Why pursue a zero waste lifestyle?

In one of our first posts, we wrote what zero waste is and what a zero waste lifestyle can look like. Since then, we’ve made many swaps in our daily lives and simple changes that have reduced our waste output and improved the quality of the products we use day-to-day. Our goal was never to only produce a single jar’s worth of waste for the year but rather to find easy ways to have a marked impact on our life and our waste streams. In this article, we want to revisit the definition of zero waste, why you should care about it and what it could mean to start living a more sustainable, zero waste life.

1. What is zero waste

Zero waste living is the process of creating as little waste as possible. It’s a lifestyle that can be difficult to adopt, but it yields benefits for both the environment and your wallet. The ultimate goal is to eliminate all trash from your life – no disposable cups or plastic bags in sight! If you’re ready to make this commitment, here are some tips on how to get started with zero-waste living.

Depending on your current habits, you may have to make some adjustments. But don’t worry – there’s no need to change everything! You can still satisfy all of your needs with minimal effort (and without sacrificing quality). The goal is simply not to create any new trash. Here are four tips that will help get you started: * Bring reusable containers when grocery shopping; buy produce in bulk so that you have less plastic wrap per purchase; avoid buying anything wrapped in excess packaging or made entirely

2. The benefits of being zero waste

Why should you care about a zero waste lifestyle? Aside from the obvious benefits for the environment and the world in general, there are less straightforward benefits that you can realize through your own zero waste journey. The health benefits of using zero waste items in your diet and around the house can be astounding. Eating fresher foods, avoiding plastics and using cleaner, more organic ingredients can have outsized impacts on your overall health.

Once we really started to get into our zero waste lifestyle, we noticed the reduced stress of no longer worrying about acquiring and disposing of items.  Not needing to choose between the convenience or sustainability factors of the items in our life was quite freeing. We are starting to reach a point where we’ve worked through and used many of our unsustainable, non-zero waste products and have been able to just use the products in our house without needing to really think about it.

3. How to start living a zero waste lifestyle

We’ve touched on many ways to start living a zero waste lifestyle before. The wonderful thing is you can start anywhere! Please take a look at some of these topics we’ve touched on in the past!

You can do anything from:

I also highly recommend trying to calculate your carbon footprint using these great, easy-to-follow tips at Carbonfund.org – it’s a great way to start to understand what the largest contributors of your carbon footprint are in your life.

Hopefully you’ve found this post helpful and found ways that you can start your journey toward a zero waste lifestyle. One of the questions we hope to have answered here is where you can start your journey. The answer is really that you can start anywhere at any time and start to realize the positive impacts on your life and on the world.