Have you ever really consciously thought about how much waste you produce? Most people haven’t.

Just take a random thing such as buying mouth wash for instance. You go to the store and buy your Listerine mouthwash today. About two months (or less) later its finished, and you throw the empty bottle in the bin and off to the store you go for another bottle. Do the math and you will see just how many plastic bottles you are throwing out per year, and that’s just you! And surely by now you must know that most waste ends up in land fills or in the ocean where it affects the ecosystem in so many negative ways, since it takes a tremendous amount of time to break down, if it ever does.

Your immediate response, I’m sure would then be, “so, what, you want me to give up Listerine? But my dentist said…” Relax, that’s not what I’m saying, hear me out.

It may seem hard to live a more zero (or less) waste lifestyle; you may know that the lifestyle is great for the world and environment but you just don’t know how to make the transition or you are too used to the current lifestyle that the change can be overwhelming, and for starters you are unsure where to start. I mean how do we solve the Listerine mouthwash problem.

Well one solution to that problem would be to have Listerine makers have stores where you could go and refill your bottles instead of purchasing a new one each time, but that’s for another article.

The thing is, you don’t need to do everything at once and do a complete 180, that will probably never last for most people. No one is perfect, but we can all do a little bit at least, and in turn it all adds up.

The two best things to start with are:

1. Just start with something small. Like using your own bottle when getting a smoothie from Kauai for example.
2. Be conscious about everything you buy and that way you can make better choices and in turn you start to forge a habit and soon you will do it naturally.

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If someone is living a zero waste lifestyle or is pro zero waste (or whatever title or label you want to give it) it doesn’t have to mean that they are totally waste free. It just means they are conscious of their buying habits and they are trying to make a difference no matter how small it is. When you start this way and do something small, often, you slowly form a habit, and then that habit grows.

Thus, soon you will be doing way more than you ever thought you would, and it will just come naturally to you.

One of the best things about living this more conscious lifestyle, is that you realize that you don’t need a lot of stuff that you buy, so you cut down on spending on all that extra unnecessary things.

A few easy and great simple ways to start to reduce waste are:

• Keep shopping bags in the car so you don’t keep picking up new plastic bags from stores.
• If you have coffee or smoothies from places like star bucks or Kauai etc. keep your own cup or shaker to use and avoid the straw, or buy your own metal/bamboo straw to use instead of plastic straws.
• Compost! We should all be composting, you will be surprised how much your trash is reduced just by removing vegetable and and compost waste.
• Choose biodegradable alternatives, such as a bamboo toothbrush that can be found on places like theotherstraw or The Refillery, which are biodegradable.
• Recycle where you can.

Then eventually you can even start doing things like making your own natural lotion, cleaning products, mouth wash and much more!

Check out some great brands and stores that are leading the way in the zero waste life style in South Africa:

• Simply Bamboo
• Shop Zero
• Nude foods

Photography credits:

• Photo by Hermes Rivera on Unsplash
• Photo by Denise Johnson on Unsplash

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Many people have a very basic idea of what happens to all the waste that they throw out. They think the waste truck comes a long every few days and takes all the trash to some magical place where it is all disposed of so nicely.  Unfortunately that is hardly the case. Who can blame us for thinking that though? We never really see where it goes or what happens, but it is time we started thinking logically and realizing what actually happens.

The majority of waste ends up sitting in land fills around the world or worse, it ends up in the ocean, especially plastics since they basically live forever and never break down. Our waste is polluting the Earth and affecting all sorts of eco-systems. In the ocean many animals end up thinking plastic pieces are food and eat them eventually causing their death. Marine animals also get caught up in plastic bits and pieces and can get severely harmed or even die from such. 

A lot of plastic products contain harmful chemicals in them such as BPA (Bisphenol A), that can affect our health in the long term. A great video documentary to watch for more on BPA and how plastic ends up in the ocean is: Plastic Paradise The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

This article is an excerpt from an article on Qoo.co.za, for the full article, click here: How To Reduce Your Waste And Reduce Your Use Of Plastic!

What you can do:

• Start a compost at home, where all food stuffs and waste that can decompose can be put, and in turn used in your garden. You will be amazed at how much of your waste will be reduced by just doing this!

• Stop buying plastic water bottles that you just use once and throw away. Use glass bottles and keep refilling them depending on your use.
• Stop using plastic straws. They also contain high levels of BPA, so you will be avoiding that to.
• Get one or two large fabric bags and keep them in your car. Use them to carry your groceries when you go shopping, so you can avoid buying more and more plastic bags.
• Where you can, try to keep glass containers that can be refilled straight from the source. For instance some shops have ‘filtered water tanks’ where you can bring your bottles to refill them without having to buy new bottles. If this could be done with a lot more products such as milk or cereals it would really be great, but more on that in the next section below.
• Most of us go to gym and grab a (Kauai) smoothie straight after. The smoothie comes in a plastic cup that we throw away straight after drinking it. If you take one of those shakers to gym, ask the smoothie bar if they can put your smoothie straight into your shaker. Imagine how many plastic cups in the trash you can reduce by doing that.
• Where you can, still try to recycle things such as: cans, paper, cardboard boxes, cereal boxes, milk cartons, bottles etc.

I hope after reading these tips you will now be more equipped to reduce your waste and reduce your use of plastic and we can all enjoy a cleaner and better environment

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