Leblond asks restaurants if they can bring their own take-away containers. Bring your own reusable fabric bag to transport your purchases and try to purchase items with minimal packaging and/or made with recycled material. Travelers create a lot of waste, even with the best of intentions. Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, you can do a few simple things that reduce your waste, conserve resources, and minimize the overall environmental impact of your visit. Recycling is often considered the only available waste management strategy, which in fact saves more energy than the production of new fibers and new items. It involves a variety of energy-intensive processes, such as crushing discarded substances to extract raw materials and spinning recovered fibers into new yarn.
I also picked up a super handy set of cutlery for my travels. They are very easy to grab and throw in your bag when you go outside, so you can avoid plastic spoons and forks. These simple exchanges will have a major impact on your overall waste production. Of course, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, paper towels, and plastic bags with zippers can come in handy, but they create a lot of trash.
Plastic bottles can take up to 450 years to decompose, so it’s more important than ever that we stop buying plastic water bottles and bring our own reusable versions. I have this amazing bottle of Contigo water that I have with me everywhere. I take my water bottle with me wherever I go, and I just kindly ask in cafes or restaurants to fill it for me, or fill it myself at a refill station. So if you’re new to the low-waste lifestyle, getting your own bottle of water is a great place to start.
Recycling spam is fine, but reducing the flow of spam will conserve natural resources, save landfill space, and save you time and money. Buying second-hand clothes is always better than buying new ones, plus it saves you money. The fast fashion industry is one of the most destructive on our planet and we are buying more clothes than ever before, with the world consuming more than 80 billion garments each year. So the solution is to leave fast fashion and opt for the second-hand one instead. Buying food in bulk minimizes the amount of total packaging you consume.
Try using a silicone baking sheet instead of aluminum foil or parchment. When cleaning, swap paper towels and single-use wipes for microfiber cloths that you can wash and reuse. Reusable lunch bowls and washable snack bags keep your food just as fresh and minimize the amount of trash that comes out of your home on a daily basis. If possible, see if your community has bulk food stores where you can shop without waste.
Plastic cutlery, straws, plates and cups clog our landfills and end up in the bellies of sea turtles. So buy a set of reusable cutlery, stainless steel straws and reusable containers to store in your car or bag while you’re away from home. Second-hand shopping is not only a great way to reduce waste, but it’s also an essential skill to learn if you’re interested in owning your own farm one day. Instead of buying fast fashion, you make the switch to sustainable clothing.
You can use the cutlery you already have, get cutlery at a low price at a thrift store, or buy a set of travel cutlery with a carrying bag. Plastic bags should be a thing of the past and instead we should all bring our own reusable option. I have these really cool cotton bags that are perfect for loose fruits and vegetables, and I usually use a backpack when I’m on the go, so I always have a place to put everything I buy. I love these colourful motivational bags designed in Cornwall. The perfect size to bring food or do your shopping at home. Remember, if the worst gets worse and you forget about it, just take the items!
Unfortunately, when food waste goes to landfills, it cannot be properly broken down and therefore produces methane, a greenhouse gas. So when you compost, you reduce these emissions that end up in the environment. So if you have a garden, go composting, or if not, see what other solutions there are for you. Where we live, they don’t collect food waste, so we called the council to participate in a local composting program in the city’s gardens. We just collect our food scraps and take them to the compost bins in our local garden to be composted. Waste reduction is anything that reduces waste by using less material in the first place.
Here are more than 100 tips to drastically reduce your household waste. Each section is an abbreviated version of an entire chapter of your book, so refer to it for more information, such as procedures and recipes. For Zero Waste alternatives, buy your home or the local thrift store. For product recommendations, follow the links or visit the store (which provides more information about how Bea’s family obtained and used them). When buying products, we tend to expect everything to be clear and impeccable, which creates a HUGE amount of waste. Check out the “last chance” shelf at your local grocery store.
After all, you’d be surprised at some of the dangerous chemicals that hide in your daily cleaning products. Switching to sustainable clothing isn’t the only way to make your shopping behavior less wasteful. Because takeaway coffee cups are often lined with plastic to prevent them from leaking, حاويات للايجار they cannot be recycled. If you kindly ask and explain why you use a reusable cup, most stores will be happy to make your drink in it. These stainless steel food storage containers are an excellent choice. Even better, they come with leak-proof stainless steel caps with airtight clips.