The term “Zero Waste” strikes dread into the hearts of commitment-phobes everywhere. My husband is one of these. He doesn’t like how extreme it is, that Zero looming over him, demanding absolute perfection. It’s an impossible standard, he says.
He’s right, of course. Total Zero Waste is impossible.
But I maintain that just because you can’t do everything, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything.
My family’s personal waste is nowhere near Zero…yet. But we have reduced the amount of waste we generate by about 75% in the last 8 months. Imagine if I had decided never to try, simply because it would be “impossible” to reach Zero. That’s 75% more waste we would have continued to generate for 8 months, just because we were scared off by the word Zero.
If you’re interested in reducing the amount of waste you produce, but you’re afraid to start trying because you won’t be perfect at it, it’s okay. I was there once. I dabbled in waste reduction for over two years before I finally took the plunge to attempt a true Zero Waste lifestyle. And even 8 months later, I still have a long way to go.
But there are a lot of easy things you can do before fully committing to minimizing your waste.
5 EASY First Steps to Reducing Your Waste:
- Join a Zero Waste Facebook group. There are hundreds of them. Find a global one to see what Zero Waste looks like around the world, or a local one (here’s mine) if you want to find immediate resources within your community. You don’t even have to participate actively; I lurked for months before ever posting a single comment.
- Read a Zero Waste book. I love to recommend Zero Waste Home, because it’s loaded with practical tips and takeaways. You can borrow it from your library or read an e-book version of it if you don’t want the physical clutter in your house.
- Watch a Zero Waste documentary. Are you the type whose eyes glaze over when you see the word “documentary?” It’s okay, I’m not asking you to commit two hours of your life to some boring Netflix drivel. Here’s one called The Story of Stuff that’s only 20 minutes long. It’s literally the first movie I ever watched, back in 2007, that made me reconsider the consumerist habits I subscribed to.
- Observe your habits. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t know the extent of it. Before I ever attempted a Zero Waste journey, I took two weeks to observe the amount of trash I generated—without changing a single habit. (That’s not completely true, of course, because once you start actually paying attention to this stuff, you automatically become horrified by your wastefulness and start making micro changes without even really trying. But for the most part I stayed the same because I wanted to establish a baseline for measuring improvement.) I learned that, on average, our family took a 17 litre garbage bag to the bin every 2-3 days. Within two months of actually trying to reduce our waste, that became one 17 litre garbage bag (for a family of four) every 10-14 days.
- Make a change. Just one. Not everything; not all at once. Just pick *one thing* that you can commit to doing. Maybe it’s refusing 100% of plastic bags, everywhere, even if it means shoving apples loose into your purse at the checkout line (been there, done that). Maybe it’s a commitment to boycotting disposable water bottles for one month, even if it means slurping from a public drinking fountain because you forgot your refillable bottle. Whatever you decide, make the change, stick to it, and watch the momentum build.
These are basic things. Most of them require very little physical effort. All it takes is a little bit of observation to discover some areas for improvement. Once you know where you’re lacking, you’ll know where to place your focus. And I promise: once you make a few small changes, your motivation will compound and soon you’ll be wasting less without even thinking about it.