Australia. We're in a war with waste.

We can't just keep making stuff, use it once or twice, and then bury it forever. So, how do we reduce our waste? How do we properly recycle it?

And most importantly, how do we stop thinking of it as waste?

We've made progress, but there's still plenty of work to do, and some of the solutions start at home.

In fact, we know many of you are already taking action to reduce your waste footprint so tell us what you're doing, and we'll share your ideas in the weeks ahead.

'So Craig, what else can I do?'

I'm glad you asked.

First things first, watch the new series on ABC iview (and obviously, share it far and wide).

Now that you're feeling inspired, here's a handy collection of my top picks for getting involved, helpfully broken down (see what I did there?) by themes.

Plastic waste

Australia has a big plastic problem. Our annual plastic consumption produces the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as 5.7 million cars.

In the year 2020-21, we generated about 2.6 megatons of plastic waste. Half of that was commercial and industry waste — but most of the remainder was produced by households, and that means what we do at home can really make a difference.

Think about this: Recycling alone won't solve the problem. You see, currently, we recycle 13 per cent of plastics, which isn't nearly enough. So, avoiding plastic when you can is crucial. Here's some ideas to help you do just that:

• Support the BYO Friday initiative: The BYO Friday initiative encourages people to bring their own cups and takeaway containers on Fridays (because we know Mondays are tough enough!) but earn your superhero cape and aim for everyday.

  

  We've teamed up with Responsible Cafes to make this poster which will be up in hundreds of cafes, businesses, schools and workplaces around Australia – you can share it too! 
• Say no to plastic in your day-to-day life: Plastic Free July is a global movement where millions of people have become part of the solution to plastic pollution. It's easy - just choose to refuse single-use plastics in different parts of daily life.
• Get in the know about recycling: Are you a confused mess trying to work out where your now-empty pizza box should go? Test your recycling smarts with ABC News' quiz Loading 

• 13 per cent isn't the magic number: While the average Australian mixing up their rubbish and recycling doesn't help, it's not the cause of our plastics problem. Experts say we've had inadequate investment in recycling and too few incentives to make recycled content the preference over virgin fossil fuels. Making plastic from virgin fossil fuels instead of recycled content doubles the greenhouse emissions. Put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and let big business or government know if you want to see them do better.

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Food waste

How many of your black-spotted bananas land in the bin? Or the vegetables you were planning to cook up? Or the dinner leftovers that "you'll definitely have for lunch tomorrow"?

Australia sends 7.6 million tonnes of household and commercial food waste to landfill every year. It’s hard to imagine these sorts of volumes, so let’s look at it another way.

Australian households throw out an average $2,500 worth of groceries every year. Ouch. This means roughly one in every five shopping bags of food is carelessly dumped. In an average household of four people, that's half a tonne of food waste a year!