Be A Zero Waste Hero! 5 Easy Steps to Start Cutting Your Waste
Starting down the Zero Waste path is not easy. Most of us will find it very challenging, and many of us will have setbacks. But with some work and support, we can all start reducing our waste.
The Zero Waste philosophy is about waste management and planning - respecting the products in our lives and reducing our reliance on landfills. The benefits are many, such as reducing the plastic pollution in waterways, reducing the land use for landfills, and conserving our water and energy. “Canadians rank worst of all countries on earth for waste production per capita. Albertans produce the most waste of all the provinces and territories in Canada.” – Conference Board of Canada, 2014
How does it work?
The Zero Waste philosophy is more about guiding principles than it is about hard-and-fast rules. Respect the products you use, and plan for the entire life of the product. Not all of the work can be done by people alone, and companies and governments are part of the equation, too.
What can I do to go Zero Waste?
There are five steps you can take to start. These are really just the beginning of your Zero Waste journey, but once you've started, you'll find that it's exciting to continue and share with others!
The 5 Easy Steps to Start Cutting Your Waste
1. Pick a single room, like the kitchen or bathroom. This helps keep the tasks to follow a bit easier to go through. Kitchens and bathrooms, while difficult to cut waste in, are the easiest rooms to identify sources of waste generation!
2. Consider the whole life of everything you regularly buy for that room. Make a list of your regular purchases, like groceries or personal care products. Consider the impact of how each product was produced, look at the waste it makes when you use it, and pay close attention to its packaging and what happens to it when you throw it away.
3. Arrange the items from most wasteful to least. Does your favourite soap come triple-wrapped in plastic? Do you find yourself continually throwing out certain foods before you've eaten them? These are likely your high waste culprits.
4. Look at reductions, replacements, and reusability for those items. Reducing can be difficult, but it's by far the most effective way to decrease your overall waste. If you find that some of your most wasteful items are not really your favourites, then you might consider just saying goodbye! For everything else, look at alternative products you could use, and something you can do with it at the end of its life. Your soap wrapped in all that plastic? Can you buy it in bulk? Could you switch to another soap that doesn't have packaging? That food you keep throwing away, could you freeze it? Make soup? Continue that process for each item.
5. Make it a habit, and keep refining. We all know it: 'bad' habits are hard to break. That also goes for shopping habits. But you can make new, better habits! Switch around your shopping schedule or where you shop for certain items, and do whatever you need to remember: alarms, calendar dates, having a friend remind you, string around the finger. If you keep it up, eventually it turns into a habit! But, don't stop there! As you make these changes, look to see if you have even better alternatives! If you work at it over a while, you can see big changes!
Example: The Beans (from Lex at Green Calgary)
"I cook a lot of beans. My go-to meal when I don't have much in the house is either black bean quesadillas or three-bean chili. They tend to be quick and convenient, and part of that was because of canned beans. Except that the cans were a big source of waste for me! So, I went about making a change.
I started buying large bags of dried beans instead. They needed to be prepared ahead of time, but I would cook up a whole bunch of them on a Sunday afternoon, throw them into a bunch of Ziplocs, and freeze them. Then, when I made quesadillas or whatever else, I'd just thaw and use them! It worked well and greatly cut down on my can usage.
But, now I had a Ziploc problem in my freezer. All that plastic was a waste! So, I bought some mason jars and started to freeze the beans in them! Another huge diversion of waste! Now, I only had the plastic bag from the dried beans, but soon, I started buying those in bulk in my own, reusable produce bags! Now, I don't have to buy beans every grocery trip, either."
But, now I had a Ziploc problem in my freezer. All that plastic was a waste! So, I bought some mason jars and started to freeze the beans in them! Another huge diversion of waste! Now, I only had the plastic bag from the dried beans, but soon, I started buying those in bulk in my own, reusable produce bags! Now, I don't have to buy beans every grocery trip, either."
You can see how the process can work in this example. This isn't the only way to go Zero Waste, but it's an example of what you can do. This process can happen all at once, or it can happen slowly as you work through your chosen room. "You really don’t need to do much to see a great reduction in your waste output, and any change is good.” – Bea Johnson, Zero Waste Home
Need help getting started? We have a Zero Waste Starter Kit session coming up in March. You can find more info about that here.
If you have other Zero Waste ideas, or you have questions, please reach out to us at greencalgary.org or on social media at Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
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