Zero waste living the new normal for Tasmanian family.

The Carter family has put out their wheelie bin just twice in the past six months as they work towards a zero-waste lifestyle.

The idea of zero-waste living is to only buy things that can be reused or composted at the end of their original purpose.

“We’ve got it to a point now where we don’t throw anything out,” Lauren Carter said.

It started when the Carters took on the Sustainability Tasmania sustainable living challenge last year.

“We were already living fairly sustainably, so we knew that we had to level it up a bit,” Ms Carter said.

“We decided to take on a complete zero waste challenge just for ourselves and found it was totally doable.

“We thought it would be really hard, but it was really easy.

“We got to the end of those two weeks and decided it was our new normal.”

No rubbish the new normal

The Carters take cloth bags when shopping and use their own containers for things such as meat and deli products.

“Our intention is to only buy what we need and not more,” Oberon Carter said.

“Being mindful of the waste you’re producing and just sparing a few seconds to ask: ‘Do I need this product or is there an alternative to it?’

“We still splurge a little bit on some of the things we really like, like chocolate.”

Mr Carter said the response from local shops had been mixed when he shopped with his own containers and asked them not to use plastic bags or wraps.

“It really makes the whole way of living a lot more of a social event,” he said.

“I’m inevitably having a whole lot more conservations with people in shops than I was before.”

Getting the kids on board

The Carters home school their three children, so they have not had to face problems of waste in the classroom.

“We didn’t lay down the ground rules with the kids,” Mr Carter said.

“We just explained to them what the issues were and what we were proposing to do and they were happy to go along with it.”

The Carters’ kitchen has a row of glass jars to hold cereals and pastas bought from a bulk whole food store.

They reuse eggs shells in the garden and even the washing up brush is made from compostable fibres.

They make their own toothpaste and deodorant and buy washing powders and soaps in compostable packaging.

“The next challenge for me is makeup,” Ms Carter said.

“I’ve managed to make a really light foundation powder with raw cacao powder and like a tapioca starch, it’s great.”

Helping others move to zero waste

The Carters share their zero-waste living experiences through a Facebook group called Zero Waste Tasmania.

They are also setting up online resources to help other families looking to reduce the waste in their lives.

“We’re really keen to help other families to reduce their waste,” Mr Carter said.

“There’s definitely a buzz about the idea of zero waste.

“We’re very conscious of the fact that it’s an aspirational idea and it doesn’t really exist in our modern society.

“But it doesn’t mean that it’s not worthwhile to do the best you can to not produce waste.”

This post originally appeared on ABC News.