What’s the big deal?
Trash lingers. It goes to hide in a landfill, but most products made of, say, plastic or styrofoam, can take hundreds of years to disappear.
Trash pollutes. Even the stuff that gets recycled ends up spreading itself around in the air we breath and in our water, as microscopic chemical components. These untested chemicals burden our bodies, disrupting endocrine processes and causing disease.
Trash kills. This isn’t here for the shock factor. This is reality. Plastics cause incredible physical damage to marine and land animals, often killing them.
Trash is a legacy. Garbage is one of those things that gets handed down from generation to generation. I don’t want my children dealing with the mess I’ve made; do you?
Trash doesn’t save time. Think about it. Does the time it takes to manufacture, purchase, store, throw away and dispose of paper plates even compare to the act of using and washing a porcelain one?
Put simply, we consume too much; and we do so recklessly. The more we consume, the more we waste and it’s just not getting better on its own.
At its core, the Zero Waste mentality is about shrinking our waste footprint. It’s about training ourselves to stop consuming willy nilly and start looking at the bigger picture. In the end, by creating less waste we create less damage.
Now many will argue that there’s no such thing as Zero Waste – not really. And I would say that is true. Until every single product is designed with “cradle to grave” in mind, without unnecessary packaging and in a way that’s ethical, ecological and doesn’t treat things like water as a freebie, we won’t reach total Zero Waste.
But we can do our best. And that’s an excellent start.
Simplicity & Sustainability
People often assume Zero Waste is one of the following: crazy time-consuming, crazy expensive or just plain nuts all-together. It doesn’t have to be! In fact, I can very confidently tell you that going Zero Waste has made my life simpler, happier and much less expensive.
Going Zero Waste will simplify your world in amazing ways!
Before going Zero Waste, our home was a monstrosity of consumption. I had beauty products, hair products and kitchen utensils galore! I probably owned at least fifteen different shades of lipstick, maybe seven lotions at a time, and every “just in case” household item imaginable.
Did I really need all of that? Not even close!
Think of Zero Waste as a detox. A way to rid your life of all of the consumable clutter that keeps us pouring our hard earned money into useless things, running around in circles constantly tidying up, and competing for things like love and respect that should never, ever come from something you pulled off the shelf at Target.