I have always liked the philosophy that we have not inherited this planet from our ancestors we're only borrowing it from future generations so we wanted to make sure that our impact was sustainable for our future and our kid's future as well. This article is for beginners who are looking to urge into the zero-waste lifestyle, and it’s for anyone who wants to be more conscious of their ecological footprint. Anyone can start using this now, and you will truly make an impact on the environment. Here are different ways to live with less waste. First, it's important to know the 5 R's of waste management: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot, in that order. We shall start with refuse. Refusing is the first rule to live a zero-waste lifestyle. Think before accepting any shuffle into your home. Reduce junk mail, party favors, freebies and any other junk that will most likely go into the trash. Each year, Americans discard 100 billion plastic grocery bags which take about a thousand years to break down. Instead of using plastic bags and creating more demand for them, use reusable cloth bags or even no bag, whenever possible for you. I used to think it was mandatory to use plastic bags for your grocery, but recently I discovered you can just use your own bag or even no bag, which is even good because why bring home extra plastic? You could also bring your own glass jars to grocery stores to avoid bringing home any unnecessary plastic containers. I really like when grocery stores sell things in bulk so that it’s really easy to do some zero-waste shopping. You can either weigh your jars at the front in advance or bring an additional of the same jar so you can weigh it at checkout. Next, rather than using a one-time disposable plastic straw, you can either say no to the straw completely or use a steel and acrylic straw instead. I personally like to drink my drinks and juices with a straw, so I have a steel straw for that specific purpose. Instead of using a plastic cling cover in your kitchen to freeze your food and leftovers, switch to use reusable and sustainable food wrap. These are all-natural, organic, and compostable. I believe they are produced out of beeswax, and these wraps actually do a really good job at keeping your food fresh and healthy, even better than plastic wraps. Instead of purchasing disposable plastic water bottles, go for a reusable water bottle that you can fill up again and again. Steel and glass are probably the best choices for your water bottle. So, if you have them already, reuse what you can, if you discard your plastic bottle and buy a new one, this will put pressure on the environment for producing more items. Do your best to avoid using disposable kitchenware, whenever you go to a picnic, you can bring silverware from home or use portable utensils made out of bamboo or stainless steel.
Over 4.7 billion toothbrushes that are made of plastic will never biodegrade and are dumped in landfills and oceans each year. So, you can just switch out your plastic toothbrush for a sustainable bamboo toothbrush. Considering all the plastic toothbrushes that you use in one lifetime. And imagine avoiding that plastic waste completely, just by switching to something biodegradable and compostable. I am a huge tea lover and I have always opted to choose loose tea leaves or tea powder instead of tea bags as they always contain plastic lining which makes it wasteful and makes sure to use a steel strainer instead of the plastic ones as plastic isn't good to use with anything hot. I love the environment but I also love skincare and makeup and my favorite thing is to swap in my skincare routine instead of using cotton pads and makeup wipes I use a face scrubber. I use it with my oil cleanser which does an amazing job of exfoliating and breaking up all of my makeup and sunscreen. It is also super easy to clean and it is antimicrobial so you don’t need to worry about it getting dirty and greasy. I also use it with my regular facial cleanser which feels amazing like little hands deep cleaning your skin and this product is great because it's 100 recycle able so I totally recommend switching to something like this instead of single-use products Lastly, reduce the amount of paper you bring into your house by switching to paperless whenever possible. Do this with your mail, your notes, your books and bills. I personally love reading eBooks on my iPad, but I know some people love traditional books, so just do whatever works well for you. I hope you people liked these ideas on how to live with less waste. I just want to remind you though: Just take it one step at a time. Just don't be so hard on yourself. It's a journey. All the things that matter is that you're becoming conscious of the environment, more aware of the environment and you're doing your best for the environment. Everyone's journey is different. I'm not perfect and I'm totally not zero waste yet. But I think the first step is awareness about your environment. And then after that, you'll start to reduce your waste little by little. So, let's create a non-judgmental, warming space where we can just open up the discussion around reducing our waste. And let's not judge others who are not aware of this lifestyle. The best thing you can do is just be a living example of what you want to see in the world, and let your actions speak louder than your words. It all begins with awareness and let this awareness flow into your actions, and then others will see what you're doing and then they will be inspired to follow along. Alright, that's it! we can do it all as a community to reduce our waste and a better planet will leave behind for our future generations.
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