Zero waste living is a form of lifestyle where one produces minimum or negligible waste. It is a form of living where one reuses almost all products. It focuses on waste prevention and not waste management. People with zero waste lifestyle make sure that no trash is sent to landfills. This in turn reduces pollution from disposing off the materials.
There are various bloggers and Instagram influencers like Kathryn Kellogg (goingzerowaste.com), Lauren Singer (trashisfortossers.com) and Rachel Felous who are who live a Zero waste lifestyle. They say that there are various small things that they do that make a huge impact. For example, Kathryn Kellogg buys fresh tortillas from Mexican restaurants (instead of buying the packaged one) and asks them to put it in her container. This saves the restaurant’s cost of packaging as well as helps Kathryn in her zero waste quest.
Similarly, Rachel Felous puts all her organic waste in the freezer. It constitutes about 80% of her household trash. She takes it to her parent’s place monthly where a local farmer picks it up for composting. Her argument is that if this goes to the landfill, it will not compost at all as there is very low air circulation in those places. Shawn Williamson, who also practices a zero waste lifestyle has produced just 6 bags of trash in a decade. He says that he buys in bulk. This in turn saves him the time and energy of going shopping regularly. Here are some tips from Bea Johnson, author of The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your Life by Reducing your Waste everyone can use to lead such a lifestyle:
- Refuse unnecessary things that you don’t need including packaging
- Reduce your consumption of things that can be avoided
- Reuse products that can be used again and again including clothes no more in fashion
- Repair and recycle things that you can
- Compost organic waste. Generally, 80% of household waste is organic. It can be composted the way Rachel does
