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Living Sustainably

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Welcome to a more sustainable way of life. It doesn’t have to cost any money or any extra time, it’s just about changing habits and everyday choices.

Use the below tips to help you live more sustainably.

Support our native animals with food, shelter and a place to nest in your backyard.

Dispose of food waste and create a wonderful fertiliser for your garden.  Here’s how.

You can shrink your eco-footprint by being aware of the energy and water you use at home.  Turning off the lights when you’re not in a room and filling a dishwasher before turning it on are small actions with big savings.

Borrow a Home Energy Audit Toolkit (HEAT Kit) from Council for free.  The kit provides tools, instructions and information to help you conduct a simple home audit and discover easy ways to reduce your household energy cost.

Find out if you are eligible for a Federal rebate.

Welcome blue-tongued lizards, leaf-tailed geckos and bandicoots by providing rocks and logs for them to live in. These native animals help control pests such as snails, cockroaches, slugs, lawn beetles and spiders. Avoid using chemical-based pesticides and fertilisers, especially before rain or near creeks and waterways.

Are you waging chemical warfare against household grime? Consider switching to natural cleaning recipes to get your whole house squeaky clean.

Dispose of your garden waste by composting, mulching or by recycling in your garden waste recycling bin. Dumping weeds and grass clippings in bushland cause the spread of weeds and increases algal bloom outbreaks in our waterways. Use a broom to sweep up leaves from paved areas and guttering instead of the hose. Use the leaf litter as mulch or compost.

Dog poo contains nutrients that change the soil to favour weeds over native plants. It also causes pollution and algal blooms in our waterways.

Keep dogs leashed in bushland areas. Devonport City Council has areas to exercise your dog. Keep your cat inside at night. Cats are natural hunters and contribute to the decline in native wildlife populations.

Absorb spills with sawdust or sand and place in a rubbish bin. Don’t put chemicals, oils or paint down the sink or the drain.

Park it on the grass and use a bucket of water instead of the hose. Alternatively, use car-washing products that don’t require water, or a carwash that uses recycled water. Ensure water from your driveway flows back onto your garden – otherwise it will go down the drain and straight to the beach.

Over-filling your bins makes them difficult to collect and rubbish gets spilled onto the street, attracting vermin to your property. Your rubbish can then get washed into stormwater drains that flow to our beaches.

Wherever possible use porous paving, pebble paths and lawns to keep water on your property.

Devonport’s Friends of the Don Reserve help rehabilitate our native bushland. Anyone can join in! Or get involved with Landcare.

Before you enter bushland areas, wash the soil from your boots, tools and tyres. This helps prevent the spread of Phytopthora cinnamomi, a fungus that causes root rot.

To help reduce waste it pays to plan when shopping by bringing reusable bags, avoiding excess packaging and pre-packaged fruit & vegetables.