Ernie Harbott has just put her red bin out for the first time all year. (ABC Upper Hunter: Courtney Yeandle)
In short:
Ernie Harbott has just put her red general waste bin out for the first time all year.
By composting, recycling and limiting single-use items, she has transformed her household to be almost entirely waste-free.
Ernie is the founder of Singleton Soil Sisters, a group that educates the community on sustainable living.
A monotonous weekly task for most Australians is a once-a-year novelty for Ernie Harbott.
The mother-of-two from Singleton, in the NSW Upper Hunter, has just put her general waste red bin out for collection for the first time all year.
"The last time I put it out was New Year's Eve last year, and now it's December," she said.
Ms Harbott's household is almost completely waste-free. (ABC Upper Hunter: Courtney Yeandle)
Through a combination of composting, recycling and reusing, as well as buying as many packaging-free items as she can, Ms Harbott has managed to make her household almost completely waste-free.
Ms Harbott has six bins in her kitchen.Â
There is one for soft plastics and another for hard-to-recycle items like blister packs, toothpaste tubes and pens. She organises both to be picked up by a free recycling service.Â
Ms Harbott separates her rubbish in bins under the sink. (ABC Upper Hunter: Courtney Yeandle )
There is another bin for food packaging, which she washes and reuses to pack her kids' lunches.Â
All other recycling goes into her yellow bin to be collected by the local council's recycling service.
The compost bin gets the biggest workout.
"Everything that's organic or came from the earth goes back into my compost," she said.
Ms Harbott composts all her organic waste. (ABC Upper Hunter: Courtney Yeandle)
Ms Harbott said sorting the rubbish into six separate bins took a lot of discipline from everyone in the household.
"I've had the support of my kids in doing this," she said.
"They like to sort things and they like to hit milestones and feel like they're making a difference too."
Soil Sisters
Ms Harbott is the founder of Singleton Soil Sisters, which holds composting and gardening sessions and shares sustainability tips.
The group orders bulk produce from local farmers and shares it to reduce food waste and packaging.
Members Marie Weston and Marta Pasans-Prats said Ms Harbott was an inspiration.
"I was trying to do my bit, but I don't think I knew enough necessarily to push that step further," Ms Weston said.
"Ernie is definitely a leader in the community and will really get you on board by providing you the tools you need."
Ms Pasans-Prats said seeing Ms Harbott and her family living so sustainably pushed her to do it too.
"The group helps you to get more information about things you can do and local places where you can go [to recycle]," she said.
Ms Harbott (right) started the Singleton Soil Sisters to help local mums live more sustainably. (ABC Upper Hunter: Courtney Yeandle)
Barriers to waste-free living
According to the latest National Waste Report, Australia generated about 13 million tonnes of household waste in 2022-23.
Almost 55 per cent of that went to landfill.
Hunter Resource Recovery chief executive Roger Lewis said having separate household bins for soft plastics and hard-to-recycle items was still rare.
"About 7.5 per cent of all product that goes into the yellow-top bin will make its way to landfill," he said.
"Soft plastics are a real bugbear of ours … we just can't process that."
Food waste can be turned into compost. (ABC South West: Gian De Poloni)
David Sivyer is the founder of Feedback Organic, which collects food waste from cafes and restaurants in the Hunter to use in agriculture.
He said the amount of waste still going into landfill was "a massive problem".Â
"The fact that one third of all food is wasted is ridiculous," Mr Sivyer said.
"When you throw something to landfill, you don't see the impact straight away so it's difficult to highlight how today's behaviour will influence the future.
"The best way that we've found [to change behaviour] is actually demonstrating where food waste can go in lieu of landfill, and that is in the kind of circular model with composting and growing produce."
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