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This article explain the main idea of the zero waste, the problem with the problem with the landfills and how landfills can get toxic in a bigger percentage. It tells the ways that you can recycle and which stuff you can recycle as a zero waste and that making a big difference to the world.

Reid, S., n.d. Come As You Are: Zero Waste for Everyone. [online] Green America. [Accessed 16 April 2021]. Available at:

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what is zero waste?

The simple answer: We aim to send nothing to a landfill. We reduce what we need, reuse as much as we can, send little to be recycled, and compost what we cannot.

The less simple answer: It's really about redefining the system. We currently live in a linear economy where we take resources from the earth and then dump them in a giant hole in the ground. The goal of zero waste is to move to a circular economy where we write trash out of existence. The circular economy mimics nature in that there is no trash in nature.

Instead of discarding resources, we create a system where all resources can be resumed fully back into the system.

Check out this blog post for a detailed look at the definition of zero waste and the circular economy.

what's wrong with landfills?

The average american sends 4.4lbs of trash to the landfill every day. We live in a disposable society where we don't value our belongings, and we're consuming way too many resources.

Each year we have Earth Overshoot Day to mark when we've consumed all of the resources the earth can sustainably produce for the coming year. Earth Overshoot day was August 2nd of 2017. We're essentially consuming 1.5 earths.

Beyond our overconsumption problem, landfills are toxic. They're responsible for 20% of the methane emissions in the US, and they aren't aerated for proper decomposition of natural materials. Toxins from cleaners, batteries, small electronics (and other items that shouldn't be landfilled) leach into the soil and can run off into the ocean and ground water when it rains.

A lot of trash doesn't even make it to the landfill. Instead it clutters the sides of roads and swirls in the ocean. Plastic is especially dangerous to the ocean, marine life, and our health. It doesn't biodegrade it photodegrades which means it only gets smaller and smaller.

Each micro-plankton in the ocean has 36 micro-plastic pieces to match. Plastic breaks down so small that it's in drinking 90% of drinking water both bottled and tap world wide.

can't we recycle our way out of this?

Unfortunately, no.

There's simply too much to process, and we're just consuming way too much. Recycling isn't a perfect solution. While it plays into the solution, we have to lessen our dependence. Did you know, only 9% of plastic is actually recycled?

There's a reason recycle is LAST. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle "

Recycle shouldn't be the first line of defense, it should be a last resort. Most of our recycling isn't even processed in the US. It's processed in China, and China has put a ban on paper and plastic bales over 1% contamination. To put this in perspective, the best recycling facilities in the US are currently operating at 4% contamination level.

I'm not telling you this to prevent you from recycling. I'm telling you this so you can recycle better and depend on it less. You can read more about recycle rates here. Instead focus your efforts on reducing and reusing.

what's reducing and reusing?

You don't need everything you think you "need." So many products are sold to us for a specific use. But, you don't need a separate cleaner for the floor, the windows, and the bathroom. You don't need eight blue sweaters. By reducing what we need, we're reducing what we'll eventually throw out.

Before making any purchase, wait. Spend some time, think about whether or not you truly need it.

When you do need to buy something, check the second hand market first. Reuse something that already exists, and instead of using disposables focus on reusables (i.e. hankies instead of tissues.) which will intern also reduce what you need. Check out my top 10 zero waste swaps for ditching disposables.

will one person really make a difference?

YES! Every day you have the decision to positively impact the planet. How do you get to work? How do you buy your groceries? What are you eating? What are you buying? Everything is interconnected. Every purchase you make is a vote for the kind of world you want to live in.
You don't vote only at the ballot box. You vote every day.
With just one small step at a time, you can greatly reduce your footprint. But, going zero waste isn't just great for the environment, you'll notice an improvement in your quality of life. Side effects include eating better, feeling better, saving money, and not having to take out the trash!

can you help me?

Of course! Going zero waste has been such a liberating process for me, and I want to share everything I've learned with you.

Going Zero Waste is dedicated to bringing you tested and tried zero waste recipes to help you clean your house, shake up your beauty routine, or get dinner on the table quickly. You will find practical tips that break zero waste living down into an easy step-by-step process. Most importantly, you will find a place of community and support wether you've just started going zero waste or you're trash in a mason jar level.

With just one step in the right direction, you can change the world.

Check out The Zero Waste Challenge!

how long will this take?

We live in a society of instant gratification. Going zero waste is not conducive to that attitude. It takes time and patience. I tend to beat myself up for not being perfect, but in the beginning you're not going to be perfect. It's about the effort. It's knowing that you want to change; It's knowing you're trying.

And, seriously - thank you for trying! Together we can make a difference, and maybe in our lifetime we can see the Great Pacific Garbage Patch disappear, significantly reduce the amount of waste going into landfills, and become healthier and more fulfilled as people.

We can do this together. Join my zero waste community to connect with like minded individuals who will support you on your zero waste journey - plus you get my eBook, a zero waste starter workbook, and tips straight to your inbox!

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not."

- Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

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what is zero waste? The simple answer: We aim to send nothing to a landfill. We reduce what we need, reuse as much as we can, send little to be

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Come As You Are: Zero Waste for Everyone (Green America)

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Come As You Are: Zero Waste for Everyone (Green America)

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This article talks about how the trash has been affected the world through the years. It talks about what is the zero waste and how the analysis get lower when a person became as a zero waste person. It explain the importance of people become as a zero waste and how impact to the world as a positive way and influence people to join.

Going Zero Waste. 2020. About Zero Waste - Going Zero Waste. [online][Accessed 16 April 2021]. Available at:

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Balled-up paper towels, plastic food containers and crumpled stationery: when Anamarie Shreeves did her first trash analysis back in 2013, these were some of the most common culprits she found in the pile, and it probably isn't far off from what many of us would find if we perused our own.

The average American produces roughly 1,700 lbs of trash per year, which is almost three times the global average, according to a 2019 report by the research group Verisk Maplecroft. Though waste-prevention practices have always been around, "going zero waste" has gained momentum in recent years as advocates take to social media to model their lifestyle.

While everyone can produce less waste, we can't all do it the same way. For this lifestyle switch to make a real impact on our planet, it is important to understand the ways that rigid zero-waste "rules" can exclude certain groups and find low-waste solutions that allow everybody to get involved.

But First, What is Zero Waste?

Zero waste encompasses a strict set of principles that lead to zero percent of personal waste going in the trash can. Some zero- and low waste advocates have expanded the Three Rs rule to include repair and refuse, so everyday habits include: refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle.

"[A trash analysis] turns on a visual lens that most of us have never exercised before, and once you become aware of your trash there's no turning that off," says Shreeves.

She's the founder of Fort Negrita, an online community where she shares waste reduction tips and hosts a store that sells reusable cloth menstrual pads and upcycled products. Shreeves says the metaphorical "Fort Negrita" is where resilience, green spaces, and "Black girl magic" meet.

Trash analyses draw the connection between the waste we produce at home and what we see when we drive by a dump. It's a literal deep dive people do by sorting through their trash bins and identifying items that could have been recycled, composted, or maybe didn't need to be bought in the first place. Often these are single-use items like napkins, plastic bags, and food scraps.

Invite Only: Exclusivity in Zero Waste

While consciousness of our consumer habits is an important aspect to reducing waste, where a person lives and their socioeconomic circumstance are not as adjustable.

Shreeves, who lives in Atlanta, says she used to shop regularly at a natural foods market but had to cut back after she started grad school and stopped working full-time.

"If a zero-waste lifestyle is out of your means, you simply can't do it. But that doesn't mean that you're less of an environmentalist," says Shreeves. While she has incorporated these habits into her own life, Shreeves doesn't call herself a "zero waster," because of the barriers to inclusivity that everyday people face when it comes to pursuing a completely zero waste lifestyle.

Activist and educator Anamarie Shreeves poses with her reusable water bottle.

For example, getting food from bulk and fresh produce sections of grocery stores is key to reducing plastic waste, but at least 23.5 million Americans live in communities where access to fresh produce is extremely limited. Eighteen million Americans also live in neighborhoods where water systems are in violation of EPA lead standards. While the plastic water bottle has become a symbol for unsustainability to some, it remains a reminder of a national environmental injustice for others.

Freweyni Asress has been living a low-waste lifestyle for four years and is the founder of the Zero Waste Habesha community (named so in homage to her Ethiopian roots). Her work focuses on the experiences of Black people and land sovereignty.

"I started doing low waste for similar reasons as many others who are in that mainstream culture-to reduce my impact," Asress says. "But my intentions evolved as I learned more about environmental racism, environmental justice, indigenity, and eco-movements in Ethiopia."

Food insecurity disproportionately harms African American and Latin American communities, according to the nonprofit Move for Hunger, and is one example of how constructs like race and class can intersect with a person's environmentalism. What society considers "normal" ability is another: In 2018, when Starbucks announced that it would eliminate plastic straws, the news sparked debate about ableism within the environmental movement, since plastic straws are considered a necessity for many disabled individuals. Disability rights advocates recommended offering straws by request only, instead of creating outright bans.

Freweyni Asress of Zero Waste Habesha

Another way we can understand the role of privilege in zero waste spaces is by taking a closer look at who is most burdened by waste and who works hardest to reduce it. Married American mothers spend twice as much time on housework than fathers, according to a 2012 Oxford study. Since domestic activities like cooking and cleaning can generate preventable waste, many women find themselves taking on sustainability leadership roles in their households-and there are numerous zero-waste blogs, YouTube channels, and Instagram accounts
run by working moms to prove it.

A 2017 Scientific American study also found that some men perceive eco-friendly behaviors as feminine and may avoid them because of it.

"When it comes to gender, there may be a lack of interest among men and it's up to them to get involved," says activist Rob Greenfield.

Greenfield famously wore a suit made of trash around New York City for 30 days to bring attention to the waste crisis and in 2019, he completed one year of growing 100 percent of his own food while living in Orlando, Florida.

"Men need to overcome the idea of masculine versus feminine and that's no easy task in a society that has ingrained these ideas about gender," says Greenfield. "Carrying a pouch of reusable items, for example, is considered feminine but men have to overcome these stigmas."

All of this is to say that where we live, what we buy, and how we use products are all indicative of the types of privilege each of us may have.

Will You Have This Dance?

It's often said that inclusivity goes beyond inviting someone to a party; it's asking them to dance. Here are a few actions you can take to foster inclusivity along your own low-waste journey:

Celebrate Everyday Actions: Mundane habits like eating leftovers and sharing hand-me-downs may not seem like much, but they prevent a lot of waste. So does taking reusable items like tote bags, food containers, and silverware with you on-the-go.

Don't Eco-Shame: When we know the power of our everyday actions, it's tempting to judge others who we don't feel are exercising that power. Keep in mind that sustainability looks different across cultures and communities and the best way to inspire isn't to be preachy, but lead by example.

Learn From Others: Sustainability looks different across cultures and communities. Seek out low-wasters from different backgrounds and ask yourself what can you learn, support, and adapt for your own low-waste life. You can follow @FortNegrita, @ZeroWasteHabesha, and @RobGreenfield on social media for ideas.

Embrace Low Waste: Everyone who starts their journey may not get to 100 percent zero waste, but appreciating the steps people are taking to radically reduce wastecreates a sense of empowerment and community.

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Come As You Are: Zero Waste for Everyone

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Balled-up paper towels, plastic food containers and crumpled stationery: when Anamarie Shreeves did her first trash analysis back in 2013, these were some of the most common culprits she found in the pile, and it probably isn't far off from what many of us would find if we perused our own.

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How People Make Only a Jar of Trash a Year (National Geographic)

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How People Make Only a Jar of Trash a Year (National Geographic)

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The article captures the reader's attention by beginning with dramatic figures like that “The world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago, according to World Bank researchers.”

After the numbers, he talks about how we see recycling as something strange or "hippie", when we can continue with the life we are used to.

Real cases are shared about people who live this way, concluding that this lifestyle saves them a lot of money.

As a conclusion of the essay, it’s shared a list of 5 points that are important to generate a change and stop generating waste.

Leahy, S. (2021, 10 febrero). How Zero-Waste People Make Only a Jar of Trash a Year. Science. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/zero-waste-families-plastic-culture

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This story is part of Planet or Plastic?-our multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge. Join a conversation with Kathryn Kellogg on zero waste on Reddit at 2 pm ET May 18.

Imagine 15 grocery bags filled with plastic trash piled up on every single yard of shoreline in the world. That's how much land-based plastic trash ended up in the world's oceans in just one year. The world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago, according to World Bank researchers. The U.S. is the king of trash, producing a world-leading 250 million tons a year-roughly 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day.

And yet there are a growing number of people-often young millennial women-who are part of a zero-waste movement. Their yearly trash output can be small enough to fit inside an eight-ounce mason jar. These are not wannabe hippies, but people embracing a modern minimalist lifestyle. They say it saves them money and time and enriches their lives.

Kathryn Kellogg is one of those young millennials who has downsized her trash pile-anything that hasn't been composted or recycled-so two years' worth literally fits inside one 16-ounce jar. Meanwhile, the average American produces 1,500 pounds of trash a year. (Learn more about Kellogg in the recent plastic issue of National Geographic magazine.)

"We also saved about $5,000 a year by purchasing fresh food instead of packaged, buying in bulk, and making our own products like cleaners and deodorant," says Kellogg, who lives with her husband in a small house in Vallejo, California.

Kellogg is one of several zero-waste bloggers who share online the details of their efforts, along with practical tips and encouragement, for others looking to embrace a zero-waste lifestyle. In three years, she has gained 300,000 monthly readers on her blog goingzerowaste.com and on Instagram.

"I think many people are ready to cut their waste," says Kellogg. However, she doesn't want people to fixate on trying to stuff all their trash into a jar. Zero-waste is really about trying to minimize your trash and making better choices in your life, she says. "Just do the best you can and buy less."

A Thriving Community

A breast cancer scare in college led Kellogg to start reading labels on personal-care products and finding ways to limit her exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. She found alternatives and started making her own products. Like her own readers, Kellogg learned from others, including New York City's Lauren Singer, who has the very popular Trash is for Tossers blog. Singer started reducing her waste footprint as an environmental studies student in 2012 and has turned zero-waste into a career as a speaker, consultant, and retailer. She has two stores dedicated to making trash-free living easier for everyone.

There's an active zero-waste community online sharing ideas, challenges, and support for those struggling with unhelpful friends and family who think it's weird to worry about trash. "There's a fear of being rejected when you try to do things differently," Kellogg says. "But it's not a radical act to clean up a kitchen spill with a cloth towel instead of a paper towel."

Many of the solutions to cutting waste use practices that were commonplace before the era of plastics and disposable products. Think cloth napkins and handkerchiefs, vinegar and water for cleaning, glass or stainless-steel containers for left-overs, cloth grocery bags. These, and similar old-school solutions, produce no waste and are cheaper in the long run.

Questioning What's Normal

Going zero-waste means questioning what's normal and thinking outside the box, Kellogg says. As one example, she mentions that she loves tortillas but hates making them. But as part of her zero-waste quest, she didn't want to buy packaged ones at the grocery. Eventually, she hit on the solution: buy a bunch of fresh-made ones from her local Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was even happy to put the tortillas in Kellogg's container because it saves them money.

"Many such solutions to waste are insanely simple," she says. "And any step to reduce waste is a step in the right direction."

Cincinnati's Rachel Felous took more than a few steps in January 2017 and cut her waste to one bag for the year. Felous was surprised and delighted with the impact it's had on her life.

"Going zero waste has been great," she says. "I found an amazing community, made new friends, and new opportunities have come my way," says Felous.

Although an environmentally aware nature lover, Felous hadn't really thought about how much waste she produced until she moved. That's when she realized how much stuff she'd accumulated, including a dozen half-used bottles of shampoo and conditioners. Not long after reading an article on zero-waste she vowed to take more responsibility for her own footprint. Felous also documents her struggles, challenges, and successes on Instagram during her quest to slash the trash.

By weight 75 to 80 percent of all household trash is organic matter that can be composted and turned into soil. As an apartment dweller, Felous deals with her organic waste by putting it in the freezer. Once a month, she takes her frozen lump to her parent's house, where a local farmer picks it up to feed animals or for composting. If the organic waste went to a landfill it likely wouldn't compost, because air can't circulate enough there.

Felous, who runs her own web design and photography business out of her home, advises others to approach zero waste with small steps and show themselves kindness. Making a lifestyle change is a journey, it doesn't happen overnight. But it's worth the effort, she says. "I don't know why I didn't start sooner."

A Regular Family

Shawn Williamson started ten years ago. While his neighbors in the suburbs outside of Toronto drag three or four bags of trash to the curb on cold winter nights, Williamson stays warm inside watching hockey on TV. Williamson, his wife, and daughter have taken just six bags of trash to the curb in those 10 years. "We live a very normal life. We've just eliminated waste," he says.

Contrary to what most people think, cutting out waste isn't a lot of work, he adds. "We buy in bulk to cut down on shopping trips, which saves us money and time," Williamson says.

The only unusual thing about their small, 20-year old house is the amount of shelving used to store bulk purchases of rice, flour, dried beans, nuts, toilet paper, and other products-enough to avoid going shopping for a month, he estimates. "It's not cluttered. I still park my car in the garage."

Williamson, a business consultant specializing in sustainability, says his goal is simply to be less wasteful in all aspects of life. "It's a mindset of looking for better ways of doing things. Once I figure it out there's little effort to maintain it," he says.

It helps that his community has a good recycling program for plastics, paper, and metals and he has room in his backyard for two small composters-one for summer and winter-that produce lots of rich earth for his garden. For everything else, he shops carefully to avoid waste and notes that throwing things out costs money: packaging pushes up the cost of the product, and then we pay for disposal of packaging in our taxes, he says.

Buying local makes it easier to buy foods and other products without packaging, from meat to soap. And when there is no choice, he leaves the packaging behind at the checkout counter. Stores can often reuse or recycle it, and leaving it sends a message: many customers don't want their avocados wrapped in plastic.

Even after ten years of slashing waste, new ideas still pop into Williamson's head. And here he means waste in the broader sense-not getting a second car that's parked 95 percent of the day, or shaving in the shower to save time. His advice: take a good look at what you might be wasting in your life. "If you eliminate it, you'll have a happier and more profitable life," he says.

Five Principles of Zero-waste From the Experts*

1. Refuse - refuse to buy things with lots of packaging

2. Reduce - don't buy things you don't really need

3. Reuse - repurpose worn out items, shop for used goods, and purchase reusable products like steel water bottles

4. Compost - up to 80 percent of waste by weight is organic. But this rarely decomposes in landfills

5. Recycle - It still takes some energy and resources to recycle, but it's better than sending stuff to the landfill or allowing it to become litter

*These are listed in order of importance

Editor's note: We corrected the spelling of Kathryn's name from an earlier version of this story.

This story is part of Women of Impact, a National Geographic project centered around women breaking barriers in their fields, changing their communities, and inspiring action. Join the conversation in our Facebook group.

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How Zero-Waste People Make Only a Jar of Trash a Year

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This story is part of Planet or Plastic?-our multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge. Join a conversation with Kathryn Kellogg on zero waste on Reddit at 2 pm ET May 18.

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Zero waste living tips: 10 tips to help you with Zero Waste living and changing the system (Greenpeace)

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Zero waste living tips: 10 tips to help you with Zero Waste living and changing the system (Greenpeace)

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The article includes an introduction about a couple of young people who tell their experience trying to have a zero waste life. They are honest in commenting the advantages and obstacles they face along the way.

It is clear that currently as a society we do not choose to reduce the waste we generate, and this starts from the industries.

They comment the difficulties basing that we are completely surrounded by plastic. It becomes complex to want to buy a simple fruit in the supermarket since it is in a package, the young people interpret.

For these reasons they decide to express the methods to be able to change our lifestyles to zero waste living.

Greenpeace Aotearoa. (2021, 5 febrero). 10 tips for Zero Waste living and changing the system,. https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/story/10-tips-for-zero-waste-living-and-changing-the-system/

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I'm a card-carrying zero waste lifestyler. In 2015, my partner Liam and I started living without a rubbish bin. We saw this as a good entry point for reducing our footprint on planet Earth.

In our first five years of zero waste living we sent just 7.6kg of rubbish to landfill between us. We limited our recycling to two wheelie bins of paper and cardboard, and eight crates of glass. In 2017 we started The Rubbish Trip, travelling New Zealand for three years giving free workshops to community groups and schools about household waste reduction. We now work fulltime on all things zero waste - from workshops to advocacy, community organising, and supporting businesses.

Lots of people (especially journalists...) ask us for our 'top tips' for zero waste living. The list we reel off is usually a bunch of very practical things, like setting up a compost heap and avoiding single-use plastics. However, in reality, zero waste living is about much more than this.

In this post I'll talk about the two sides of the zero waste lifestyle, and share a more complete list of 'top tips' for reducing your footprint and making a difference!

There are Two Sides to 'Eco Living' and Zero Waste Living

Walking the talk on environmental issues is important both practically and ethically. I'm allergic to any trivialisation of individual action. After all, we all have environmental footprints and therefore a role to play. And there are things we can do in our own lives to make a difference, while recognising that not everyone is in the position to do so to the same extent.

I also see grassroots lifestyle change as a powerful diving board into advocating for wider systemic change. I think it's impossible to care so much that you go waste-free, yet feel disinterested in wider change too. I know basically no zero waste lifestyler who believes that the world's environmental problems are all about 'personal responsibility', while companies who benefit from pollution and waste get a free pass.

In the current system, there are limits to what we can achieve in our own lives. Despite my best efforts, I still have a waste footprint because supply chains aren't zero waste. I might put an unpackaged kiwifruit from the supermarket into my cotton reusable bag, but it's been grown, packed, and transported using disposable products. We need a systems focus even if all we want is to realise our own personal zero waste aspirations.

In addition to asking for 'top tips', lots of people also ask me and Liam what we find most difficult about zero waste living. My hunch is they're expecting to hear something like 'it's hard having to make my own pasta from scratch' or 'I miss Whittaker's chocolate and Coca-Cola'.

The fact is, I don't find the practicalities of zero waste that hard. What I DO find really hard is how not normal zero waste living is.

We need system change and zero waste living

Our entire society is geared towards wastefulness-as-default. Right now, I'm writing this on KiwiRail's Northern Explorer. Everything on the train is packaged in single-use plastic (even the single-use plastic cutlery is wrapped in single-use plastic). Food and drink is in throwaway packaging only. There's no on-board system for reusable serviceware. Recyclables aren't separated from rubbish, and there's no composting of food scraps. Everything goes in the same 'destined for landfill' black bin liners, which the staff carry down the aisles periodically.

So that's the train. Now think about visiting the supermarket, walking through town on a Friday night, passing construction sites on your way to work, observing what goes on in your workplace kitchenette, attending a festival or campsite, sitting in a hotel foyer, watching adverts on TV about Black Friday sales, seeing the silage wrap, plastic wire clips, tanalised timber posts and burn piles on farms, vineyards and orchards, or the slowly degrading plastic roping in mussel and salmon farms.

Producing waste and pollution is entrenched in our economy because our systems of production and consumption weren't designed with zero waste or circular economy principles in mind. To make matters worse, there's money tied up in running things this way, and certain industries would lose profits (at least temporarily) if less wasteful systems were encouraged. So you can imagine the forces acting to maintain the status quo.

None of this demotivates me from continuing zero waste living. But, it certainly DOES motivate me to think bigger and see advocacy as part of my zero waste lifestyle.

And that's why I believe that walking the talk and calling for systems change are two sides of the same 'eco living' coin. You can pick one side or the other, but embracing both is powerful and I think we should talk about them together when we give 'tips' for zero waste living.

So, without further ado, here's a list of 10 'top tips for zero waste living' (in no particular order).

Tip #1 Get Rid of Your Rubbish Bin

Seriously. This doesn't work for everyone, but if you're an all or nothing person like me and Liam, it works a dream. Basically, one day we had a rubbish bin, the next day we didn't. We learned very quickly how to get what we needed without producing waste, and to refuse things we didn't need.

Tip #2 Food Scraps

Set up a compost, worm farm or bokashi system for your food scraps. If you're space and/or time constrained, use Sharewaste to find someone near you who'll accept your food scraps for their compost. Food scraps are the biggest chunk of the average New Zealand household rubbish bin (roughly 30%), so this action is a quick win.

Tip #3 Think Reusable, Not Disposable

Have reusables with you (e.g. reusable bags, water bottle, cup, container, cutlery) so you can avoid disposables in every context, from takeaways through to hydrating yourself in a doctor's waiting room. You might think you don't get this kind of rubbish much, but you don't really realise how much you use cups or containers until you carry one around with you!

Tip #4 Venture beyond the Supermarket with Your Reusable Bags and Containers

Find places where you can get everyday staples packaging-free. Unsure of your closest zero waste shopping options? Check The Rubbish Trip's Regional Zero Waste Guides.

Tip #5 Embrace the DIY Mentality!

Try making some products you usually get in packets, e.g. toiletries, cosmetics, cleaning products, or snack foods like muesli bars, dips and crackers, bread and biscuits.

Tip #6 Keep Yourself and Others Informed and Engaged

Support and share academics, research, reports, campaigns and petitions highlighting zero waste policies, e.g. the Zero Waste Academy, Takeaway Throwaways, The Kiwi Bottle Drive, Greenpeace's work on reusables, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, #BreakFreeFromPlastic, or Zero Waste Europe's Masterplan for zero waste cities. Have your say on Government consultations about environmental policy. And talk with your friends, family and colleagues about reducing waste because this helps normalise waste conscious behaviour and denormalise wastefulness.

Tip #7 Find the Connections

Increase impact, reach and voice by connecting and collaborating with others who promote waste reduction. For example: Zero Waste Network Aotearoa; Para Kore; Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance; the Zero Waste in NZ! Facebook group; environment centres; or your local zero waste store, community garden or urban farm, Menzshed, repair cafe, or resource recovery centre. Challenge siloed thinking by joining the dots between zero waste and other environmental movements. Call for environmental activists to work together, and for Government to tackle issues holistically.

Tip #8 Identify Polluters and their Bullshit

Identify the companies and economic practices that produce the most waste or pollution ( Coca-Cola, I'm looking at you) and call them out. Also, beware of corporate greenwashing, and Delay, Derail, Distract tactics. For example:

Anti-littering campaigns or other narratives of shifting the blame, like blaming developing countries for ocean pollution or claiming consumers want single-use plastic packaging.

Excessive focus on recycling and waste disposal over preventing and reducing waste in the first place.

Banking on miracle technologies that do not yet exist or aren't yet viable (e.g. chemical recycling, pyrolysis, or ocean clean-ups) to solve problems that were already urgent decades ago.

Corporate-funded research that shows a particular company's problematic product is actually good for the environment (e.g. life cycle analysis studies that justify single-use plastic packaging).

Pseudo-environmental organisations acting as a mouthpiece for corporate greenwashing (e.g. the Alliance to End Plastic Waste).

Tip #9 Keep the Government Honest

Scrutinise the Government's actions to reduce waste and who and what they're giving public money to. Call on the Government to stand up for the community and the environment rather than industry polluters. Be wary of the Government handing industry the reins to regulate themselves (e.g. industry-designed product stewardship). Call on the Government to advance pro-zero waste policies. For example:

Invest in the reuse economy to keep resources in circulation for longer, e.g. washing and sterilising infrastructure for reusable packaging, centres for repairing household goods, policies to construct buildings for deconstruction rather than demolition etc.

Levies and/or bans on single-use and/or short life items, and on the use of virgin materials

Mandatory deposit return systems and other key tools for effective product stewardship to ensure things like consumer packaging are reused or recycled, and kept out of landfills and the environment.

Bans or stricter regulations on toxic materials and products

An end to fossil fuel subsidies and restrictions on the growth of petrochemical plants

Increased landfill levies

Invest in alternatives to plastic for the agricultural, viticultural, horticultural and construction industries.

Invest in community-run resource recovery

Invest public funding according to the zero waste hierarchy (i.e. waste prevention and reduction before recycling and disposal).

Invest in community-scale composting for localised farms.

You could consider using Greenpeace's community campaigning resources to start a petition and campaign for one of these things in your local community.

Tip #10 Support tino rangatiratanga and environmental justice

Call on the Government to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi and commit to a meaningful process of constitutional transformation. The economic system we currently have is based upon a system of extractive capitalism that was implanted through colonialism. This system is foundational to the linear economy, so we can't reduce wastefulness and overconsumption without tackling it head on. In Aotearoa, we can do this by removing obstacles to tino rangatiratanga. If the relationship between waste and colonialism in Aotearoa is new terrain for you, I recommend diving into the work of Tina Ngata - this conversation between her and Max Liboiron is a great starting point.

Everyone comes to environmental action from different perspectives. Some people change their lives, others pick up placards. If we can do both, so much the better!

I truly believe that walking the talk in our own lives is critical for understanding the best solutions to our current ecological crises. Trying to live plastic-free or zero waste, in a society set up for wastefulness, requires the kind of innovation, flexibility and out-the-box thinking that is needed for transforming economic and social systems. But, we also need to share this knowledge and make our voice heard. Otherwise we'll be drowned out by vested interests promoting the status quo, and our personal lifestyle changes will be in vain.
TAKE ACTION - Hannah runs The Rubbish Trip with her partner Liam Prince and has lived without a rubbish bin since 2015. She works full time as an advocate for zero waste policy, lifestyle change, and business practise, as the Coordinator of the New Zealand Product Stewardship Council, the policy spokesperson for Takeaway Throwaways, Zero Waste Expert for the Better Futures Forum, and a Senior Associate at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. Join the #TakeawayThrowaway call on the Government to ban single-use disposable food and drink serviceware containing plastic (including degradable, biodegradable or compostable plastic), and mandate co-designed, accessible, reusable alternatives instead (using powers under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008).

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10 tips for Zero Waste living and changing the system,

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I'm a card-carrying zero waste lifestyler. In 2015, my partner Liam and I started living without a rubbish bin. We saw this as a good entry point for reducing our footprint on planet Earth. In our first five years of zero waste living we sent just 7.6kg of rubbish to landfill between us.

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Benefits of Zero Waste (torontoenvironment)

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Benefits of Zero Waste (torontoenvironment)

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The article is about how zero waste helps a lot of sectors such as  communities and local economy. Zero wastes contributes in the fight to stop climate change as you recycle. Zero waste reduces pollution as you don’t contribute in using new packaging and throwing it away, zero waste really helps our economy as you build a circular economy as everything helps someone else.

Toronto Environment. (s. f.). Benefits of Zero Waste. Toronto Environmental Alliance. Recuperado 15 de abril de 2021, de https://www.torontoenvironment.org/zerowaste_benefits

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Zero waste protects the environment, benefits communities and supports a strong local economy.

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The complicated gender politics of going zero waste (VOX)

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The complicated gender politics of going zero waste (VOX)

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This article talks about how zero waste living is shown in the social media, as people prefer to post their mason jars they use to avoid using plastic but in reality they continue breaking the zero waste when there are no cameras. Zero waste real contributors are really trying to help the world but this come with the difficulty of pressure. How the wife of the family is the one that has to be zero waste and feels the pressure of doing this right. As women are told they are good at shopping and shouldn’t make mistakes. How single mothers are willing to pack their kids lunch in glass containers.

Wicker, A. (2019, 9 mayo). Going zero waste is a lot of work. Does too much of it fall to women? Vox. https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/9/18535943/zero-waste-movement-gender-sustainability-women-instagram

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Look at #zerowaste and #zerowasteliving on Instagram and you'll see mason jars filled with chocolate smoothies and rows of rose-gold straws. You'll see perfectly organized refrigerators with piles of fresh produce and brown glass spray bottles with homemade lavender-steeped cleaning products. You'll see perfect kitchens with white subway tiles and bamboo countertops, lined with rows of more mason jars filled with legumes.

But "zero waste" isn't just an influencer meme, it's a movement whose practitioners share the serious goal of sending as little to landfill as possible. They studiously avoid the plastic packaging, disposable coffee cups, and paper towels that many of us never give a thought to before stuffing in the trash. They are experts in refusing, reusing, and recycling.

This movement has exploded in recent years as images of plastic-choked rivers and plastic-choked dead whales circulate on social media and American cities are burning the recyclables that China will no longer take. Google searches for "zero waste" have doubled since January of 2017 and there are almost 2.5 million posts on Instagram tagged #zerowaste. Zero-waste grocery stores have expanded from their EU foothold to Brooklyn, South Africa, and even Hong Kong and Malaysia.

The world of zero waste is fronted by female influencers who DIY their beauty products and grocery shop with pretty white net bags

Zero waste helps us reexamine our relationship with stuff in a way that can seem progressive and anti-consumerist. But the way this movement is promoted and practiced seems to drag us right back into traditional gender roles.

The world of zero waste is fronted by female influencers who DIY their beauty products, keep immaculate white-walled households, and grocery shop with pretty white net bags. Lauren Singer of Trash Is for Tossers, the young face of the movement, focuses on the kitchen, bathroom, and wardrobe, and Shia Su of Wasteland Rebel has tips for washing your hair and making almond milk.

"People would consider my blog girly," says Florine Hofmann, a sustainability blogger from Germany whose zero-waste articles talk about silicone menstrual cups and grocery shopping. "I can't imagine my ex-boyfriend googling something about how to make the perfect candle."

Why is it that the everyday work of reducing our plastic use and keeping our oceans and rivers plastic-free seems to fall into women's domain?

Why is zero waste so feminized?

Zero-waste wives

"I was the one doing the grocery shopping and cleaning the house. It was up to me to bring zero waste in the household."

Bea Johnson started down the path to zero waste after her husband quit his job to start a sustainability consulting company. Today, she is arguably the person who popularized living with the goal of creating minimal refuse here in the US and globally. In her 2013 book Zero-Waste Home, she dispenses advice on plastic-free grocery shopping, laundry, and raising kids. While she and her partner shared the same goal of saving the environment, the day-to-day work of zero-waste living fell to her.

The trope of enthusiastic zero-waste gal and her long-suffering male partner is something you'll hear often from zero-waste influencers, once you know to ask.

"It was my decision to try living a zero-waste lifestyle. I tried to tag him along, but I soon realized it wasn't going to happen," says Hofmann, who at the time was living in a small apartment with her boyfriend in Aarhus, Denmark. "I definitely felt like I had to shop for the both of us in order to keep our home zero waste."

Researchers have been studying the existence of the " second shift," when women come home after a full-time job to do the majority of cleaning and childcare, for almost 30 years. The question of whether pursuing a zero-waste lifestyle simplifies women's lives or constitutes yet another (green) shift hangs heavy over the zero-waste movement.

Any zero-waste evangelizer will tell you that you don't need to upend your life and live in an off-the-grid cabin like an archetypal environmentalist. You just engage in "habit change," rejiggering almost everything you do every day - brushing your teeth, cooking meals, getting coffee - to make it waste-free. Ostensibly, you could buy as much stuff as you need to live your best life - beauty products, fashion, food - as long as you can get it without packaging (like the dreaded plastic polybag). In theory, anyone could do it, though that is a controversial statement when you take into account the privilege of having access to bulk bins and the time needed to go to several stores instead of your local Walmart.

It's sort of like a game. How normal can you be while saving the environment? If you can fit all your year's waste into a jar, then you've become the zero-waste zen master.

It's essentially another layer to "having it all": a career, a family, a perfectly Instagrammable life, and now you're saving the planet, too. In practice, this can be a lot of undervalued, unpaid work, more added to the "mental load" that women carry, which - as illustrated in this comic by the French artist Emma - is the list-making and calendering that women do to administer the household.

It's sort of like a game. How normal can you be while saving the environment?

Keep in mind that the plastic packaging required for frozen food and sliced bread is arguably one of the things that allowed women to enter the workforce in the first place. In Colin Beavan's 2009 book No Impact Man, he waxed on about the fact that because he was forced to bake bread every few days, in order to avoid packaged and preserved foods, he ended up spending more time with his kid. (His wife was an editor with an office job.)

"The reason why people started buying things premade is because they were working longer hours," Susan Dobscha, a professor of marketing at Bentley University who studies gender and sustainability, says. When I tell her about zero waste and describe the Instagram images of perfect pantries of glass and beans, she compares it to "the 1950s housewife's ideal of perfection. Back then the pantry was perfect when they put all these fancy brands in like Nabisco crackers. But now the narrative has shifted to make having the perfect house more labor intensive."

But Johnson disagrees. "There are a lot of bloggers and social media accounts that create the ideas that you have to make a bunch of things from scratch, and it's scaring the crap out of working moms," she says. "I fight hard against that." For example, she doesn't DIY her cleaning or beauty products - she just uses white vinegar to clean her home and baking soda to brush her teeth. She says living zero waste has freed her up to write her book and go on speaking tours. (And that her husband now does the grocery shopping and half the laundry.) But the truth is, being a zero-waste mother is her full-time job.

Up until last year when her blog's income and book deal allowed her to quit, Kathryn Kellogg, the popular blogger behind Going Zero Waste and author of the new book 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste, had a full-time marketing job (though no kids). So she is pragmatic about the time cost of zero-waste hacks. "I don't think that it's sustainable for anyone to be making something every day or every week. I think that is insane," Kellogg says. "I have to be able to make it in under 30 minutes and it has to have at least a six-month shelf life. If it can be made in less than a minute, I'm okay with that. I don't want to be in my kitchen for 40 hours a week."

No matter what the truth is - it simplifies the household chores or complicates them - men do on average 50 percent less unpaid household work than women, not to mention a tiny fraction of the beauty rituals women do just to be taken seriously at work. So the steps to go zero waste simply fall into women's laps.

Then there is the Mom Bag aspect. In order to participate in society without using disposables, a typical zero waster will carry reusable utensils, a reusable straw, a mason jar, a cloth handkerchief, and a metal tiffin for premade snacks or leftovers. Women are used to having a purse full of stuff with them - what's a few more accessories if it's for the planet? But asking a "phone-keys-wallet" guy to carry all of that?

"That's where he drew the line," Hofmann says of her ex.

Sugar, spice, and everything waste

Perhaps women are drawn to inventorying their home's trash output and relentlessly trying to get it down to zero because we tend to suffer much more from perfectionism than men do.

The environmental advocate Bill McKibben has very publicly written off the idea that we need to be perfect in order to be an environmentalist. But women are so afraid of being called out for hypocrisy and failure, we feel like we can't call ourselves an environmentalist unless we've brought our daily lives 100 percent in line with our values.

"There has always been this undercurrent of people trying to point out the hypocrisy of others who are trying to do right by the environment," Dobscha says. "In my own research, I found some of my respondents felt they couldn't do enough no matter how hard they tried and sometimes got very demoralized about it."

"Some of my respondents felt they couldn't do enough no matter how hard they tried"

She compares the extremes of zero-waste efforts to the way women pursue perfect bodies, households, and relationships. "This is just another manifestation of the bar being higher for women in order to avoid public criticism, much like women running for office. Now it's couched within this appropriated narrative of we're doing good for the planet."

There are a few men in the movement, who practice zero waste as business consultants or chefs. One prominent zero-waste dude is Rob Greenfield who, on his YouTube channel and blog, details "extreme adventures" like biking across the US, dumpster diving to highlight grocery waste, and building a 50-square-foot tiny house in Orlando while generating only 30 pounds of construction waste. Despite the manly bent of his challenges, his audience on Facebook is about 70 percent women. "I'm generalizing, but you would expect that anybody who is in this field is going to have more women than men [following them]," he says.

Research confirms this. A 2018 study of Brits found that women are more likely to recycle regularly, conserve water, and compost. Marketers have found that women are more easily swayed by eco messaging, perhaps because men view green products and behaviors as inherently more feminine.

Zero waste comes with added emotional labor, too. Adherents spend their days politely refusing straws from confused waiters, declining gifts from family members, and gently explaining their lifestyle in a nonjudgmental way to strangers. The popular YouTuber Shelbizleee describes in a video a time her mother didn't want to walk her recyclables to the recycling center because it took too much time. Her advice? Just do it for them. "You can say, well, how about I volunteer to be the one who takes the time. I'm not asking you to do it - I'll be the one to take responsibility."

A commenter agreed. "Last [weekend] during lunch my husband asked me to hand him a paper towel for his greasy hands. I gave him a fabric napkin that I had made from an old T-shirt. He told me it was too wasteful to use fabric instead of paper, but I told him that I have to do the laundry anyway and one napkin doesn't make a difference. Well, he was too lazy to get up and get a paper towel, so he took the fabric napkin. Well, baby steps.﻿"

Rob Greenfield doesn't feel the same need to cushion his requests. "I am completely fine with this idea of hurting other people's feelings because I'm not going to do it the societal way," he says. "Most of our societal norms are around consuming things mindlessly. We're outsourcing the burden and making other people around the world pay for it. What I've decided is, I'm not basing my actions on just the people around me. That means that some people have their feelings hurt."

He also has a goal of dying with no one depending on him - a partner or kids. Last year, he and his girlfriend broke up after four years. "Because my life is so mission-driven, it does make it harder to have a partner," he says. "I'm pretty transparent that a relationship is not the most important thing to me."

Small steps add up ... to everything being worse?

One thing women are told we're good at is shopping. There's an oft-cited figure that women control 80 percent of household spending - giving them the so-called "power of the purse" to influence business decisions. (Though that number is probably made up.) So, women "vote with our dollars" by buying this shampoo bar in paper packaging instead of that shampoo in a plastic bottle.

This strategy has yielded some wins. Trader Joe's recently announced it would be decreasing its plastic use in-store, and a consortium of brands - including Nestle, Pepsi, and Unilever - should be launching their zero-waste delivery service pilot project soon.

But those are just bottle caps in an ocean. Since 2010, the fossil fuel industry has poured $180 billion into new plastics manufacturing facilities, and experts say global plastic production will jump by 40 percent as a result, irrespective of whether we bring mason jars with us to the grocery store. According to a 2017 analysis, the global oil and gas industry has fewer women in leadership positions than in other industries. Given that only 5 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, that's a low bar ... and indicative of how little influence women have over the tons of plastic flowing into the ocean.

"Those of us that study this figured out 15 years ago that consumer recycling will not solve the global problem," Dobscha says. "We've been trying desperately to move the conversation away from what happens at the point of purchase and end-of-use of products to pushing corporations to approach waste from the production side."

Perhaps this explains why women focus on their family's waste - locked out of the rooms where the most impactful decisions are being made but terrified for their children's future, they obsess over the plastic output that is within their domain.

"I think that is one of the big appeals to zero-waste or eco-friendly lifestyles. It's something you can personally control," Kellogg says. She did join her city's local beautification council a few years back but found herself stymied by the local business community when she tried to get a styrofoam ban on the docket.

"I think that is one of the big appeals to zero-waste or eco-friendly lifestyles. It's something you can personally control."

After all of her fiery rhetoric, Dobscha told me she's been practicing the plastic-free lifestyle for more than a decade. "I'm the queen of this in my personal life. I use glass jars. I don't buy ziplock bags," she says.

As a single working mother, she packed her children's lunches in glass containers. I asked her why, if she's so against small steps, she put all this effort in. She talks about the women she met while working on her dissertation on gender and sustainability 25 years ago. They were pioneering zero-waste living, but it didn't have the same ... let's call it branding.

"One woman didn't use feminine hygiene products, because it's wasteful," Dobscha says. "One woman cut open her tube of toothpaste and scraped out every bit of toothpaste. One woman, her roll of aluminum foil lasted her 10 years because she copiously washed every piece and reused it until it fell apart. My mind was blown." To her, these women were rebels.

For Kellogg, her original impetus was actually pretty self-centered: She had a breast cancer scare and wanted to get plastic out of her life. "You cannot approach it from a 'do it for the planet!' point of view," she says. "Most people don't care about the planet. You know what they do care about? Hmm, themselves. This improved my health, my creativity; it has saved me a bunch of money." Because of her personal zero-waste challenge, she finally weaned herself off of her habit of housing a dozen Pop-Tarts a week. Can't argue with that.

As for Hofmann, the zero-waste blogger struggling to get her boyfriend on board? They split up for reasons unrelated to living zero waste and she moved to London for a new job. Now that she's left her domestic routine and is going out more, she's cutting herself some slack. She simply got annoyed with watching her new coworkers waltz out to grab lunch when she was spending so much time cooking, and wanted to participate in the after-work networking. "In social situations, shit happens," she says. "I cook way less now that I'm on my own. In the interest of transparency, I do buy a lot of takeout food and try to put it in paper bags."

But in other ways, she's finding zero-waste living easier because she's not taking care of someone else's waste anymore. "I don't have to think or consider anyone else," she says. "So I can live my lifestyle the way I want to."
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Going zero waste is a lot of work. Most of it is falling to women.

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Look at #zerowaste and #zerowasteliving on Instagram and you'll see mason jars filled with chocolate smoothies and rows of rose-gold straws. You'll see perfectly organized refrigerators with piles of fresh produce and brown glass spray bottles with homemade lavender-steeped cleaning products.

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Why You Should Try Zero-Waste Living (UTNE reader)

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Why You Should Try Zero-Waste Living (UTNE reader)

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The article gives data of the amount of waste created and how the waste is related to many environmental and health problems. It mentions how this lifestyle has to be addressed taking in consideration the personal and political interests. The author explains her personal experience starting a zero-waste life, and specific examples gives you a better idea of how things work in practice and not just theory. The author spends a lot of time w¡thinking about trash, which can be something difficult todo for others, but there are also different levels of this lifestyle and different ways of applying it based on families, countries, etc. She mentions benefits like having more time, saving money, eat healthier, support local businesses, among others besides helping the planet.

Korst, A. (2013) Why You Should Try Zero-Waste Living. UTNE reader. Retrieved from: https://www.utne.com/environment/zero-waste-living-ze0z1306zpit

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Author Amy Korst and her husband produce one plastic bag of trash per month, and you can too. With the help of The Zero-Waste Lifestyle (Ten Speed Press, 2012), you can find advice on how to reduce or eliminate waste in your life. In this excerpt taken from the introduction, see why you should try zero-waste living.

To find more books that pique our interest,
visit the Utne Reader Bookshelf.

Everybody has a trash can. In fact, it's a safe bet that we all have multiple trash cans crowding our lives-in the bathroom, in the car, under the kitchen sink, and in the garage.

Before I started living trash free with my husband, Adam, we had all of the above in our house, for a total of five trash cans at our instant disposal. One day, while out running errands I counted how many trash cans I came in contact with in public restrooms, restaurants, movie theaters, and stores: thirty-two! I couldn't believe it. Then I heard a statistic that still troubles me: the average American produces three pounds of landfill-bound garbage each day. I started seeing trash everywhere, especially in places it doesn't belong, like littering the sides of the road and all over the wilderness where we went hiking and camping. I watched the trash pile up in our five garbage cans, and I hauled a full 32-gallon can to the curb each week. We tried hard to be green, so I didn't understand how we could be responsible for creating so much trash. Where did it all come from?

I decided to take a closer look at our country's trash habits, and the more I dug, the dirtier things appeared to be. Although these piles of trash we each produce every year are stinky and unsightly, the problem is much worse than that-for our environment and our health. Trash is intimately connected to every environmental problem we face today, from climate change and habitat destruction to water pollution and chemical exposure. It's also intensely personal and impacts every decision in our daily lives, including everything from how much money we spend to how much weight we gain.

Facing My Trash Addiction

When I first faced these facts, I couldn't believe how something as innocuous as our garbage could be negatively connected to so many of my personal and political concerns, but the facts were undeniable-if I wanted to change the country's trash addiction, I had to address my own trash problem first. But how?

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Why You Should Try Zero-Waste Living - Environment - Utne Reader

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Author Amy Korst and her husband produce one plastic bag of trash per month, and you can too. With the help of The Zero-Waste Lifestyle (Ten Speed Press, 2012), you can find advice on how to reduce or eliminate waste in your life. In this excerpt taken from the introduction, see why you should try zero-waste living.

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How to live a zero-waste lifestyle: Small steps toward a greener future (Global News)

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How to live a zero-waste lifestyle: Small steps toward a greener future (Global News)

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This source explain that due to the COVID-19, people are starting to change their lifestyles towards a healthier one and it can be a good opportunity to implement a zero-waste lifestyle. The article gives examples of families that have this lifestyle and gives a realistic idea of how people can implement it and the way of thinking in this approach. It also explains the difficulties of shopping without involving plastic, how they are thinks that can be more difficult to stop doing for some people but explains how to make conscious purchases, and do things by ourselves . The articles explains how to begin a zero-waste living and how it is a gradual journey not an all-in change of life. It also mentions that it is more expensive and that money is needed.

Pfeifer, S. (2021)

How to live a zero-waste lifestyle: Small steps toward a greener future. Global News. Retrieved April 15, 2021, from: https://globalnews.ca/news/7711548/zero-waste-tips-spring-2021/

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In the past year living with COVID-19 restrictions, you've likely made a lot of changes in the name of health - for your family and your community. Ready to make a few changes for the health of the planet?

As people all over the world strive to find a new normal, now is a perfect time to take your daily green routine up a level or two, to move toward less waste.

According to Community Research Connections (CRC), a research group committed to sustainability based in Victoria, B.C., Canadians create a lot of waste, more "per capita than any other country on earth." The group says each of us is responsible for approximately 2.7 kg of garbage each day.

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More and more, people are adopting sustainable and zero-waste lifestyles. From one person just starting out to another with decades of experience, here are some tips to get you moving in a more earth-friendly direction.

Anne Marie Matthews and her husband moved from Toronto to the Niagara peninsula in Ontario in 2019. While the pair have always embraced a life of wellness and sustainability - they formerly owned and operated yoga studios in the GTA - homesteading on their 10-acre property has sparked greater connectivity with nature and a deeper sense of responsibility for the environment.

Matthews and her husband began raising chickens and cultivating an organic vegetable garden, among other things.

"The process of tending to the plants, having my hands in the soil and feeling so profoundly nourished by nature transformed me. It was hard work, but I am changed because of it," Matthews says.

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In 2021, Matthews committed to zero waste.

Inspired by Bea Johnson, author of Zero Waste Home, a book that launched an environmental movement around the globe, Matthews says that "starting (to reduce waste) in your own home can make a significant impact on the world around you."

Adopting Johnson's "Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot" method, Matthews set out a manageable target of reducing waste one step at a time.

In addition to growing her own vegetables, Matthews bakes homemade bread (freezing some for later use wrapped in cloth, not plastic or paper), makes her own lip balm and tooth powder, and uses natural household cleaners.

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"I started with small zero-waste changes in my home, room by room, and I keep building on them."

Finding alternatives to single-use products and looking past the convenience of mass-produced packaged goods is a little extra work, but well worth it, she says.

"When I bring something into my home, I think about the end-of-use implications. I'm not complicating my life with a zero-waste approach, but rather intentionally simplifying, improving my family's quality of life and reducing our impact on the environment."

"I generally ask myself: is this a need or a want? Is this vital to our wellbeing? What is the cost to the environment? And is there an alternative solution I could consider instead?"

One frustration of going zero-waste, she says, is how challenging it is to shop without involving plastic, particularly when it comes to packaging.

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"We had fresh greens from our garden until December, and when I did eventually make my way back to the grocery store, I really struggled (with having) to buy produce packaged in plastic.

"The increase in my plastic consumption during my winter shopping was notable, despite my best efforts to shop strategically."

It's a challenge that Meg Savory knows all too well.

Savory, who lives with her husband in Nanaimo, B.C., has been passionately making earth-friendly choices her entire life.

She describes her commitment to the environment as "driven, obnoxious, unforgiving," derived in part from "living in a culture where there are so many passionate environmentalists."

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She also credits time spent at the family cottage on Hornby Island, "growing up a wild child, spending much of my childhood playing in the forest, foraging with my mom, and learning from my grandmother how to 'make do.'"

For her, "making do" translates into making always-intentional buying choices - and starts with not buying at all.

"Buy nothing. Making stuff from scratch is my favourite," Savory says.

For things she can't make herself, she first looks for local options - mindful of the carbon footprint associated with transporting goods from international growers or manufacturers - and then moves outward in her search.

She says she starts with "tiny local providers," then looks for "sustainability labels - like FSC for wood and Ocean Wise for seafood, etc."

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Even so, Savory says some ways of reducing waste, such as buying bulk foods, are not for everyone.

"I don't like bulk foods because I'm afraid of germs (even before COVID). I don't have the energy to always seek out packaging-free options."

When she can't find what she needs in local stores or second-hand shops, she uses Ecosia - "the search engine that plants trees."

Going beyond reduce-reuse-recyle (the three Rs), Savory often repurposes, refurbishes or repairs.

According to the CRC, "'waste' does not exist in nature. Ecological systems continually recycle water, minerals and nutrients through an interplay between sunlight energy, primary producers (e.g. plants), consumers (e.g. animals) and decomposers (e.g. bacteria)."

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Matthews and Savory both believe choosing to live as waste-free as possible goes well beyond helping the environment.

"My life has been profoundly enriched by embracing a zero-waste and regenerative lifestyle. My family's health and home are better for it and we have seen a measurable difference our actions are making in terms of reducing our household waste and plastic consumption," Matthews says.

"Environmental protection is probably my highest value," Savory says. "I cannot think of a decision I make where the environment isn't foremost in my mind. What I buy or don't buy, where I go or don't go, how I recreate - all decisions and actions. It's constantly in the forefront."

While the three Rs are widely known, zero waste begins with taking next steps, says Colleen Ans of Manitoba's Green Action Centre.

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The organization offers "practical, simple and effective ways to live sustainably - at work, at home, at school, and in your community" according to its website.

"It is most important to reduce the amount of single-waste items we consume by introducing a fourth R: refuse. Refuse things like straws, plastic bags, takeout cutlery, receipts, and anything that you don't actually need," Ans says, noting change can happen through "action, communication, and mindful consumption."

In addition to refusing single-use items, the centre suggests simple steps to add to your routine:

Reduce food waste by meal planning

Compost to divert food waste from the landfill

Try a Meatless Monday

Zero waste doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing endeavour. It is a journey taken each day with incremental steps in order to make a less harmful impact on the planet.

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Matthews suggests beginning with a home garbage audit. Start with the bathroom, perhaps, and add from there. "During a garbage audit, pay attention to what you put in the garbage in order to seek alternative solutions or simply refuse to buy that product in the future." Consider biodegradable options for things like dental floss and toothbrushes. Are the compostable alternatives to items packaged in plastic?

Matthews also suggests:

buy in bulk or at product refill stations using refillable containers

plant/harvest fresh vegetables. If you don't have a yard, try a container garden or sprouting jar for fresh greens

be diligent about recycling, know what is accepted in your local blue box and take care to clean/organize as needed

Savory offers the following easy-to-do activities:

choose the product with less-packaging; look at every purchase with a less-packaging mindset

join or start a toy sharing group

join your neighbourhood "buy nothing" group

buy stuff secondhand - "thrift it"

choose reusable alternatives for plastic wrap and paper towels

There is an abundance of ideas, including 101 tips for beginners, on how to move toward zero waste. Find ones that work for you online, or in a book borrowed from your local library.

Think of it as an investment

When it comes to buying choices, money matters. Living an environmentally-friendly lifestyle, shopping local, buying items that are made in environmentally responsible ways - should all be considered worthwhile spending - an investment.

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"It definitely costs money," Savory says. "More environmentally friendly products are often more expensive, and it takes time and effort. But all of this is not a hardship compared to the sense I have that I'm making a difference."

For Matthews, the shift to zero waste is an ongoing process that hasn't happened overnight. Moving away from the conveniences of day-to-day living takes time and effort - and research, too.

In her commitment to living her own regenerative lifestyle, she's now preparing to make it a livelihood. Her website - MyRegenerativeHome.com - will share her zero-waste insights in the hope of helping others take steps toward better care for the environment.

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How to live a zero-waste lifestyle: Small steps toward a greener future

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In the past year living with COVID-19 restrictions, you've likely made a lot of changes in the name of health - for your family and your community. Ready to make a few changes for the health of the planet?