We started going Zero Waste in September 2018
We took the Zero Waste Week challenge but instead of doing it for a week we carried on. The point of that week was to see how little waste (both waste and recycling) we could produce in a week. We kept our waste for a normal week to see what type of things we were throwing away. This is the first step, if you want to get close to zero waste you need to know what you are putting in your bins.
“Started with one week, and we are now going zero waste for the entire 2019”
We were good at recycling already, we only had 1 kg of waste left a week, but we had 5 kg of recycling and 2kg of food waste. After Zero Waste Week (1st week of September), I realised we needed to keep going to see how far we could go. In January this year, we decided to challenge ourselves; we will keep our waste to one bin in 2019 (same size as recycling bin in the photo) or #1bin1year.
Last weekend, I emptied the recycling bin to see how much we had (I hid it from the bin men so they wouldn't empty the bin) for January and February; 12.7 kg of recycling or around 1.6 kg a week. We did it, we managed to reduce it by 70%. Waste has gone down from 1 kg a week to 100 grams, a 90% reduction. At this rate we will fill our recycling bin 6 times and perhaps 0 for waste bin.
The breakdown:
8.4 kg of glass
1.78 kg paper
1.14 kg of metal
850 grams of card/board
280 grams of plastic
270 grams of pet food packaging (For Terracycle)
I will go through the benefits and the hard bits of going zero waste in another post, for now these are some of the switches we have done to get here:
*Making oat milk: So easy, so cheap, so quick, reduced tetra packs completely. Ok, we bought 1 in two months, but we used to get 2 a week.
*Kitchen Towel: Stopped using it and switched to dishcloth. Cheap again and no need to keep buying it.
*Refilling: Washing up liquid, detergent, and hair shampoo.
*Refilling wine: I found a Borough Wine shop next to our offices, £5.95 for a bottle refill of good wine. We have refilled about 12 bottles over two months.
*Vinegar: Who knew it was so useful! Now use Apple Cider Vinegar for cleaning my hair, it leaves it smooth.
*Cooking from scratch: There are things you cant buy loose, like chapattis, Adam has mastered them now, and gets it done in minutes. We also now experimenting with making vegan burgers in bulk and freeze them. Making tofu and fresh pasta too.
*Produce bags: Love using our cotton small bags to get fruit and vegetables, and it gets shop assistants talking about plastics.
*Olive oil in large container: Why didn't I do this before, much cheaper from paying £6/litre, I now get it for £4.5 per litre in a 5 litre metal container, instead of 5 separate glass/plastic bottles.
*Bread: We used to buy sliced bread. I now get it from Tesco's bakery and 'posh' artisan bread as a treat in the weekends.
*Buying in Zero Waste shops: Bring your own containers and fill them up with grains, pasta, coffee beans etc, there are now more opening in London and I have access to four of them close to home/work.
There are more switches, but these are the main ones. Going Zero Waste isn't about ignoring the rest of your environmental impact, in fact, it makes you think and question other habits, like buying non-organic clothes or flying. This last bit is by far my largest impact, I love travelling and I have to visit my family in Bilbao. I will aim to reduce this too in the near future. For now, we want to go down to #1bin1year for 2019.
*Includes: At home, and when out and about.
*Exemptions: Dog waste when out.
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