We’ve always been a little bit green here at SpaceCraft, but more recently we’ve decided to take our internal recycling system to the next level.

We are attempting to reduce our paper use overall, by moving to digital storage of documentation and encouraging use of an e-sign facility rather than the paper hard copy documentation for design approvals. However despite this, we still do consume a bit of paper in the office. To counter that, we’ve been shredding documents for some time now, and using the shredded paper in chook nesting boxes at home for Ellen and Jalen’s respective chooks.

More recently, we decided to put our somewhat large, unused, yard of weeds out the back of the workshop to work, by getting some chooks (Thelma and Louise) to live in the yard, eat the food scraps and keep the weeds down. A side benefit is the constant supply of fresh eggs.

So our kitchen food waste and office paper waste cycle is now complete, with shreddings used for nesting boxes (and once pooped on, the paper is then added to the compost), food scraps thrown out for the foraging chooks, and any food not deemed to be chook friendly (such as coffee grounds and citrus peel) is mixed into the compost bins.

There was lots of excitement when the girls recently started laying. We’re now officially accepting donations of egg cartons, and will gladly reciprocate with fresh eggs!

The next challenge on our agenda will be reduction or at least sorting of scrunch-able plastic waste, as that seems to be our next biggest source of kitchen waste. We are waiting on delivery of a Bin Shift system, which was designed for pre-schoolers to help them sort their waste (but is also suitable for homes and workplaces) and is a design collaboration between BinShift and Enoki. You can check out the Bin Shift system here.

So if going green matters to you too, if you have any other ideas for waste reduction, please share!