If you want to live a zero waste lifestyle, it involves a whole lot more than ‘just’ reducing, reusing, and recycling – it’s about making important and thoughtful choices in every aspect of our daily lives to minimize waste and, of course, conserve resources at the same time. That’s a great idea, but it’s not always easy, until you learn about some truly innovative practices that lead to zero waste that you can easily put in place in your own home. With that in mind, here are some things to think about.
Meal Planning And Smart Shopping
One big issue when it comes to trying to live in a zero waste way is food – so much of it gets wasted and it can often feel as though it’s not possible to do anything about it. After all, you have to buy food, and you have to make a judgement call about how much to buy, and if that’s wrong, you’ve got food waste.
One thing that can make that a lot better is if you practice meal planning. When you’re able to plan your meals for the whole week and create a shopping list for exactly what you need (and when you go shopping, only buy exactly what you need) then you can avoid buying anything unnecessary, meaning there’s far less chance of any food waste.
Composting
If there is any food waste, because even if you’re really careful there’s a risk it can still happen, not to mention there’s bound to be peelings and scraps left over when you’re cooking, then they don’t have to go to waste either – you can use them as compost.
Composting is great because it’s easy to do (you just need to set a certain area of your backyard aside and then simply make a pile of organic waste so it can all mulch down), but it also reduces the amount of stuff taken to landfill, plus it gives you some great soil for your garden, meaning you can grow your own fruit and vegetables to be more sustainable.
Reuse Water
Water is something we all use every day, but we can often waste a lot of it by leaving taps running and so on. You should know that you need to turn off the tap when you’re brushing your teeth and so on, so that less water is wasted, but did you know that you can also reuse water in your home for various things, making it even more eco-friendly?
If you have a pool, speak to your residential pool cleaning service about what chemicals they use and how you might be able to reuse the pool water once it needs changing to water your garden, for example – they’ll be able to give you all the information you need so you can be sure your plants won’t be harmed. Plus, you can set up a rainwater harvesting system – it’s just a rain barrel that collects water that you can then use however you want, and it’s a great way to practice zero waste.
