Zero Waste first post

 Hello fellow internet people. Today we will be talking about Zero Waste. 

 

Now some of you may be asking. "What exactly is Zero Waste?" Well that is a very good question. Zero Waste is a set of principles focused on waste prevention that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. Now most Zero Waste programs follow a simple 5 R system. Most of my item links will be to Amazon, this is due to the fact they are universal. I suggest you shop at small local places before going to Amazon. 

 When you buy through amazon links on my site, I do earn an affiliate commission. This keeps it 100% reader supported and free of ads or sponsorships. And although I do get a commission many if not all of the links I send you to are products I have myself. Thanks for your support!

The first step is to Refuse. There are many things in our life that we don't need. The world is full of marketing that is geared towards buying things you do not need, they are just wants. Can you live without that new pen the salesman is trying to push off on you? Or how about that shirt that you will wear once then put in the back of your closet. This also goes for other items, are you an avid coffee drinker? Yes? Well, how about picking up a bad of coffee and a reusable filter instead of picking up those handy little Keurig Cups. Once you start Refusing you will find the following steps go much more smoothly.

 

The next step is to Reduce. This is all about reducing what you already have. Those shirts you never wear? How about donating them, and no I'm not talking about the multi-MILLION dollar "Donation centers." I am talking about a local charity that will put your items to good use. I personally donate all my clothing to a woman's shelter and other items to a small shelter downtown. It will require a bit more time and effort on your part to find these places but I guarantee you that they will appreciate them more than you know. This also goes for buying. I started shopping at bulk shops due to the fact it reduced my garbage output. Now with COVID running rampant I am currently not doing this. But I will usually take my reusable bags, produce bags, jars (which you will learn about next, and containers to the bulk shops where you can find almost everything outside of a container. "But Lydia," you say "I don't know of any bulk shops near me." That's alright my Darlings I got you, or rather the lovely people over at Litterless have you. Their site is a wonderful place to find Bulk stores and compost stations near you and if there isn't one near you they also show online bulk stores. 

 

Next is reuse. For this, I will use my mother as an example. She LOVES Talenti Gelato and no matter of convincing will stop her from buying them. We probably have a dozen or so of the containers around the house. One day I stopped throwing them in the recycle bin and hoarded them. Why? I found out they are perfect for small things you don't need a lot of, they hold about 2 cups of liquid or in my case flour. I was experimenting with almond and coconut flour, seeing as I didn't know if I would like it I took the small containers to the bulk shop and filled them up. Reuse also goes for reusable items, I have switched over to reusable snack bags like these. They are made of durable silicone that I have had no problems with so far. another huge thing no one thinks about is paper towels. Did you know? To make one ton of paper towels 17 trees and 20,000 gallons of water are polluted. It is such a simple fix to move over to reusable towels. Now I could go on and on about reusable items but I won't. Just remember the cardinal rule. Do not go out and BUY something when you have things laying around the house that could be re-purposed. Why buy fancy glass jars when you have plastic ones laying around that could be re-purposed instead of being thrown out. Remember reuse comes before recycle.

 

Recycle is our fourth item. Now I started my Zero Waste journey in January of 2020, I have had a lot of ups and downs with it but one thing that has stayed consistent is recycling. I remember my Dad recycling when I was a kid and it instilled the value in me early. My Aunt used to have recycling boxes in her garage where you had to separate metal, glass, and plastic. When I started I was living with my mom, the two of us would make two white bags of trash a week! That is a bag a person, now most of it wasn't me but the point still stands. When I began the first thing I did was start a recycling basket (Which was a re-purposed broken laundry basket). Now there is only one bag of trash that is about 3/4 full for three of us living in the house. Every week I tote a bag of recycling over to my dad's and throw it in his recycling bin. The thing is more can be recycled than you think. before throwing something out look for the lovely recycling symbol on the bottom.

 

Last but not least is Rot. Rot is the last solution before throwing something out. Litterless comes to our rescue again, this time with a list of composting sites close to you. Don't have one close by? why not do it yourself. composting is a lot less stressful and smelly than people make it out to be. I have a worm composter in my house that I will talk about at a later time. At first, my mom complained about my worm farm but after the first harvest of the amazing compost that they create, she changed her mind. well...she still refuses to give them goodnight kisses but we are working on that!

 

This was a brief overview of the 5R's, in the coming weeks I will dedicate a single pose to each R to expand on them. No doubt you are doing a lot of research into Zero Waste but let me make something abundantly clear. Those people who can put one month of waste into a mason jar are CRAZY. I am not saying it is impossible, I am just saying they have way too much free time and I do not know about you but I have a life and have things to do. So if I don't have time to go to a bulk shop and end up going to Walmart does that make me bad? No, that makes me human, we are not perfect, overall we do not have time or energy to completely cut out trash 100%. But Follow the 5R's and you will get close to your perfect.

 

 

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes I have found 

“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” Anne Marie Bonneau