How to live a green, sustainable lifestyle Part Three: A Zero-waste life
So you’ve made yourself a compost bin, you sort your recycling, and you’ve got your takeaway coffee cup which you use religiously for those early morning wake-ups at your local. But the earth warrior within you, wants to do even more to help your environment…but what can you do?
Welcome to part three of our series on how to green up your lifestyle. This final article of our series focuses on creating a zero-waste lifestyle.
1.
The first thing to remember is that with creating any new habit, or making a big change in your life, it will be a process. You’ll have to start small and focus on achieving small goals every day, until you eventually reach the big dream of living a waste-free life.
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Secondly, understand why you want to live a zero-waste lifestyle. Figure out the specific driving force behind it. Is it because you want a plastic-free ocean for your children to swim in, just the way you did growing up? Are you tired of hearing all the talk on saving the environment but seeing no action? Do you want to be a force for good in the world, inspiring others along the way? Whatever your why, write it down and put it somewhere where you will see it every day. This will inspire you to keep striving towards your goal of living waste-free. It will motivate you when times get tough, as they will.
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Thirdly, take a week to note down the themes and types of rubbish you chuck away. Every time you go to put something in the landfill bin — write down what it is. A rubbish audit. From this, you can figure out the first area of your life to work on becoming waste-free.
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Fourthly, prioritize and pick the area where you are throwing the most rubbish away as your starting point. It can be helpful to focus on getting rid of items you only use in one use. For example, you might be an avid fan of take-away coffees. Head down to your local opshop and find yourself a nice big mug — keep this in your car, bag or backpack, ready to use at your next cafe stop. Maybe you love hummus. Instead of buying a plastic container full of ready-made hummus, head to your local wholefoods shop and scoop up a brown paper bag of dried chickpeas. Google a recipe, and blend away. Do you use plastic water bottles? Get yourself a metal reusable one.
Other simple things you could replace are: tissues with handkerchiefs; plastic containers with glass or metal ones; plastic bags with paper or material bags; plastic produce bags with thin cotton bags; sponges with washable rags; plastic toothbrushes with compostable bamboo alternatives; glad wrap with beeswax; the rubbish bin with a compost bin for food scraps.
By focusing on small areas to conquer one at a time, you’ll be rewarded with small successes that will eventually build up to meeting your larger goals. This will sideline those feelings of overwhelm and stress if you try and become waste-free all in one go.
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Next, to not blow the budget, buy waste-free items as your throw-away items run out. One thing at a time. For some waste-free items, the cost can seem hefty, but remember it’s worth the investment. Over the long run, you’ll end up saving time and money with reusable products over their throwaway products which you have to keep replacing. You can also look around your house to see what zero-waste tools you already own. For example, save the glass peanut butter jar to store your lentils; cut up an old shirt to become a wash rag. Furthermore, do you research on what items you can replace with things that will result in a lesser carbon footprint. For example, you can use moon cups instead of tampons for women, or metal razors instead of plastic ones. When possible — buy secondhand too. Opshops are often filled with old glass jars.
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Finally, learn how to make things yourself. Each weekend find a new skill to learn. For example, you can teach yourself how to make shampoo, soaps, and cleaning tools. Learn about making almond and peanut butters.
Other simple things you can do along the way to help out on your journey to become waste-free include:
Buying less
Shopping at local vegetable markets
Finding contentment in what you have
Noticing how your simple actions inspire others to make green changes in their life as well.
What simple steps are you going to take to help out the environment? How are you going to green up your lifestyle?
This article has been inspired by Trash is for Tossers,and Going Zero Waste.