Lauren Singer, a college student from New York, lives a completely no waste life.
Although she was studying Environmental studies, protesting, and was president of an environmental club, this did not necessarily mean that she was doing her share for the earth. She was still throwing plastic in the garbage everyday and not living sustainably in her personal life.
Singer realised: “In one of my classes, there was another student who always brought a plastic bag containing a plastic clamshell full of food, a plastic water bottle, plastic cutlery, and a bag of chips. Class after class I watched her throw it all in the garbage, and I got so angry! I scoffed and sneered, but I never actually said or did anything. I just got mad.
“One day I was particularly upset after class and went home to make dinner and try to forget about it, but when I opened my refrigerator I froze. I realized that every item I had in there was wrapped or packaged, one way or another, in plastic.
“This was the first time in my life that I realised… I was the green girl, not the plastic girl! What had I been doing my entire life? It was in that moment I made the decision to eliminate all plastic from my life.”
Singer cut out plastic from her life, then moved onto a completely zero waste life. Here’s how she did it.
“First, I stopped buying packaged products and began bringing my own bags and jars to fill with bulk products at the supermarket. I stopped buying new clothing, and shopped only secondhand. I continued making all of my own personal care and cleaning products. I downsized significantly by selling, donating, or giving away superfluous things in my life, such as all but one of my six identical spatulas, 10 pairs of jeans that I hadn’t worn since high school, and a trillion decorative items that had no significance to me at all.
“Most importantly, I started planning potentially wasteful situations; I began saying “NO” to things like straws in my cocktails at a bars, to plastic or paper bags at stores, and to receipts.”
The benefits for Lauren include saving money, eating better and being a lot happier.
This may seem impossible especially because everyone is content to use plastic and put practically anything they can into packaging. However, people can refuse these things.
Some tips and ways to go zero waste:
- Say no to disposables, and welcome alternatives
- Consider homemade substitutes for cosmetics,
- Buy in bulk or at the counter, bring reusable bags, jars and bottles for all ingredients.
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Maybe we should make this a local challenge event? A good start would be convincing residents to limit their waste and only put their garbage bin out every two weeks …. the logical consequential advantages would be reduction in council garbage trucks, fuel, maintenance and reduction in land fill … oh and one would assume a reduction in our rate fees?????