We had a go last year and we produced 70 grams of waste. It is Sunday the end of f zero waste week, and we have 2 kiwi stickers in our waste jar. We managed to go zero on waste. We had two kiwi stickers that don’t show up in the weighing scale, and if you are going to round numbers, that equals zero. Strictly speaking, it isn’t zero, but as I tried to take a photo, I couldn’t find the stickers in the jar, because the dog had tried to eat them.
It was so much easier, but it took us a year to get here. Last year we didn’t measure our recycling ‘waste’ as I was mainly obsessed about the waste going to landfill. The first time you really have a go, you realise the amount of planning and changing habits you need to do in your life. First don’t freak out, but there is a huge list of things you can consider doing if you want to go down the low waste route. Zero waste isn’t the right terminology, but it creates a debate and it increases visibility of the waste crisis.
What changes have we done?
🛒Stopped online food deliveries
🛍Use produce cotton bags to buy loose veg/fruit
🌿Shop in zero waste shops (bulk bins/pay by weight)
📦 Subscribing to organic box food deliveries
🥘 Bringing our containers to take food leftover home
🥬 Growing our lettuce/tomatoes/beans
🥤Bringing our own cups to festivals
✋🏼Refusing gifts & sending them back. Getting friends to see your post so they understand
🍲Taking containers back to get them refilled at our local Indian take away
🥗 Bringing our own containers for lunch
🚰 Refilling cleaning bottles
🍕 Making our pizzas
🧼 Switching from shower gel to soap
🍷 Refilling wine bottle
🐛 Composting clean cardboard & toilet rolls
☕️ Repairing our coffee machine and pressure cooker
🥜Making our own humus
🌿Buying 5 litre olive oil steel container instead of 1 litre plastic bottle
📩Unsubscribing from old mailing lists
🥛Making oat milk
🧵Mending some clothes
👞Repairing boots
🧴Swapped some cosmetics, and even learnt to make some this week
If you would have asked me in July 2018 that I would be here, I would have laughed at you. I have been working in the recycling sector for over 15 years, but something hit me in August 2018. The bug. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t because I had Adam’s support, he was keen to make some switches and cook more at home, he loves cooking. Saying that, we have argued, actually argued about plastic bags and crisp packets. Sounds very middle class first world problem, because it is. We are privileged enough to have full time jobs, but that is not a reason not to look at the impact we have in the world, and reduce it.
"The businesses we support and the choices we all make cast a vote for the future we want." *Conscious Citizen*
Saving the planet, one Instagram post at a time. Damn right…actually not. This Zero Waste thing won’t ever go mainstream. We need structural change from those with the power to do it: local and central governments and global organisations. But if my posts actually change the habits of some around me, then I am smiling. But the businesses we support and the choices we all make cast a vote for the future we want.
*when I mean landfill here, I mean both to Energy from Waste plant and landfill.
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