Low Waste Options For Your Lifestyle!
Most people start a life change or a new hobby by buying all the tools that go with it. While this method is certainly fun, it does not guarantee your success. It also causes us to procrastinate on a life change that we could start today.
The easiest way to start is to take a look at the products in your home that are most hurtful to the planet and choose one to stop contributing to. Most people buy a nice reusable water bottle and start by eliminating plastic beverage waste. This is a double win as it also encourages you to drink water. However, you don’t have to buy a nice reusable bottle, just challenge yourself to re-use your last plastic beverage bottle for a few weeks. If you avoid buying a beverage in plastic for two weeks, then you have probably saved enough money to buy that nice bottle. If you can’t quit the on the go beverage habit, consider buying cans instead of plastic. If that's not possible, move onto another area and don’t quit.
Keeping a tote bag, that you have no doubt collected for free from somewhere, and using it at the grocery store instead of plastic bags is super easy. Again, don’t have a tote bag? Use the plastic bags you have sitting in a drawer somewhere, take them to the store and reuse them. Single-use plastic is often durable enough to use many times over. We gave it that name “single use” because it is convenient for us to toss something instead of washing it, or remembering to bring it. Keep a bag in the trunk; you can always put groceries back in the cart and self-bag at the car if you forget to take your tote in.
I would encourage you to do something a little more intentional. Look through your trash from the last few days. Look for solutions for your lifestyle that work for you. Are you using single-use plates, cups, napkins, paper towels? Is it mainly made up of snack bar wrappers or other individually wrapped snack foods? Pick one item and try to replace it. It will save you money because not only are you paying for single use convenience items like paper plates, but you are paying for the packaging on all the other stuff too. Start with something that seems reasonable to you so that you can keep up with it and then feel good about your contribution. You don’t have to decide that you're never going to buy your kids candy again, start with the excess and eliminate what is least valuable to you first. Take fifteen minutes to sit down and brainstorm some practical solutions for your lifestyle.
If you need an “on the go” breakfast, is it possible you could just wake up 20 minutes earlier and sit to eat your breakfast?
If you need a quick grab food item because you often miss those early hunger signs and need something RIGHT NOW when you get overly hungry, is there something that you could prep over the weekend and have ready to eat in your refrigerator? Could you just buy some nuts or granola in bulk instead of that granola bar?
If you need to pack lunches for your kids could you prep ten pb&j’s on Sunday and store them all in a large storage container?
If your buying plastic bags could you trade that purchase for reusable food wraps? (tell your kids to keep their trash in the lunch box.)
If your purchasing things like cream cheese, yogurt, and sour cream, could you use those leftover containers to serve as your current single-use storage options? Could you challenge yourself to reuse that ugly container five times?
Could you buy consumables in larger portions to avoid some of the waste?
If there are things you aren’t willing to part with, could you purchase that option in a container you like so that you would be willing to reuse it? (for example, I prefer wide mouth jars so I can use them as vases)
If soda is a must for you, could you buy it in cans instead of plastic bottles as a more recycle ready option?
If you keep frozen veggies on hand, that’s great! Could you try buying fresh and then cooking them all ahead, so they are readily available in the fridge for the week instead of the freezer? (It doesn’t cost you anything to try!)
The point is to start where you are comfortable and to take baby steps. I buy hand sanitizer. I buy Lysol wipes. These are two things I am not currently comfortable living without, (flu season, kids, babies, etc.) I need children’s Tylenol. I need cold medicine for my littles. I'm not going to beat myself up about these items, I'm going to use them sparingly, gratefully, and will put a solution into practice when I find one that works for me. I am not zero waste, but I am ever so vigilant to be waste conscious. It matters.
Keep in mind that throwing something away is a literal term. You are throwing a yucky item, that you don’t want, away from yourself. But someone else is living in these places that are covered with mountains of this trash. They are Living, Breathing, Eating, Sleeping, Working, Raising Children. Do