This week is my one year anniversary of doing the zero waste challenge. In respect, I failed- that is I have yet to make it one week with only one 12oz mason jar's amount of all my family's garbage.
But, in the process, I have learned a whole heck of a lot about mine and my family's spending habits, eating habits and had my eyes opened to how much we as a society waste ungodly amounts of, well, just stuff! No wonder there is a floating garbage isle in the Pacific the size of the Alaska or bigger- because just seeing how much my little family threw away on a regular basis before doing the challenge brings into question just how much do we waste as a neighborhood- which is only 1/1000th of the city, which is only 1/50th the size of the PDX metro area, which makes up about only 1/20th of the area in Oregon... and so on.
Here is a summary of learnings from this year:
1. Shooting for zero waste takes a ton of planning, at least 30mins to 1 hour daily and at least a big chunk of weekly planning sometime during the weekend.
2. It doesn't matter how much planning you do, if you don't have the time to carry out action. This zero waste thing ( making food, going to many different stores to shop zero waste style) was easy in the beginning of the year when I was healthy feeling and had just the one child- but as the year progressed and I became super ill in my pregnancy, and then baby boy was born and he took a ton of my time ( still does), the amount of time I had to carry out zero waste food making and house prep greatly decreased. This brought to light just why the "time saving consumer 'merica" was so lucrative back in the mad-men 1940's/1950's era, the inception of the American waste-ville life; because throw away stuff made for great time savors. I have come to believe that the only way around this time thing is taking preventative measures- I mean really having like a cellar full of canned/dried home processed food and a house organized and well stocked with zero waste supplies.
You have to get ahead of the sick times or the crazy times.
And if you haven't been living zero waste for a while, it's hard to have a huge reserve like the pioneers did back in homestead days when life already was simply zero waste by default and necessity.
3. You can make anything. Really. Craving Hostess? How about Christmas candy canes? Ritz Cracker cravings? Believe it or not, all the highly processed icky foods that we craved as children ( and still desire ) of the high fructose corn syrup 1980's-dom, actually do have their root in real food! And you can google and find recipes on most anything where the ingredients are real food, not processed, and are zero waste freindly- and then you can still enjoy those childhood favorites (or adulthood guilty pleasures). In my own opinion, I've found the real food versions of things taste tons better then the store bought anyhow!
4. Downsize. When your closets are filled with crap, you will inevitably buy more crap because you have no clue upon opening that closet door that the green crap is two layers behind the craft crap under the red junk that you shoved in the hall closet two plus years ago, right? Don't trash it though- donate it. Every closet should be only one layer deep- do you really need all that crap? Why? You are completing fooling yourself if you think your now 5 year old kids will want your crap 40 years from now. Or if someday you will have two weeks of free time to create that scrapbook of your dreams. It's not going to happen.
5. Mason jars are your best friends. Not just because of their utilitarian awesomeness but they let you see just what and how much of what you have in your pantry- great for quick inventory so you know what you need- so you don't over buy which leads to tossing out, wasting extra later on.
6. The worst area for me this year, where I failed zero waste a bunch, were the holidays- but not because of food! Because of decorations and hosting/party supplies! Read this blog post for the back story- but this year I will get in front of it and buy cloth table cloths, more cloth napkins, goodwill silverware, plates... all ready for party fun and avoid the dollar store like the plague.
7. I still don't miss paper towels.
8. My family eats way, way healthier and we watch way, way less TV.
9. I feel like this is a sustainable pattern we could hold once we do move into our small house dream home. It feels wonderfully light.
10. Plastic is not pure evil- one can use plastic bags and containers and it helps with zero waste work for sure- as long as you reuse the plastic and get a ton of life put of it. BUT avoid throw away plastic, bpa plastic, and those awful thin plastic baggies at stores as they are terrible on the environment. Avoid plastic baggies from any store - always pack fabric bags in your car for shopping.
I have so much more to report on, my blogging articles have stacked up a bit as I have used all extra time with the incumbent new arrival to our family (my beautiful baby boy Jake!), but the above are my top 10 learnings. Below, as promised one year ago, are my before and after pictures of my pantry and kitchen areas. The outcome is not completely zero waste, but a darn site better than before!
BEFORE ( one year ago )
AFTER