In my post about creating a family culture, I mentioned that I have been working to achieve zero waste goals in our home. The zero waste movement is one I had no experience with a few months ago. But earlier this year, my husband and I started paying more attention to what we eat; this probably had a lot to do with Scribble starting solids, and us wanting to set the best possible example for him. At the same time, we cut our food budget drastically. In order to maintain our healthy diet along with our budget, I had to get really creative: trying vegan diets, and making my own cleaning supplies for example. We cut out our trash pickup as a way of saving cash, which meant we had to become very knowledgeable about our county’s recycling options. Plus, being forced to haul off my own trash motivated me to make less trash.
Back when I lived in a very progressive, small city, I didn’t think about how much waste I was producing, because the city offered curb-side, single-stream recycling. But in our small town, our recycling options are painfully limited, or at least I thought they were. Through research I came to find out that recycling technologies nationwide are poor and that many of the things we recycle end up in the landfill in spite of our best efforts, usually because recycling is not profitable, consumes too much energy, or because individuals recycle items that are unsuitable (for example, someone might recycle a pizza box and inadvertently ruin a whole load of cardboard boxes). I realized that no amount of recycling will significantly reduce the amount of waste that ends up in a landfill. In the past I created waste without much thought to the consequences, but now I realize that I am responsible for the full cycle of the things I consume. As a result, it has become really important for me to model responsible consumption to Scribble!
Around this time, I ran into Bea Johnson’s fantastic blog, Zero Waste Home, and was immediately hooked. In particular, I loved her simple list of ways you can reduce waste in your home– The 5 Rs:
Refuse what you do not need.
Reduce what you do need.
Reuse by using reusables.
Recycle what you cannot refuse, reduce, or reuse.
Rot (compost) the rest.
Johnson is tireless in pursuit of her goal to reduce waste in her family: she brings glass jars to the deli counter to store her meat purchases, requests baguettes in advance from Whole Foods and picks them up in a pillowcase. She uses a rubber gum stimulator instead of floss, and buys only used clothes. For most of us, that sounds really intimidating and flat-out impossible! For me in a rural area without a Whole Foods, it seems even more daunting. But I’ve been making small changes for a few months now and I am happy to say we have reduced our trash to one bag a week (usually only partially filled; we have to take it out though because it is stinky!) and I think that with a few easy changes, we can easily reduce it by half that amount. Here is what we are doing:
Refuse. The best example of this is plastic bags. I used to be one of those people who intended to bring their own bags, but would forget them at home. Recently I’ve gotten a lot more aggressive. If I forget to bring my bags, I will go through the self-checkout so that I don’t have to ask the workers not to bag my groceries. After being forced to check out and unload a cart’s worth of loose groceries a few times, I am doing a lot better about bringing my bags! I also request no bag when I am simply buying one or two items. Usually the worker is happy to oblige me. I also have stopped buying fresh produce that comes in a bag– I buy loose onions and potatoes instead of the ones in netting. I am still on the fence about frozen vegetables, especially organic varieties. Right now, I think it is better to support organic efforts when possible than to buy loose non-organic produce, even if that means using a bag. I have, however, been recycling these bags (more on that below), but it is a time-intensive process so I am looking for better options. I do shop a lot at our local market, and have mixed success asking the farmers not to use bags. But at least they are frequently reusing bags from their own collections!
Buy in bulk. There is a natural food store in the city closest to my small town, and once or twice a month I will bring reusable containers and fill them with rice, coffee, beans, spices, and loose leaf tea. I buy the biggest blocks of cheese I can find and afford; today I bought a 5 pound block of all-natural, hormone-free cheese at Walmart for fifteen dollars– that is one half the price of shredded cheese per ounce! Since it is hunting season, one of our family members just got us a large mess of venison.
Go Paleo. I kid! But really, my no-waste goals really started taking off when I went paleo (actually primal, because I still eat legumes and dairy occasionally) about a month ago. Before that, I was still buying things like cheese, yogurt, beans, and rice frequently. I don’t eat a lot of those things now, so I’m not consuming the packaging either! We still buy these items for Scribble and my husband, but they last a lot longer when I am not eating them also.
Donate. In the spirit of Kristin’s excellent post about living a minimalist lifestyle, we have recently started offloading a ton of stuff. We had a yard sale to get rid of the big items, donated a lot, and are slowly getting rid of more. In preparation for the yard sale, I cleaned out all our closets and recycled everything that could not be donated or sold; this was time consuming because it meant doing tedious chores like separating binders worth of paper and plastic sleeves into a recyclable and non-recyclable pile!
In spite of our efforts, we still have more to clean out. Scribble gets a lot of toys from family and friends. Since we don’t buy him many toys we are truly grateful and excited for the things we receive. Still, we have gotten duplicates from time to time and instead of returning these items, I have set up a box where I can put them, labels still affixed, so that I can donate them during the holidays to local charities. One resource I am grateful for is my local MOPS group and their Facebook page. Through MOPS I have been able to find families and organizations that are looking for gently used baby items and toys, which ensured me that the items I donated would be well-loved.
Reuse. Back when I was eating a lot of yogurt, I bought the largest tubs, and saved the tubs for use later. I use these tubs for freezing produce I get from the farmer’s market, and for making smoothies (my regular cups are too small for my stick blender). I also bought some eggs in plastic cartons at the grocery store, and now reuse the cartons and bring them to my local farmstand to have them filled.
Recycle. Recycling is difficult for us because in our area, we can only recycle metal, plastics 1 and 2, paper, and cardboard products. We recycle as much as possible, but sometimes I am stumped! Now if I have something that doesn’t fit into one of those categories, I use Earth911.com to find a place for them. I recently spent a few fruitless hours looking for a place to recycle vinyl, and had no luck. We generate a lot of plastic 5 waste, but we don’t have the option to recycle that in this area. Whole Foods does recycle plastic 5, but we don’t live anywhere near one. So we set aside a box in the garage to collect plastic 5, and plan to bring it to a Whole Foods location when we are in the city shopping. We do the same with glass, which is not recyclable in our area. Terracycle is also wonderful resource for people who live in places without access to many recycling options.
We can recycle plastic bags at our local grocery store, but the bags have to be dry and free of food debris. This is fine for the plastic grocery bags, but what about frozen veggie bags? I have recently begun rinsing and hanging these bags up to dry, then recycling them. It sounds like a lot of work, but we are also choosing to buy fewer packaged foods, which means we really usually only have 2 or 3 of these bags come through our home per week.
Going to restaurants less frequently. Once I started working toward zero waste, I began to notice unnecessary clutter everywhere. Fast food restaurants are particularly terrible about using too much packaging. And paper that is grease-stained can’t be recycled! It can feel too daunting to try and ask the workers to use less packaging. The easiest option is to choose sit-down restaurants with regular forks and plates. I can also bring my packaging waste home to recycle, but disposable cups and forks and spoons are rarely recyclable, so the best thing to do is to avoid them altogether. I don’t mind this goal because it means that I am also indirectly eating fresher, healthier food and frequently supporting local businesses instead of chains.
Using fewer paper products. As a cost-cutting measure we stopped buying paper towels over six months ago and haven’t looked back. I even asked my family for cloth napkins for Christmas, as we are currently using dishtowels as napkins, and I’d like to upgrade to something more cheerful!
What We Need To Do:
Composting. Thanks to our efforts, about 3/4 of our weekly waste is organic material. Unfortunately, organic material still takes forever to break down in a landfill, so we need to figure out a solution to this problem. Composting is the easiest solution, but setting up a compost system can be expensive and we don’t have a huge yard; I’m a little nervous about attracting critters to my yard and my neighbors’ yards as well! Tips are appreciated!
Diapering. Right now we still use disposables at night and on trips, and we still have a few packs of wipes left. I am using Terracycle to recycle our wipes bags (Target brand), because they don’t have a recycling label, but the best course of action will be to move to cloth wipes.
Bring our own reusable items to the coffee shop and restaurants. I have started bringing reusable cups when we go out for coffee, but a few times have found myself using a plastic spoon before I realize what I am doing! We are eating less fast food than ever before, so this is only an occasional issue, and it sometimes sneaks up on me when we decide on a lark to grab a snack. I need to get into the habit of having a kit of reusable cutlery and a mug in my car at all times.
Refuse. I have a hard time saying no to free stuff that clutters up our house, or gifts we can’t use. This is an area where I need to improve! One big decision we made is to request no gifts at Scribble’s first birthday party, and I was really happy with the warm reception that our guests gave the idea. We asked for donations to a local children’s home and our guests gave 175 dollars! It was really special.
Buy more sustainable version of products we use: Right now we are burning through the last of our health, beauty, and cleaning products (we have always tended to buy these items in bulk because it is usually cheaper, so we had months worth of these items left to use when we started this project). Fortunately Terracycle is running a Garnier-sponsored beauty product brigade through which I can recycle lotion tubes and other products that don’t have a recycling logo on the bottom. I have an Amazon Prime trial going right now, and need to take advantage of the free shipping to buy more sustainable version of items we used to use: toothbrushes, shampoo (or go No-Poo if I dare!), soap, cleaning supplies, and similar items.
I hope that by 2014 we will be able to reduce our trash to two bags a month!
So, is reducing waste a priority in your home? Give me all your tips! I am all ears and eager to learn more!
Decluttering and Minimalism part 5 of 9
1. A Simple Kind of Life: The Philosophy by Kristin @ Paleo Plus One2. A Simple Kind of Life: Your Wardrobe by Kristin @ Paleo Plus One
3. A Simple Kind of Life: How to Declutter Your Home in One Week by Kristin @ Paleo Plus One
4. 10 Strategies for Preventing Toy Overload by Mrs. Lion
5. Our Slow Journey Toward Zero Waste Living by Mrs. Sketchbook
6. Minimalism and Babies by Mrs. Yoyo
7. Fall Wardrobe Essentials by Mrs. Bee
8. Decluttering Our Lives: What We Got Rid Of by Mrs. Bee
9. Culling down by Mrs. Chipmunk
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
What an ambitious project! I think about our footprint often, but have plenty of room for improvement
grapefruit / 4649 posts
You should be so proud of yourselves! You are doing a wonderful job and certainly you have inspired me to jump back on the band wagon. As I read this I was heating up my leftover takeout and looking around my kitchen at the massive amount of trash that we are generating this week (um, not that I would describe my kitchen as trashy…) But there is small cello bag of tortilla chips, tomatoes ripening in paper bags, dog treat bags, coffee container, coffee grounds, all the trash from my takeout…
We used to do a great job at reducing these things but we fell out of habit when we moved and never tried to get back into it (and that was 4.5 years ago!)
I can’t wait to hear about your adventures with composting, we did it two years ago but I was challenged by winter and so I stopped. One of my favorite tips was to keep your compost pile vegan if you are worried about wildlife. They are less likely to be drawn over if you don’t include meat, dairy and eggs.
Maybe look into Door to Door organics, it is a CSA type program and one thing I am really impressed with is that they ask you to leave the packaging from your delivery on your porch before the next delivery and they pick it up and reuse it making the only waste the occasional fruit sticker.
I also am looking forward to hearing about what personal care products you wind up choosing. I am using Trader Joe’s shampoo since it isn’t terrible in the skin deep database and I can recycle it but I can’t say I love it.
guest
This is amazing. I aspire to be like this when I finally get my own place, and I have the time to. I love the idea of this.
coffee bean / 30 posts
this is so so so good. i think my minimalism plus paleo-ism helps me achieve a lot of this without thinking about it, but i need to be much more mindful about the environment and waste. growing up, i was in a family that wasted everything. we left the lights on all the time, never recycled, took epic showers, and lived off processed packaged foods. i’m trying to unlearn all of this, and it’s been very eye-opening.
pineapple / 12053 posts
cloth wipes are so easy and inexpensive! i used old flannel and organic birds eye cotton fabric and my mom surged the ends.
we got a compost box from our city actually at a much subsidized cost! if you don’t have a big yard, i would recommend a worm composting bin. it’s faster to break down and you can get a smaller bin.
blogger / nectarine / 2608 posts
I love it. We try to live by similar principles, but it sounds like you are doing a wonderful job! We are awful composters– we throw it into our fields. Which doesn’t help if you are in an urban environment. It does attract critters, but it’s nice to know that it’s not going to a landfill. We do cloth diapers/wipes, use all biodegradable for personal and cleaning products… I especially love that you grouped all of these ideas together. Super inspirational!
honeydew / 7687 posts
LOVE this post. While we don’t embrace minimalism in our entire lives, I’m always trying to think of new ways to reduce/reuse. Refuse is a hard one for me, but I’m working on ‘just because it’s free doesnt mean you need it!’.
This was an organization where we lived a few years ago, and I loved the concept and dream of starting something similar if I ever feel like we’re truly settled: http://reusableusables.org/home
apricot / 335 posts
Amazing!! We aspire to live like this but are nowhere near your efforts. Some great ideas in here for us.
If you haven’t already seen it, there’s a good (Aussie) blog that might have some extra tips, I’ve gotten some good ideas from there. She’s a young mum with two kids from memory, lots of advice on cloth dipes and wipes!
I think it’s http://frugalandthriving.com.au/
blogger / persimmon / 1231 posts
Inspiring! I’d love to think more like this in the future
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
Wow! I love this! Good for you guys! If only we all had the same motivation, what a great legacy less waste would be!
I’m inspired.
guest
Excellent post. A friend once told me that in India (where she grew up) some households don’t even have trash cans because they waste nothing! Truly remarkable. One tip: try not to shop at Walmart and go local as much as you can. There is nothing worse for the world than that horrible corporation.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
This is really inspiring. I hope to move towards this, but i must admit i am far away at the present moment! Thanks so much for sharing… I really learned a lot about recycling!
honeydew / 7687 posts
Other thoughts I mean to share earlier — Freecycle is a great way to get rid of things like glass jars, egg cartons, containers, etc. because classes or groups use them for crafts. Local produce farmers will often welcome empty, clean produce containers. I reuse all baggies, like that baby carrots come in, etc. for either snacks, to put things in the freezer, or to pick up dog waste!
We have LO’s first birthday on Saturday and I’m trying to make it trash-free
guest
When you can’t resist going out for food (hey, it happens!), bring your own containers in case you have leftovers.
RE compost, just fencing it off with cheap chicken wire works to keep critters out of our stash. Don’t worry about winter. So your compost gets a little rest from decomposition; big deal! It’ll break down eventually. Definitely use worms. If you don’t have them readily available, you can buy eggs on teh interwebs and toss ’em in your soil.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
Great post. We’re trying to do this, but haven’t been very organized about it. I want to buckle down and reduce. Favoriting this for reference.
@carol: As a family who relies on Walmart for our livelihood, I have to disagree. I don’t know what part of their business you are calling horrible though.
olive / 64 posts
Oh man I’m the one recycling the pizza boxes
Sorry! I’ll stop now.
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
@Theresa: haha! I’ve done it too! I have read you can cut out the greasy part and recycle the rest . Or do as I have started doing and keep it as fire starter! We occasionally have bonfires and never have enough kindling or newspaper.
pomegranate / 3314 posts
I love that you chose to wrote about this! The Hellobee community is so receptive to new ideas that I think you have a great audience. I am certainly inspired! I do a lot of the things you mentioned, but there is always more to be done.
coconut / 8234 posts
I like Bea Johnson and what her family are trying to do. We recycle, use cloth bags when grocery shopping, and reuse but the paper products thing is our downfall right now. I tried cloth but then everything was covered in cat hair!
It’s great that going Paleo has helped you and others to reduce your waste but people who don’t change their diets drastically can reduce their food waste in other ways, eat smaller portions, actually eat their leftovers, use their freezers, and meal plan. Also, one could argue that Paleo diets may reduce personal waste but meat eaters (and I love meat, I’m an omnivore) contribute to the major waste of resources caused by animal agriculture. If we’re going to talk diets that honestly contribute to zero waste living, I think the Vegans have got it.
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
@Carol: My relationship with Walmart is so complicated! On one hand, I recognize all the problems with the corporation (although I have to admit I don’t agree with every single criticism lobbed at the brand). But alas, I live in a town of less than 10,000 people and Walmart is one of two stores that sells natural meats and hormone-free cheeses, so I think it is my responsibility to buy it so that they continue to stock the shelves with more natural options in my area– consider it change from the inside, rather than from the outside. In the example I used in the post, Walmart is actually the only place in my town that sells hormone-free cheddar cheese (Cabot and Joseph Farms brands–and not all Cabot is hormone free, actually); even the other local big box grocer does not, so it is my only choice. I could go to my neighboring town, which would mean making a 40 minute round trip/wasting gas to buy the same exact brand in another town at a different big box grocer (Publix) that just happens not to be Wal Mart, but that also would mean not paying taxes in my own town, or putting my money into places that employ citizens of my town. For example, even though the town next door has a larger Home Depot with a wider selection, I will choose to buy from our local Home Depot, because although it is a big box store, it employs a lot of people here, anchors a shopping center in our town, and pays taxes. When I go to visit my family in the city I try to bring a cooler so we can buy food at other places, and I do make my bulk purchases at the natural store in the neighboring town (which is largely vegan so it has limited meat/cheese options), but when I have a local option– even big box– to buy the same product, I choose it.
@Cole: all this info on composting is making me really bold! I may have to get started this weekend!
@Kristin: You bring up an EXCELLENT point with waste of utilities, etc. This is a massive problem for us since we live in an open concept house with high ceilings in the livingroom. This isn’t our forever home, and I’m hoping that the next place we land will be better for that sort of thing. Also, living in a rural area means spending more gas to do stuff…like driving to the neighboring town to buy bulk groceries. This is something that bothers me, but I try to maximize my trip by scheduling doctor appointments, etc., and doing it all at once!
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
@birdofafeather: stupid question, but are they just regular old earthworms? There’s a bait shop up the road…!
@Mrs. Twine: We still throw our stuff in the yard even though we shouldn’t! I think it is just a country thing. All my family has big yards without neighbors in the back so they just throw food out “for the deer”. In the summer I nearly always have a watermelon carcass in my yard. I am sure my neighbors LOVE IT.
@scg00387: That is a fantastic goal! We did compostable partyware for Scribble’s first birthday but I wish there was a better option for kids parties other than plastic, because compostable stuff can only be composted at a commercial composting place, and for that reason mine is still sitting in the garage, rotting away, lol!
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
@mrsjazz: I totally agree re: meal planning. Getting a deep freezer has totally revolutionized our lives, and I kinda adore leftovers and think it is crazy when people won’t eat them! Before I went Paleo I was trying VB6 and that really reduced our waste a ton. I should have mentioned that! I think the real idea of Paleo is to eat pastured meat because technically corn-fed meat isn’t paleo. Which, thanks to industrial farming, basically means eating local meat, which will always be less wasteful than the alternative. Of course this isn’t totally achievable because pastured meat is still really difficult to find in a lot of places (I really need to write a post about green living in the sticks!). And of course the media at large latches onto the idea of a cave man so the general idea of the paleo diet that people get is that there is a massive amount of meat involved. I eat a ton of eggs, which I am lucky to be able to get from a local farm. We do get our chicken from the grocery store, but opt for the all-natural brand (no antibiotics). I am sure there is still a lot of waste involved with that, but I am not sure if humans are really designed for a vegan lifestyle. One of the reasons I started paleo was to lose weight because I was constantly eating carbs as VB6 and was really packing on the pounds, and craving meat like CRAZY (I’m still nursing so maybe that has something to do with it? Although I only nurse 1 x daily). Now, on paleo, I really snack so infrequently and my overall eating has decreased dramatically. I’m tagging @Kristin: because she might have more insight.
eggplant / 11408 posts
Thanks so much for this post! I really applaud the effort you’ve made, and all the positives you’ve done. It’s inspiring!
With that said, I do have one question, or observation, maybe? Growing up, my father was (and still is!) obsessed with recycling, reusing, saving things in case they can be used later, etc. I think it is a fabulous goal, but the “waste nothing” attitude didn’t actually translate into having less “stuff” in the house…in fact, it meant my house was always full of things that he didn’t want to get rid of so as not to waste them. And while I love, love recycling, I did not so much like the piles and piles of it that added up in the garage while we waited for enough to take to the plant. It seems to me that this can be a delicate balance to strike-how do you try to waste as little as possible, while still trying not to keep “stuff” around?
And as for the Paleo part being footprint-reducing, I wonder about that a little bit. I was under the impression that meat production actually has a pretty big footprint, unless it’s local. Maybe not? I hear you on the less packaging part, though. It would seem to me that a focus on local foods sustainably grown might also achieve the same thing?
Anyways, just an observation. But awesome job on the lifestyle changes!
GOLD / nectarine / 2884 posts
@LovelyPlum: Thanks so much for your feedback! I struggle with the no-waste vs. minimalism thing all the time. It is a part of my personality to save and also to stock up on stuff– everyone in my family does it (probably the same way your dad does!). Right now my biggest challenge is holding on to things that are not recyclable, hoping I will find an option (like the vinyl that I had no luck recyling, which is still sitting in my garage). Fortunately for me, I have a garage and a fair amount of closets, so I can get away with hoarding a few things! Also, a big part of zero waste is buying in bulk, which eliminates a lot of the odds-and-ends; it also reduces the amount that I recycle because I simply don’t have that much to recycle anymore. I try to keep a running list in my head of all the things we simply won’t need to buy for ages. For example, right now I do have like, three terracycle brigade packages going that are taking up room in my laundry room cabinets, but I also don’t have any detergent (I use soap nuts) and only a few cleaners, so the clutter ends up evening out vs. the way I used to shop. It did, however, take a few months to get to that point as I started using up things and replacing them with zero waste options (ideally means replacing them with nothing!).
Oh, one thing I usually do also is I elect to recycle (as in, take to the recycling center) instead of reuse, unless I am reusing it myself in a way that I know it can later be recycled. For example, if I use an old milk jug as a paint tray, then I can’t recycle it later, so it will still end up in a landfill after being reused only once. Seems better just to recycle the jug and get some sort of reusable paint tray. Also if I reuse something in a way that results in the item going to someone else, I never know what ended up happening with that item, and I have to assume it ends up in a landfill. So this keeps me from leaving a lot of items around just in case I “need” them somewhere. There are so many examples of this…my son got five– YES!– five of those halloween buckets from family members and I recycled all the ones that could be recycled, and kept the one that could not be for him to use. As opposed to just keeping all five and hoping to find a use for them.
As far as the Paleo thing goes, it is like I said to @mrsjazz:, I think the media tends to portray paleo as being this Atkins, cave-man, eating only steak thing, but it really isn’t as meat-based as it sounds. Sometimes I wish the diet were called something else! To begin, corn-fed meat isn’t considered paleo, which means if you’re eating pastured meat only, it is probably also local or at least ethically produced. We don’t eat this way all the time, but we are slowly moving toward it. I do concede that a vegan diet would probably be the closest to zero waste, although not a vegetarian diet because, speaking as someone who was a veg for four years, it is easy to rely on heavily packaged foods like dairy (which is not paleo-approved) to get calories. But zero-waste aside, I just don’t know if we’re meant not to eat meat. I’m sure, though, that we are not meant to eat industrially farmed meat, that’s for sure!
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
This is a super inspiring post to read!! We’ve been discussing this a ton here lately because we have lots of room for improvement… You’ve given me several ideas here though. Thank you!
guest
I purchased mesh produce bags off Amazon that I use when shopping. They are wonderful. I store them with my cloth grocery bags so I just have to grab one bag to head to the store.