Musical Adventures: Environmentally Conscious Australia

In the two weeks that I have been in this country so far, one thing that really struck me is that Australians are very environmentally conscious. This makes me really happy and feel a bit more at home than I do in the States a lot of the time. It is not a fad like it is in most places in the USA. People are genuinely concerned about the environment. Plastic bags are practically forbidden. Everyone has reusable bags and as part of our Uni orientations, a bunch of organizations have given us free ones so I have about six now.

The toilets flush with grey water (rainwater or recycled from the sink) and almost all of them have low-flow and high-flow flush options for #1 and #2. They are very worried about running out of water (likely by 2050) so there is a huge campaign to take 4-minute showers. There are 4-minute hourglass timers in all of the showers. Since a 4-minute shower is a bit of a challenge for me, my solution is taking an 8-10 minute shower every two-three days.

They don’t allow many kinds of pesticides on crops because they know that they will eventually wash out to sea and harm the life in the Great Barrier Reef. Most produce is organic even if it is not market as such. Many home products like dish and laundry detergent are made up of readily biodegradable chemicals and are grey water safe.

They recently introduced a bike share program in Melbourne (this May I believe) where you can rent a bike by the day, week, or year and take it for up to 30-minute trips from one bike rack to another without additional charge. You do have to own a bicycle helmet in order to use them however.