With the world shutdown from the impact of COVID-19, there are posts filling up our social feed on how nature is healing. Rivers are cleaner, the air is less polluted, and the wildlife seems to be claiming back its rightful place too. While, the pandemic will soon come to an end hopefully, and life will go back to what it was until a few months ago, did you know that you can do your bit to make a difference to the planet and make sure it stays as beautiful as it is today?
Every small action matters and if everyone determines to embrace a zero-waste lifestyle, we will soon have a planet where life thrives and nature heals itself even at times when human activity is at its peak.
What is a zero-waste lifestyle?
Zero-waste lifestyle is one of the most sustainable ways of living by reducing the individual’s contributions to the landfills. It aims at reducing pollution, purging plastic consumption, and disposing of waste in a sensible manner.
When you adapt to a zero-waste lifestyle, it means you are committing to leading a lifestyle where you reuse most things and recycle the rest.
Why you should embrace it as a way of life?
Besides being immensely beneficial to the planet, a zero-waste lifestyle is also a great way to reduce your spending. As you will be reducing your dependency on single-use products, unnecessary splurging, and wasteful indulgences you will save a lot of money. Don’t believe us? For instance, you will mostly pack your lunch, buy second-hand items where feasible, and share with others more willingly. This will add to your financial savings and be the much-needed extrinsic motivation to live a zero-waste life.
How to live trash-free?
R
epair, reuse, recycle! That’s the mantra of living a trash-free life. Would you believe us if we told you that there are people out there who produce only one jar of trash a year? They do this by living on fresh food, avoiding single-use plastic, buying only what is essential, eating clean, and consciously recycling or giving away things you do not need.
Tips to living a zero-waste life
This Earth Day, if you did take a pledge to live a better life too, here’s how you could do it.
Eat Fresh – Locally grown food is not just fresh, healthy, and cheap, but also ecologically sustainable. The reason for this is simple. A locally grown food crop doesn’t require a lot of processing, packaging, and takes a lot of fuel for shipping to distant regions. So, when you eat fresh, you are doing good to yourself as well as the planet.
Home-cooked meals – Always pack your lunch to work in a reusable container. This will reduce the consumption of disposable cutlery, wastage of food, while also boosting your health with good food.
Carry a bag – Yes, something as simple as carrying an extra cloth bag with you can make a difference to the planet. This way, you avoid using disposable plastic bags when you shop. According to research, around 3.5 million tons of waste, both plastic and otherwise is produced every day across the world.
A tiny change in each of our actions could make a significant difference in bringing down this number.
Have a waterbottle – Carrying a metal water bottle with you everywhere will mean that you will not be buying disposable water bottles.
Waste segregation – While this might seem like an activity that won’t make much of a difference think again. When you segregate your waste, you will be able to find things that you can decompose, the ones you can recycle, and the ones that will need to be disposed of carefully. Most of your kitchen waste can go into a compost pit that turns into manure for your kitchen garden.
Recycle – Consciouly recycle everything you can. Everything from that can of soda to the packaging that Amazon had made for shipping your order can go into the recycling bin.
Change online shopping preferences – While cutting down on online shopping might be difficult for a few people, it will make a great difference to the planet. However, while you work on the change, you can still make a difference by opting out of wasteful packaging. Yes, most e-commerce portals let you go eco-friendly in packaging where they avoid plastic and unnecessary foam packaging where it is not necessary.
It takes effort
It is impossible to achieve results overnight and start living a zero-waste life. However, with consistent efforts, you can start embracing the lifestyle and do your bit to making this world a better place to live.
So, why not start today by looking around the house, preparing a list of things you could do differently, and start your life of zero-waste.