Transitioning to a Zero-Waste Life: The Quick and Dirty Guide
In the past couple of years, learning to live consciously has become a really trendy thing to do. Meditation, practicing mindfulness, yoga, breathing exercises, staycations, the list goes on. While these things are all amazing and so important for maintaining physical, mental, and spiritual health, I believe something’s been missing. That is our consciousness when it comes to our connection with our home; the Earth, and making sure we keep Mother Nature proud and our planet clean.
This was definitely the last puzzle piece for me on my wellness journey. While I’m certainly not claiming I’m living my perfect high-vibe life 24/7, 365 days a year, starting to do my part to reduce consumption and limit the waste I contribute to this world was something that was missing in my life for a long time and I’ve been really focusing on it for the past year. So this post is really a quick guide to transitioning to a zero-waste life and a tool to hopefully help you become more conscious in reducing the amount of material waste you produce.
At the Grocery Store
In general, I try to shop at markets where the provider is already conscious of reducing waste and not every single vegetable in the produce section is saran-wrapped or comes in a plastic bag - this drives me nuts! I also prefer buying fresh bread and other baked goods when possible, to skip out on the plastic bread bag (and also because bakery bread tastes so much better!)
Beeswax Wrap and glass jars can be brought along on your trip to the grocery store if you’re buying cheese, bulk grains, and other items; you’re most likely bringing reusable shopping bags anyways, so what’s a few extra items to carry with you to the store? I also make an effort to buy greens that don’t come in the plastic clamshells. Since I eat so much salad, I would easily go through three clamshells a week.
Reusable shopping bags are of course a no brainer for carrying groceries out of the store, but smaller, lighter, reusable bags are nice for wrapping produce and baked goods in. A separate bag for each different type of produce is definitely not necessary though - when it comes to most fruit and veg, I usually don’t wrap them up at all. Since you’re going home and washing them before eating them, who cares if they touch the conveyor belt for a few minutes?
In The Kitchen
I’m slightly obsessed with keeping and reusing glass jars - our two cupboards filled to the brim with old pasta sauce and milk jars drive my partner crazy! I probably don’t need as many as I have on-hand, but they are so useful for everything from keeping dried fruit and grains, using for homemade nut milks and butters, and even for homemade beauty products like body scrubs, bath salts, moisturizer, etc. I also make big batches of my own natural, all-purpose cleaning spray and natural Windex, which I keep in glass jars in our pantry. Real talk: I love how it makes me feel like a wizard in a Harry Potter “Potions” class!
I’m also obsessed with throwing as little food into the compost as possible. My favorite zero-waste kitchen hack is keeping veggie scraps, like onion tops and peels, carrot ends, the bottom part of celery, leftover scraps of herbs, lemon rinds, etc. in a large bag in my freezer to be used for flavoring bone broth and other soups. My second favorite hack is using the pulp leftover from homemade nut milk for making super crunchy and delicious gluten-free crackers! The list of ideas for making use of the whole food is endless - from using leftover chicken bones to make nutritious bone broth, to using avocado skins to make natural clothing dye… Creativity is the name of the zero-waste game :)
Other Helpful Tips
As a borderline-minimalist, I try to live by Marie Kondo’s philosophy most of the time. If something doesn’t spark joy, what’s the point of holding onto it? That’s why, although I love reading, I’ve got a pretty small collection of books that I actually own and my second favourite place next to the farmers market is the library! Libraries are bomb - taking out as many books as you want FOR FREE is something I’ll never not be excited about. I also love that there’s dozens of mini “free libraries” cropping up all around my city. They’re based on take-a-book-leave-a-book premise. I do read a lot on work-related topics, so I simply keep a spot in my Bullet Journal for taking notes on what I’m reading. This means that I don’t have to waste money and resources by buying a book that I can just take out at the library and I also get the added benefit of committing the info I’ve read to long-term memory more easily since I’m writing excerpts and notes in a separate spot.
Another thing I do to try to limit my consumption is shopping second-hand. While I used to detest the thrift-shopping experience, over the past few years I’ve come to really love it. Now, most of my shopping is done at consignment stores. I really like that it’s more of a hunt and the satisfaction of finding something super unique that you love (with the price tag always being the cherry on top) makes it so much better than just going to the mall.
I could keep going on and on since this is such a fun and timely topic but I’ll stop right there! What is your favourite way to limit your consumption and keep our planet earth clean? Is there anything that you’re struggling with giving up to transition more towards a zero-waste lifestyle? Let us know in the comments below!
