How to adapt a zero waste lifestyle
Ever wondered where the trash in the vast Pacific garbage patch came from? Wonder no more! It’s from the waste that’s carelessly disposed of. There are good reasons to want to live in a clean environment. First and foremost, it’s your pathway to healthy living. The environment at your home will dictate the type and kind of person you are. It’s no wonder why Kim Woodburn and Aggie Mackenzie from the reality program “How Clean Is Your House” have always wanted to help people make their living environments clean. Now, it goes without saying that, if anything doesn’t add value to your life, it’s just a waste! Below are ways on how to adopt a zero-waste lifestyle.
1. Invest In Reusable Kitchen Items
The kitchen is perhaps the most trafficked area in the house. And do you know the reason why? Well, there are a lot of activities that go on in there and most of them involve unwrapping things. You have paper plates, paper towels, disposable plastic cups, and not to forget the food wrappings that will end up in the trash bags. If you are looking to adapt to a zero-waste lifestyle, then consider investing in zero waste kitchen products as a starter. Going green in your kitchen is among the things that can help you out in ensuring that there’s not much toxic waste coming from your kitchen. You might consider the following pointers to help with this:
- Invest reusable towels
- Consider water filters instead of bottled water
- Reusable bags for your produce
- Multi-surface cleaners instead of having to invest in multiple cleaning products for your kitchen
2. Assess The Amount Of Trash You Produce
It will initially surprise you in knowing the amount of trash you produce in just a week. With a deeper understanding of this, you’ll be more conscious of how and where your trash is disposed of. This will help you to prioritize investing in reusable products. You’ll also start to utilize what you have rather than keep buying new items now and then. There’s a bigger picture to controlling the amount of trash produced in your home than meets the eye, and it’s only logical to assess your product's usage and come up with a viable eco-friendly plan on trash reduction.
3. Surround Yourself With Green Friends
That sounds like a statement from a Star Wars movie, right? Well, you have friends who will be willing to help you find your purpose. These are friends who’ve tried leading a zero-waste lifestyle and have done it. By surrounding yourself with such eco-warriors, they’ll provide you with tips and hacks on how you can successfully do it. They’ll be your support team in motivating and encouraging you. They’ll also motivate you to adopt a trash-free lifestyle.
4. Your Workplace Environment Matters Too!
It’s very easy to neglect your workplace environment especially when there are other employees involved. There’s so much waste that comes out of the workplace and you’ll need to ensure that you are utilizing all the known measures to reduce it. You have paperclips, papers, and not to forget the coffee cups that end up in the dust bin. Extending your eco-friendliness to your workplace will greatly help to minimize the trash that comes out of there. Below are various ways to reduce waste at your workplace:
- Invest in recyclable office products
- Avoid packaged products
- Go paperless
- Have a program where wasted food can be given to animals
- Label your waste bins
5. Simplify Your Use Of Commercial Detergents
Did you know that you can make your own office and home soaps yourself? Rather than have all those cleaning supplies fill up the home and office bathrooms, you have the option of having just one homemade cleaning agent to take care of most of the cleaning tasks. There are so many soap making ideas out there that you can use to minimize the plastic containers thrown in the trash bags.
6. Consider A Trash Waste Audit
If you are running a business, then a waste audit program will help with your recycling programs. You’ll be able to tell whether your waste management programs are working from the audit results. A good break down will also provide you with insights on how to forge forward and ways on how you can formulate better waste management programs.
There’s more that can be done to reduce the amount of waste produced from homes and workplaces. You can use the above tips as your starting point to leading a zero-waste lifestyle and in a way, this will help to improve your health and boost your productivity.
