Zero Waste

[tortoise]

Zero Waste is a topic that marries my interests in frugal living, sustainability, environment, and minimalism.

The idea is to produce as little landfill trash as possible. Some families get so good at it, they produce a quart jar or less of trash ... per year. 😲

Since metals and glass can be recycled, wood products can be recycled or composted, food waste can be fed to animals or composted.... it really comes down to discontinuing using single-use plastics, and replacing durable plastic items with plastic-free alternates at the end of their life cycle.

 

[tortoise]

So many words. How about "if you give us any cheap plastic crap, we will not use it and will get rid of it ASAP"

 

[Cecilia's-life]

Wood good

Plastic bad

Mongo no like plastic


That should be odd enough to actually get people to listen.

*pounds on chest like a gorilla*

 

[flowerbug]

you can recycle the plastic bags that a lot of stores use to bag food in. just have to find out the stores that will take them back and remember to take them when you go, but i vastly prefer to bring my own carry bags when i need to. i also often ask the checkout workers to not bag items if there are only a few so i don't get a bag for no reason.

at home i reduce a lot of trash use by reusing containers or bags as many times as possible, but also we have some food storage containers to reuse many many times (i think we have a few containers here we've reused a few hundred times already and they're still in good condition).

as for paper and paper products, anything that is clean enough here i use as worm bedding or to smother things in the garden or to help when weeding difficult weeds - i'll dig a deep hole and bury the weeds down at the bottom, but put cardboard or newspapers over them to give them more of a barrier to keep them from coming back up again. this works pretty well for a lot of weeds. the really tough weeds i just put on top of the weed pile so they dry out completely and then fall apart.

we do have recycle pick up here once a week so a lot of plastics, metals and the cardstock with a lot of printing on it (like a cereal box or a package) with colors and shiny i will just put in the recycling to be processed as i've made the mistake in the past of shredding a plastic coated cardboard box and then had all those bits of plastic in my worm buckets and then that went out into the gardens and i still have to pick bits of plastic out of the gardens here or there. lesson learned... just plain cardboard, plain paper, plain craft paper. all ok. black ink printed is also ok, but i prefer as plain as possible. doing much better now.

i'm also in the middle of getting rid of some old books from school that have no value at all (really badly written technical books that nobody would care about if they never get read again). i have to break them apart and cut the binding glue edges off so i won't have that gunk ending up in the worm buckets, but the plain paper of a book is just fine worm bedding in the end. they'll chew through it eventually.

 

[Mini Horses]

Too many humans are just inconsiderate!!! Why litter?

Because there are so many options -- good or bad -- humans no longer care. If we were once again in the life where we had to make all of our own containers, or limited to only a few glass or metal to acquire, we would be more careful and less wasteful.

Very much like food preservation. Salt curing, dehydrating, fermenting, canning, cellaring, clamps -- none are new efforts, just rediscovered. Before refrigeration, all these were used. It's all there was!

 

[tortoise]

My wife's friends are scientists, they like big words. Makes them feel important

then you're going to need footnotes and peer-reviewed journal articles

 

[Hinotori]

Wood good

Plastic bad

Mongo no like plastic


That should be odd enough to actually get people to listen.

 

[Jabberwonky]

I have read several books on the topic of Zero Waste, and found it to be a very fascinating idea. I quickly realized that there is no way I or my family can be fully zero waste, because so many of the things we use on a regular basis don't work with that lifestyle commitment. However, I am trying to move toward reducing/eliminating any garbage produced by me that will outlive me, and using natural items instead of plastic ones when I can. People who live zero waste have a lot of great ideas for more sustainable living.

Sometimes I get on a tunnel-vision sort of focus and end up focusing on things that, in the long run, aren't going to make that much of a difference, but cost a lot of money. So I like what one of the early posters said in this thread, that it's a good idea to wait till the end of something's life cycle to replace it, or reuse non-biodegradable items that are already out there in the world.

I am embarrassed to say it, but I didn't know that plastic and polyester comes from petroleum! I don't typically buy a lot of clothing, because I usually wear what I have for years, but my most recent project is trying to make sure any new clothing is something made of natural fibers like cotton, linen, wool, etc., that will decompose after it's not wearable. I've found that these types of purchases are 1) difficult to find if you don't make your own clothing, and 2) really pricey... so I've been focusing a lot on thrifting anything that I need for now. At least I won't be contributing to new items that will turn into garbage that outlives me.

I also have tried, in the last 4 months, to save as much food packaging plastic and mailing plastic as possible, and wash/dry it. I wasn't aware that I could return a lot of the bags to the grocery store for recycling. I live in a rural area with long winters, and there are allergies in the family, so we can't utilize bulk/no-container stores, and have a lot of plastic packaging from things we must buy or receive mail-order.

This weekend, I did a plastic audit on all of my non-recyclable plastic after 4 months. Most of the non-recyclable plastic I have comes from things that need multi-layer bags, such as freezer vegetables (not eaten weekly, but eaten occasionally, and it adds up), rice & chocolate bags, and potato bags. I am going to freeze fresh corn today, and that will cut out several plastic bags over the course of this year. We also eat a lot of frozen peas, but I haven't gotten around to researching how to preserve them, and I didn't grow any. I saw online that there might be a company that makes a recyclable bag that I can switch to when I buy frozen peas for this year. Potatoes, I have been buying in a paper bag from a local grower, and am considering stocking up and storing some for the near future. I really wanted to grow my own crop of potatoes this year, as I have in other years, but I wasn't able to. I need to look into whether there is a good way to buy rice in a very large bag and store it for the year, which would probably be cheaper and reduce plastic waste. I had a bin of rice and beans from the Covid era, just in case SHTF, but it's all past it's use date by now, and I ended up feeding it to my dog, so we could probably benefit from a more organized rice storage system!

I planned to upcycle my leftover plastic into fused plastic sheets and sew them into reusable shopping bags, but I tried this over the weekend with my 4-month stash of non-recyclable plastic, and it just took a lot of time and didn't look very aesthetically pleasing at all. It might make a fun project for a weekend, especially with kids, but I don't think it's realistic to try to do this regularly. I got really enthusiastic considering that I might be able to fuse plastic and create garden covers for weeds! The only thing I'm not sure about is whether this method is safe. I went on a kind of manic information binge this weekend trying to figure out where I can put this non-recyclable plastic to good use. I read that there are concerns about plastic that is turned into building materials, because it is not meant to sit in the sun, and may contaminate the soil. I did see one interesting company that creates building materials of plastic, but covers it with something that can keep it from leeching into the soil. So I am curious to look into whether or not I can use my fused plastic, or if I can use it if I cover it with something else. Not sure what that would be or how I would do it.

Other switches inspired by zero wasters over the years... of course, trying to avoid single-use plastics as much as possible. I am planning to get some cheap silverware and sew several fabric silverware kits to store in the car, but of course, I have many more things on my list to do than I seem to find time or energy to do. We also use glass as much as possible in the kitchen--we store food in glass containers with plastic tops, so the plastic tops can be replaced when necessary, and the glass lasts a long, long time. I also have replaced plastic pitchers and stuff like that with glass, which was a little bit of an adjustment as far as handling everyday items, but overall, was an easy switch.

We have also gotten into the habit of taking water in thermoses wherever we go. This past year, I also sewed a bunch of reusable feminine hygiene products, which has reduced a lot of plastic waste. I used to consume fast food a fair amount... not every week, but often, mostly when I was tired or busy. So I've managed to basically cut out fast food altogether, which has been good for my wallet, health, and the planet.

I've switched to bamboo toothbrushes and tooth tablets, which was weird at first, but now pretty normal. I also made a batch of my own laundry soap, which worked wonderfully, but I haven't kept up with my castile soap making, and had to switch back to a powdered detergent. I tried some plastic-free laundry sheets, but they are just insanely pricey, and I do several loads of laundry most days. I also switched to the Grove brand dish soap that they sell in aluminum containers at Target. I heard that you can use regular soap to wash dishes, but dishes are another thing I do constantly throughout the day, so I didn't think I should try to mess around with that. I am concerned that I will do it wrong and end up backed up on dishes due to soap scum. I bought the Grove plastic-free dishwasher pods, but again, they are really pricey, so I need to find a different solution. I made my own dishwasher powder before, but it ended up leaving the dishes kind of streaky, so I either need to try that again and tweak it, or maybe look for a cardboard container that has powder and costs a lot less to use. (I know a lot of those cardboard containers are lined with plastic, so I still haven't found a great solution, but I'm thinking about it...)

There have been a few times over the last year where I've gotten take-out food (which we generally don't do much--we mostly cook and eat at home) and I was too shy to ask to use my own container! So I still have to work up the courage to work out a system for the few times throughout the year that I may need to have takeaway food.

Sorry if this is boring to those of you who are way ahead of me or have a full homestead and don't think about things like takeaway food or dishwashers! I would love to have a full homestead, but it's not something feasible right now, so I'm just doing the best I can with the situation I have currently.

 

[Mini Horses]

I have a homestead. I have some waste but pretty minimal. I don't stress over being "zero" waste. Not enough time for that. 🤷. If everyone cut to 50% it would be huge!! I'm waaay below that and raising my own food is more important than a plastic bag. That's just where my priorities lie -- healthy, chemical free foods.

Seems you have done what you can. Kudos!

 

[JanetMarie]

@tortoise your comment: "the planet needs millions of people to practice it imperfectly than a handful of people to go to extremes" is a winner.

One thing I would like to suggest to cut down on plastic grocery bags, is that you can still use your own bags, but you just have to bag everything yourself, which I've been doing. Also, most grocery stores still have paper bags, you just have to ask for them, which I also do if I forget by bags at home. Even if I did phone in an order and opt for curbside pickup, I would still ask for paper.