10 Ways To Reduce Your Waste

You may have heard of the "Zero Waste Lifestyle", with lifestyle leaders such as New York's Lauren Singer or Northern California's Bea Johnson reducing their landfill waste so much that it fits into a jar (Singer based her lifestyle off Johnson, who achieves this with a family of 4 & a small dog). The lifestyle is catching on all over the world, with an impressive amount of Zero Wasters in Australia, such as Erin Rhoads AKA The Rogue Ginger, and Tammy Logan of Gippsland Unwrapped.

1. Buy or make cloth produce bags!

Shauna C. Keddy / Via Instagram: @zerowasteteacher

This is an easy way to rid your life of plastic bags once & for all! If you have access to farmers markets, fill your bags with produce that usually come in plastic bags, like smaller fruits & yummy greens for salads or smoothies, etc! These bags can also be used for snacks on the go, thus eliminating your need for plastic sandwich bags & such.

2. Buy a nice stainless steel container

Shauna C. Keddy / Via Instagram: @zerowasteteacher

(Such as mine pictured above, from Onyx Containers or Life Without Plastic). ZWers are all about jars, but if you’re getting food to-go, it’s not always easy to ask restaurants & such to cram your food into a narrow jar :) These sturdy containers prevents leaks, & eliminate one-time-use take out containers! Also, these are nice and lightweight, which makes it easy to bring home leftovers or shop for groceries by foot, bike etc. You can sometimes find these tiffin-style stainless steel containers at second hand stores-- and I always recommend calling around to natural food stores and co-ops before buying online, to avoid the carbon miles and packaging involved in shipping. Some sellers on websites such as eBay will actually take "plastic free and reused material if possible" requests into account by the way for packaging, it's always worth a try for any online order!

3. Say goodbye to plastic straws forever!

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Did you know that approx. 500 million straws are used in the US *each day*?! If you need convincing that plastic straws pollute, watch this (warning, it is GRAPHIC, but it's important to know it exists). When you first start asking for "no straw please!" while out and about, don't be discouraged when your request is inevitably not always fulfilled. Often bartenders will only remember as you're paying for the drinks, and they'll hastily grab the straws out, throwing them into the trash *facepalm*. If it's not too loud/busy for a quick chat, I highly recommend politely mentioning this video to bartenders or waiters who do not seem to take the no straw request seriously. Unfortunately sometimes it takes someone having a visceral emotional response to watching something like this on their own time, for the urgency to translate. But of course often at restaurants the straw is put in by the person who makes the drink and not your waiter, in which case it does more good to write a nice email to the restaurant afterwards requesting that they adopt the "offer first" straw policy.

4. Let’s get personal:

Via Instagram: @https://www.instagram.com/gladragspads/?hl=en

Not everyone wants to switch to a Cup for their period, if they’ve always used pads. That’s alright! Cloth is one of your new best friends when reducing your landfill waste. I love these cute cloth pads from gladrags (pictured above), that come in a variety of awesome patterns to choose from. Or, make your own! Zero Waste after all is about reusing what you can, before buying items, and buying secondhand whenever possible. I pair one with the Keeper Cup, & I’m up for my usual activities of walking the dog, going to concerts, etc! Besides the unnecessary waste created by one time use sanitary products, did you know that tampon and sanitary pad manufacturers aren’t required to disclose ingredients?! If you aren't buying organic cotton products, you are putting cancer causing chemicals in your most sensitive area. I also highly recommend cloth diapers for any parents out there too. Wait, did I lose you?! If you aren’t in need of those two areas of coverage, perhaps you’d like to know there’s a great brand that makes compostable condoms. They’re as safe as the icky plastic kind, & you don’t have to contribute to the landfill! Spread the word~ because sustainable is sexy!

5. If there are Farmers Markets near you, go forth & enjoy them!

Shauna C. Keddy / Via Instagram: @zerowasteteacher

Often, farmers happily take back any minimal packaging their produce comes with, for reuse! I’m talking twist ties, rubber bands, the green plastic baskets strawberries are sold in, etc. So you can enjoy delicious seasonal produce with zero plastic stickers or packaging whatsoever. You can even bring back egg cartons for reuse, or bring your own more sturdy carton!

6. Go electronic whenever possible!

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You really don't need a paper copy of most things. For example: if someone offers you their business card, simply take a photo of it, or if there's time, enter their email or cell to your phone straight away. When you text someone with your name as you're still talking to them, then they'll easily be able to save your contact, & neither of you has to worry about losing the business card & never making the connection! Another easy switch is electronic tickets when you don't need to print them, like for certain concert venues or plane tickets.

7. It’s 2016. It’s really, really REALLY time to ditch the plastic water bottle.

Via ippinka.com

Did you know that “making bottles to meet America’s demand for bottled water uses more than 17 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year; And that’s not even including the oil used for transportation”? Perhaps you prefer bottled water because it’s filtered. But according to Dr. Gina Solomon (a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council) “there is no reason to believe that bottled water is safer than tap water.” Often when you buy bottled water, you’re simply paying Pepsi or Coke for the same Municipal water you could get for free from any drinking fountain or faucet. I love my Kishu Charcoal filter to ensure my tap water is free of nasty lead that can be in the pipes of older buildings. I simply fill my kanteen with that filtered water before heading out the door! You can get a Kishu to-go filter too if you want to be extra safe when filling up from public drinking fountains and such. Let’s #TakeBackTheTap!

8. COMPOST!

Zero Waste means realizing that if you were a 90’s kid like me, it’s great that recycling was the big green message we were always hearing about; but it’s time to go greener. Every piece of plastic ever created still exists in some form. I’m sure many of you have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a plastic mass in the ocean that is now bigger than Texas. If you recycle—great! But plastic cannot be infinitely recycled, and so plastic water bottles for example will still end up in the landfill after being recycled a few times; plus, think of all the energy it wastes to constantly recycle. It’s also essential to compost because when our food waste, known as “organics” ends up in the landfill, it creates methane gas. In the US, it’s estimated that 72% of municipal waste going to landfills is organic. That means if all households composted, we would offset our total landfill waste by almost two-thirds! If your city does not have a curbside compost program, most farmers markets have compost bins that you’re welcome to use. No farmers markets either? If you have a yard or live near farms, it’s simple to start your own compost (even on a small apartment patio) or ask a farmer if you can use theirs! Does your city have curbside compost, but your building hasn't provided a bin? In many cities, apartments with 5 or more units are required to provide tenants with individual bins and a curbside bin for the building. Make sure to send that info to your landlord if you find out they're skirting a requirement ;).

9. The *five* R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Rot and Recycle

Via cdn.collider.com

So back to that 90’s kid mentality: we used to hear about the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home instead recommends the 5 R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Rot and Recycle. By buying from bulk bins, you are refusing single use packaging that is not recyclable, and also reducing the demand for any packaging whatsoever. Check out the free “Bulk App”—it’s a great resource if you don’t know where to find bulk bins in your area— for example if there are no natural food stores/Co-ops or bigger stores like Whole Foods near you. Bringing your own light cloth bags for dry goods is so easy--I keep one in my bag at all times in case I want a baked good for example that would usually be handed to me in a paper bag, which I really don't need. To succeed in zero packaging, bringing your own containers for wet goods will greatly reduce your landfill waste. You can fill up your container at salad bars or ask for whatever you need from the deli to be placed directly in your container, and the only thing you’ll have to take from certain stores is a little barcode tag to use during checkout. If you regularly fill the same container to with the same amount of something that’s a staple in your kitchen, then you can save that barcode tag for reuse as well!

10. Buy secondhand!

Shauna C Keddy / Via Instagram: @zerowasteteacher

We need to use up what already exists before constantly making more. Buying used items is sustainable for the earth and your wallet! I occasionally buy a super cute dress, and I can always find something amazing for under 16$! There is no reason to buy new when often that means you’re spending more money, and supporting sweat shops and unsustainable fabrics. Thrift stores are a great place to find household goods as well, such as jars, which is the perfect way to begin your Zero Waste Journey!

(Pictured above is me in my favorite second hand dress, on a hike overlooking the Bay Area, California)