4-Week Waste Reduction Jumpstart

Reduce waste, save money, eat healthier, remove nasties from your home, and jumpstart family habits to last a lifetime!

Two years ago Alayna and I were almost at our wits end.

The sheer volume of waste in and around our home was crashing down around us like a wave. We mostly recycled, and we tried to take old clothes to the clothing bin, and we sort of tried to rehome old toys. But we weren’t coming close to dealing with the mountain of plastic, and consumer products coming into our home.

We upgraded to the large size bin for our kerbside rubbish collection, and had to change to weekly instead of fortnightly. The kids toys were spilling out of storage baskets and cupboards, literally out onto the floor. We talked about composting as we threw armfuls of wilted fruit and vegetables into the bin.

On top of this, we’d fallen into the trap of buying packaged and processed food and snacks for the kids’ lunches. We literally counted over 100 plastic-wrapped items in our pantry!

This really wasn’t the people we thought we were at all.

And it was making us really depressed.

It seemed every week we read another horrific news item about the Pacific Ocean ‘garbage patch’. Or the whale that died from plastic poisoning. Or the mountains of unrecyclable products being stockpiled with nowhere to go.

We needed to change, we just didn’t know how. And each time we did try and change, we’d slowly slip back to our old ways; throwing out good food, buying things we really didn’t need, and forgetting to recycle.

Fortunately, around this time we’d begun learning all about shifting mindsets, and creating new habits.

So we thought, ‘What if we could somehow gamify waste reduction?’ ‘What would happen if we set mini-goals through a series of waste reduction mini-challenges?’ ‘What happens if we get the whole family involved in these challenges?’

And then, us being us, we said, ‘why don’t we do this with 500 other families at the same time!’

And so we did.

The waste reduction jumpstart was born. And we literally had over 500 other families sign on to do it with us.

And it was so successful, we’re doing it all over again! Because we’ve still got a lot to learn…

We’ve made a bunch of changes. We compost now, we throw away way less food, we shop more consciously, we reinforce the 5 R’s to our children. But some of our old habits have definitely crept back in.

So, just like last year, we’re going to jump in and do the jumpstart right alongside you. We’ll learn together, grow together, and help each other to reach our potential together.

You’ve got to complete it, to win it!

Now we know a little bit of incentive goes a long way to helping you reach success. So we’re incentivising course completion again. And we’ve got an awesome prize this year.

Every family, anywhere in the world, that completes the 4 week jumpstarter, goes in the draw to win a $100 Countdown or Amazon gift voucher!

We really want you to actually get through the course (and be able to enter the competition), but we know that sometimes life just gets in the way, right?

Last year we had a number of families complete the course, but not in the allocated 4 weeks.

So this year, the Waste Reduction Challenge runs for a full 2 months from the open date, and you can choose to complete the challenges at any time during that 2 month period, and still enter the draw.

So, sign up now and take your family on a waste reducing adventure:

So, what’s in it for your family?

Still wondering if you should sign on for this course? Well hold on to your hats, because I’m about to show you how completing the challenges could easily help your family save over $2,000 per year in waste!

Just imagine that for a moment. Just make a few small changes, create some new habits, and your family could have an extra $2,000 at the end of the year. That’s a family holiday, the final payment made on the car, or savings for your kids’ education!

No matter how far along your family is on the waste-reduction journey, you’re going to get so much from this challenge.

You’re going to learn things about plastic you wish you didn’t know! You are 100% guaranteed to reduce the amount of product coming into your house, and the waste going out. A lovely unexpected benefit of reducing that waste is that you will save a lot of money! We also provide you with lots of waste-reducing tips along the way. These tips show you how to shop better, make healthier food and snacks, use household products with less chemicals and waste, and just live a healthier, more organic, lifestyle.

And lastly, and this is my personal fav guys, you’re going to become an awesome role model for your family! We give you some great ideas for running successful family sessions (this is where your family mindset turns into action, and action becomes habit), and these skills will help you parent better.

This challenge will literally increase your family’s wellbeing, create a stronger bond, and bring your family happiness.

But, don’t take my word for it. Check out the numbers below.

We surveyed the 500 families that previously took the course and found that:

Overall Results

We were blown away when the results below finally came in. Over 20% of families reported spending less each week on food. 30% said the food their family was eating now was healthier. Almost 90% reported their weekly waste had reduced. And over 60% of families said the way they shopped had changed, directly as a result of the challenge!

Actual Waste Reduction

So of course we wanted to know, just how much waste had been reduced in 4 short weeks? Almost a quarter of families estimated their waste had reduced between 25 and 50%! And, incredibly, almost 1 in 5 families reduced their waste by 50% or more!

So we crunched the numbers on this. Reducing waste by 50% allows a family to go to fortnightly kerbside rubbish collection (or go to a half-sized wheelie bin). The savings are different depending on your city’s collection costs, but can be anywhere from $50 to $145 per year in savings!

And reducing food wastage by up to 25% each week, we estimate should save around 10 to 15% on your food bill. So, for the average family food bill spend of around $250 per week, this is a savings of between $1,300 and $1,950 per year!

Mindset Change and ‘Stickability’

This was one of the most important outcomes for us. The challenge promise is to change your family’s mindset, and create habits to last a lifetime, right? So we asked families, ‘how much change have you seen, as a result of the challenge?’ and ‘what were your habits like 3 months after taking the challenge?’ Once again, blown away! Almost 90% of families experienced a mindset change from taking the challenge, with over 25% reporting they ‘talk about reducing waste all the time.’ And an amazing 95% of families had created new habits still in place 3 months after starting the course!

The Waste Reduction challenges are designed to take you on a journey.

Skills are ‘scaffolded’ each week to create weekly progress. Inspiration, motivation and real-life, practical tips are provided throughout to keep you on track. Built in ‘gamification’ keeps your family engaged, and the family sessions keep you all honest.

But, best of all, it’s just fun, and your family is going to love it!

So sign up now, help your family reach their Waste Reduction Potential, and be in the draw to win:

Previous Challenge Testimonials

A BIG THANKS to all the staff behind Kiwi Families who came up with this great idea and organised this waste reduction challenge! This four week challenge has been great and a lot more realistic in getting results via the weekly challenges opposed to trying to go plastic free cold turkey! I have been wanting to reduce the plastic that our family uses for sometime but have always found it all a bit overwhelming.

Going forward it is all about making smarter choices and bringing less plastics into our home and environment. As this 4 week challenge comes to an end our family is really enjoying living with less plastic and we look forward to making on going improvements by tackling a new room each month, decluttering them and reducing the plastics. – Kelly Price

 

This week’s challenge was not an easy one. I only now start realising how much planning and time goes into making a serious change.

Our last supermarket order was on 9 June, so we’re going nearly 3 weeks without buying our regular (plastic wrapped) groceries. We’ve been emptying our cupboards and fridge instead and collecting all the soft plastics that we still have at home. Also, we’ve been going to the farmers market and Bin Inn for fresh produce and bulk. Thanks all for the tips and the encouragement! – Hanneke Coolen

 

Doing these challenges has really opened our eyes to the amount of plastic coming into our house each week. Small changes add up! – Sam Stillwell