Zero waste

The zero waste movement, the practice of living without creating waste, is now trendy. We carry a big part of the responsibility of what we waste, and it’s not only the industry that makes the choices about materials and packaging. With this responsibility we have two options. We can do nothing and feel the useless effort of others, or we can really do something. It is us, who does the shopping right? So we can choose to contribute to the problem or not.

The deeper you get into the topic, the more fanatic you are about it. You feel you have to save everyone and everything. I also was on this path once. I was trying to convince everyone around me to change their eating and usage habits. My intention was the best, but you get what happened, right? People were avoiding the topic and me with quite a distance. The topic of zero waste completely consumed me.

Instead of trying to convince you, I will recommend some habits to inspire you, because I love inspiring others and being inspired. After I changed just these few habits, I immediately saw some big changes. Where? In my trash can honestly. I now take out the trash less and less often. It’s a win-win, helping the environment and helping myself. Here are a few tips, some things that I started with that quickly hooked me.

1, Buy groceries in bulk.

I love to support local businesses and startup shops wherever I am. If you cannot get items in bulk where you live, you can at least try to buy the biggest packages available, or bring your own packaging. Be creative!

2, Buy fruits and veggies from local farmer and transport them with your own cotton tote bags.

My farmer in Czechia used to deliver my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares to work every week and I simply traded the bags with him, empty for full ones.

3, Wherever I go,

I bring a thermos, an extra cotton bag, a small container for food, and wooden utensils. I use the thermos for my tea and coffee throughout the day. I use a cotton bag for anything I need to bring, and for shopping. An extra container for food secures me a snack on my way out and space for leftovers on my way back if I need it.

4, Put scraps from fruits and veggies into the compost.

If you don’t  have one yourself, someone always has a compost bin nearby if you look around. The trick is to prepare a bag for scraps in the freezer. It doesn’t smell, and once in the while you can take it to someone when you have time. I was collecting scraps in the freezer and taking it to my mother in law every time we visited her. She was happy to receive it every time!

5, For special women days I have a Moon Cup.

There are also other zero-waste options but I haven’t tried them out. The Moon Cup I can recommend with all my twenty fingers & toes. There are so many benefits to having a menstrual cup that it’s impossible to mention them all.  And trust me, you can even use it while traveling, for example in Sri Lanka, and sleeping in the car. It’s completely worth it.

I think this is enough for the start, and hopefully you will have great results if you try these as well. If you already do everything here and this article was really disappointing for you – that is amazing! We will talk about other zero waste smart products in future. Now it’s time to share your best zero waste trick with me, I am always curious to learn more.

Pureearthwoman

Translation with the help of Ellie Farrier