A few months ago I was watching viral videos of animals sick and dying, caught up in our irresponsibly discarded waste. You don’t have to be a PETA member or environmental advocate to see that we are better than this. As a human race we’ve treated our planet like its dispensable, just like that styrofoam cup or a plastic spoon that ends up in the trash at a restaurant every single day.
This is when I stumbled upon the Zero Waste movement. Through small changes, we are able to significantly reduce the amount of waste a household produces. It starts with baby steps like reusable water bottles and bringing your own tumbler to the coffee shop. Just when you think, “This is cool, I can do this,” it gets slightly more complicated.
The biggest deal breaker for my husband was getting rid of paper towels, no lie. I bought more cloth towels and said, “Just try it and if you hate it we’ll go back to paper.” Once we got in the motions of using them, it was absolutely no big deal. Use a cloth towel and add it to the laundry. No more chucking one-use towels in the garbage every time we had to clean.
As of now, we’ve transitioned into fully zero-waste shopping. I use my own bags and containers to go to the store. I buy many items in bulk with my own bags and empty them into containers in my pantry. Often these are much cheaper than prepackaged items anyway! We no longer own paper towels. I make my own toothpaste, fabric softener, and dish soap. We have also found more sustainable options for shampoo, conditioner, body wash, makeup, and detergent. It's so fun to get crafty and try new ideas, especially if they end up saving money.
So what’s the bigger picture? Do these changes actually amount to anything? Just this week, my husband casually mentioned that he forgot trash day. Before, this would have been quite alarming. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, “We didn’t have anything to take out.” Within just a few months we had cut our household waste in half just with these minor changes. Some established Zero Wasters have been able to reduce their yearly waste to the size of a mason jar. Considering that the average American produces roughly 5 pounds of trash a day, any means of reducing can be helpful. It’s almost like a game, looking at the everyday things that we throw away and considering more sustainable options that fit for our lifestyle.
Photo Credit: Celestine Ngulube https://unsplash.com/search/landfill?photo=N69l4qUJm2I