This is How I Live a Low Waste Life - Almost Plastic-Free
It did not require me to give up modern life
Reducing our waste doesn’t require changing our lifestyles. We don’t have to become tent dwellers. While it doesn’t involve giving up comforts, it does involve changing habits for the better. For the better for yourself and for the planet.
Between 2017 and 2020 I was aiming to go for a zero-waste lifestyle. Truly zero-waste though, not the social media kind. And I found that it is practically impossible to live in a modern society and be truly zero-waste. Nor do we need to be zero waste. While societies today arguably misuse our modern waste technologies, there are ways to capture end-of-life materials. End of life materials have always been around, and they always will be. There always have been, even back in the olden days pre-1950s industrialization of our modern society.
While a true zero waste life is not possible, a very reduced waste life style is and it is an improvement to our average modern lives. It means we get to save more money overall not waste more.
Start Here
The first thing to do to reduce your waste is to analyze your weekly and monthly waste generation - in other words do a waste audit. This is the first thing we do with big corporates and event venues as well. We all start the same. On garbage day identify where the majority of the waste you’re throwing out comes from. What are the trash bags filled with? 90% of the time, the majority will be packaging materials - some will be recyclable and many won’t be. Wrappers around foods, electronics, daily purchases, paper towels, etc. For me it was kind of 50-50. While I had a lot of packaging trash - I also had food waste - as in discarded portions of foods I regularly cooked with - vegetable peels, fruit seeds, their packaging, etc. So that helped me prioritize what I could do right away and then stagger the rest.
1 - Start composting
Whether you live in a big city or out in a rural community - you can start composting now. Every organic matter and paper can be thrown into the compost bin. When I was in New York City I got myself subscribed to a local organic compost program. They delivered a compost bin that they would pick-up once a week. I chose their once a week option because I exclusively cooked and ate at home all the time. I lived in a big building then and didn’t have the option to create my own garden, so I subscribed to a compost program.
Now I live in a rural town and have my own compost. I use Lomi, and start it up at least 3 times a week. It creates beautiful ready to use compost that has absolutely created an amazing garden for me.
If you’re worried about smells - create a bag in your freezer and save the compost items in the freezer until it’s time for compost collection or composting.
2 - Say no to single-use anything and everything
If an item is single-use do your best to avoid it. This isn’t just about straws, but also about coffee cups, water bottles, red plastic cups, and other packaging. If it can’t be refilled - it’s single use. Detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, squeeze containers etc. All are single-use. The quicker you can replace these items with more sustainable choices the more you’ll reduce your waste.
Plastic bags - you really don’t need them. As we’re saying it’s practically impossible not to end up with one more of packaging or another. What you can do is use chips bags, or other bags you’re bound to end up with, to dispose of any wet trash. It’s easy to place those into a paper bag and then the trash bin. It is an issue I have especially when we entertain and we end up with leftover food from plates etc.
3 - Learn more about recycling and recycle better more
It’s no lie - our recycling system is broken. And there are parts of the recycling system that does work and is crucial to reaching a circular economy in the future. Without a strong and sound recycling system we can never get to the next level circularity in our communities. So make sure to learn more about how your recycling system works, where your recycling goes, what is accepted and what is not, etc. The information is usually available through the Waste Management website, or you can find links to your local recycling program in the US by visiting howtorecycle.info or in the UK - recyclenow.com.
I am an avid recycler. I DO recycle milk containers, vinegar bottles, batteries, eletronics, and other "waste” I cannot avoid living in a modern society. And I believe in improving the system rather than attacking it. While recycling is in trouble, it’s also the place for most improvement where our communities can reap the most benefits from creating jobs to circular systems.
4 - Opt for packaging free produce (when you can) and bring your own reusable produce bags
When in season, in most places, you can get plastic free packaged produce. My biggest challenge are tomatoes and berries, all berries. I don’t know why they’re almost always packaged in plastic now instead of the usual compostable paper pint they used to come in. One thing I am known to do at the grocery store is to empty out packaged produce into my own bag and leave the packaging to them. While I know that in many stores they’ll just get tossed to the trash bin there, it also sends a message to the store. The more people do this, the more the store starts looking for alternatives and informs the producer.
5 - Avoid processed foods
The more processed the food, the more packaging. We practically never eat processed foods - first because we don’t care for their taste, second I have serious anxiety about the chemicals we are made to consume without even our consent or knowledge, and third, well it’s almost impossible to reduce waste with all the film and styrofoam etc.
6 - Avoid paper towels and single-use cleaning dusters etc. It’s a money pit
Most paper towels are sold in plastic film packaging that is not recyclable where we are. Plus, most of them are made with harmful chemicals and don’t compost too well. Instead I use reusable cloths - the all cotton paint rags available at the hardware store or the swedish dishcloths are absolute life savers! They’re my everyday go to and I don’t even know how many I have in different colors etc. I use them everywhere from the garden to wiping counters to cleaning the tub. They are all color coded so they don’t get mixed-up!
7 - Go beyond daily single-use items and choose products with better packaging -
For hand-soap I opt for Blueland tablet soaps. They come in compostable packaging, you drop a tablet into your favorite soap dispenser and add warm water. The tablet dissolves into this delicious smelling, ultra foamy soap that leaves your hands clean and soft. Best part? No trash. Alternative on Amazon:
For shampoo - I either use a bar shampoo or refillable shampoo from Ethique that comes in compostable packaging.
Clothing - I am big on thrift stores when I can. We’re blessed with a lot of thrift stores that sell some really cool things and provide the kind of clothing I look for. When I can’t find something at a thrift store I will select a local store that focuses on sustainability and sells cotton and natural fiber products. If there are any tags, I will request them to remove it before I leave the store.
All my clothes go to donations, except for undies which are cotton and get composted.
And buy less… we live in a society where it’s normal for us to be bombarded by Marketing schemes that tell us that we need to buy products we don’t even know exist. While it’s true for some things, 90% of things we see marketing for are not things we need. We definitely don’t need to be buying ALL the time. We also have a rule, if we buy something we already have, we will give away something of equal quantity to avoid clutter.
Remember to Take it Slow and Enjoy the Process
You can see the possibilities and areas for improvement are practically endless. Start where you can and do what you can. You don’t need to start avoiding everything today, you most likely won’t be able to and it will put undue pressure on you. Feeling stressed is not the point of reducing our waste. We need to stay connected and grounded to who we actually are. We need to conscious about the choices we are making, and we definitely make better choices when we feel less stressed.
Becoming aware of our consumption and choices is actually a very enjoyable process because we end up learning so much. And for me, learning is one of the best aspects of life. So keep on learning and enjoying the process. We can get better every day, and it doesn’t mean we need to land on the moon tomorrow. There is work to be done to get there.
I hope you take these as examples. We cannot be perfect but we can strive to do better than we did yesterday, as much as possible. After all these years, I still have waste that comes out of the house - I have guests who aren’t as prepared, and I LOVE cheese. The biggest challenge for me is to find cheese that is not wrapped in plastic. I opt for fresh and local cheeses that are wrapped in paper but there are still times when I reach for my favorite blue or brie. And that’s okay. One day I will find a replacement for those, until then, I do what I can and I hope you find ways to join me in transforming the way we choose to consume things.
