best cities in the world to live car-free.
4. Buy (and use) a reusable cup for your takeaway coffees. See responsiblecafes.org for a list of cafés that will give you a discount for using a reusable cup. Need more than one coffee in a day? Consider a Huskee cup, made from coffee plant husks – bring your cup into a participating café and you can swap it for a fresh one. Or you could drink your coffee on premises – what’s five minutes?
5. Learn about urban beekeeping at Somers Bees or Rooftop Honey, then start your own hive on your balcony, backyard or roof to encourage biodiversity. Plus you’ll get free, delicious honey.
6. Buy your fruit and veggies from an accredited farmers’ market.
7. No time to get to the market? Ceres Environment Park will deliver fresh, seasonal, organic fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy items, as well as bakery goods, home and beauty products and pantry staples. All items are sourced locally and support local farmers.
8. Buy your dry goods in bulk at the Source Bulk Foods, in BYO containers.
9. BYO containers and get your cleaning products from Roving Refills. These folks travel to markets and events around Melbourne filling up BYO containers with everything from laundry liquid to pet shampoo.
10. Shop for clothes IRL instead of ordering fast fashion online, or visit op shops and vintage stores where you can.
11. Visit one of Melbourne’s brilliant libraries instead of ordering new books from Amazon.
12. Compost. No compost bin or space? Many councils take kitchen scraps in green waste bins and turn them into compost. If yours doesn’t, sign up to Sharewaste and give your kitchen scraps to someone with a compost bin, worms or chickens.
13. Instead of staying at home with your air conditioning or heating on, go out and see a live show.
14. Recycle. This is an obvious one, but there are lots of things (batteries, pet food pouches, polystyrene) you might not know you can recycle. See sustainability.vic.gov.au for more details.
15. Oenophiles should head to ReWine at Queen Victoria Market or Lygon Street and fill reusable bottles straight from the barrel.
16. Buy delicious, local, full-cream milk in refillable glass containers from Schultz.
17. Broken electronics? Take them to a repair shop to see if they can be fixed before tossing them. Resurrection Radio is a good place to take AV equipment and turntables.
18. Broken for good? Dispose of your old and broken e-waste (anything with a battery, cord or plug) at a designated drop-off centre. Many Officeworks stores will also accept old electronics for proper disposal.
19. Bring a reusable bag wherever you go. Biome offers a variety of sizes and styles (including produce bags).
20. Does your office use a pod coffee machine? Ask management if you can swap the supplier to a reusable brand like Crema Joe. The team provides metal, reusable pods and swap them out on a regular basis to reuse the pods, recycle the tops and use the grounds in fertiliser or beauty products.
21. Don’t buy new toys, borrow them from a local toy library.
22. Embarking on a bit of DIY? The Brunswick Tool Library has plenty of tools for you to borrow – and there are also classes available to teach you how to use them safely.
23. Love to read cookbooks and want to make pasta from scratch? Don’t buy an expensive kitchen appliance you won’t use, borrow one from the Carlton Kitchen Library.
24. Hosting an event? Instead of using disposable plates and bowls, get reusable ones from Green My Plate. The team will hook you up with what you need, then wash, dry and reuse them.
25. Learn about Melbourne’s environmental past, sustainable buildings in the CBD and retail shops that are doing their bit for the planet on the Green Tour by Wayward Wanderers. The walking tour takes you through the city and up to CERES environmental park, and you’ll learn heaps about environmental initiatives – and what you can do – along the way.
26. Get your morning coffee from a café that participates in the Reground program. Reground picks up spent coffee grounds and uses them as fertiliser.
27. Buy liqueurs from Marionette, run by Melbourne hospo heavyweights who buy ‘ugly’ and unsaleable fruit and turn it into delicious drinks.
28. Use Yarra Council’s Zero Waste map to find community gardens, where to recycle various items, businesses making a commitment to the planet and more.
29. Plant trees with the Tree Project, which organises working bees around Melbourne.
30. Get an awesome-looking bag from Beekeeper Parade, which has a shop in Melbourne's CBD. The bags are made upcycled fashion waste otherwise destined for landfill – and the company will donate to the education of children in rural Cambodia with every purchase.
31. Disrupt business as usual and demand action on climate change by writing to your local MP, joining or donating to a environmental organisation (like the Australian Conservation Foundation).
