Zero Waste

When you first start thinking about how to reduce your waste footprint on the world there is a wonderful guideline to follow whenever you want to purchase something new and it is called the 3Rs - Reduce - Reuse - Recyle

This is one of my favourite ways to help our environment. Simply reduce what you’re purchasing by being mindful about what you need and want. Be realistic about what you actually need.

Before making purchases, ask yourself if you really need this item. If you do, look at the quality. While price is a huge factor, try to find the best quality in your budget. Well made products will last longer, reducing the times you’ll need to repurchase.

“Reduce” in the context of zero waste might mean letting go of items in the house that you no longer need, and donating, selling or upcycling them. Then you can alleviate clutter and create space.

Reusing and repairing go hand in hand. When you’re deciding whether to toss something and buy a new one, ask yourself if you can find a way to reuse or repair it. This applies to clothing, furniture, and technology. If your phone or laptop is broken, instead of immediately purchasing a new one, seek repair options first.

Disposables are, well, disposable. Which means you have to buy them over and over. Which in turn means you keep spending money on things that you will throw away. You might as well throw away your money directly. At least that would have a better carbon footprint.

It simply means switching up disposable items for reusable and permanent alternatives. This means sourcing a reusable beverage container and carrying it with you when you are out and about. It means carrying reusable cutlery with you as a measure to avoid disposable cutlery.

A refillable glass bottle, or stainless steel water bottle is your ticket to parting ways with plastic bottles for good! Arm yourself with an assortment of reusable fabric bags for your produce and other unpackaged foods!

One of the easiest ways to reduce your waste is to recycle. After you have refused, reduced, and reused there shouldn’t be much left to recycle anyway. But with what there is, you should still make sure to separate your trash so that those resources can be reused instead of filling our landfills. Many of us have been programmed to believe that recycling is the go-to solution for waste reduction. This is a misconception.

Recyclable materials that are not successfully recycled into new products become landfilled, shipped to landfills in so called developing countries, or incinerated in Waste-to-Energy (WtE) programs.

It is also important to consider that the recycling process itself is highly energy intensive.

For these reasons recycling is treated by the Zero Waste movement as a last resort to be used only after steps Reduce & Reuse have been exhausted.