Waste: How to reduce our impact.
Let’s get one thing straight: waste does not magically dissapear from the earth the minute the pickup truck takes it away from your home’s curbside. These trucks take your recyclables to a Material Recovery Facility where they get separated based on the type of materials, and later sold based on the global demand for each material. The waste trucks take your trash to landfills where these pounds of waste sit, rot, emit greenhouse emissions, and leak toxic chemicals into our soil and waterways every day.
It is estimated that each American produces around 4 lbs of waste every day. This number increased during the pandemic, with most people getting a clear perspective of how fast and how much trash they create at home. Now, multiply this by the millions of humans who recycle vs those who don’t, compost vs those who don’t. The image is terrifying, right?
Well, there are actions you can take at home to reduce your negative environmental impact.
1.Compost: Whether you have a compost at home or not, we can all play part.
For those that don’t have a compost, place your food leftovers (peels of veggies and fruits, scraps, pulp from juicing, etc) in a bag and freeze them. Find a nearby farm or animal nonprofit that handles the community’s compost. Take it to them every month. In the US, there’s an app that helps you find neighbors that compost: Share Waste. In Mexico, Hagamos Composta makes composting easier for everyone by recolecting compost in over 30 cities in Mexico.
For those that have a compost at home: Click here to read an entire article we wrote on what you can compost and why composting is crucial to fight climate change.
2.Reduce & Recycle: First, reduce your consumption of unnecessary items. Secondly, learn how to recycle and what can actually be recycled. Again, there is a market for recyclables and, understanding what material is being bought by companies and other countries, will help you understand what packaging or products you can place in your recycling bin. A good website to see if cartons are being recycled in your zipcode is the Carton Council. There’s also an app that makes recycling education easier: Recycle Coach. Lastly, remember that there are numbers underneath each plastic product for a reason. Below, we attached a cheatsheet by Our World in Data with helpful information.
3.Learn to say no: As consumers, and especially as content creators, refuse to support brands who send organic and sustainable products in boxes full of plastic wrap or plastic peanuts. Their irresponsible packaging defeats the purpose of their sustainable mission. Know when to say no. Every action has an impact!
4.Reuse as much as possible: Especially when it comes to cleaning and beauty products that come in plastic bottles. Even the nontoxic ones. If you have old soap bottles at home, don’t be afraid to keep them and refill them with other biodegradable liquid soaps. We do this at home. We’ve used the same glass soap bottle for over 5 years, and keep refilling it at our nearest zero waste store whenever we run out.
5.Carry reusables: Take your water bottle, bamboo utensils, cotton bag, and coffee mug everywhere. Especially while traveling. This will help you save uncountable plastic cups, bottles and cutlery.
6.Back to basics: When you go to a coffee shop, and forgot your reusable cup, ask the barista to serve your coffee in a regular glass or ceramic cup. Sit down, be present, enjoy your coffee. You can gift yourself those 10-20 minutes. The world wont end!
7.DIY: Make your own cleaning products at home. We make our window and counter cleaner with 3/4 water, 1/4 organic alcohol (we use grape alcohol or Mezcal), 1 teaspoon biodegradable liquid soap, and a 10 drops of the organic and small batch essential oils we distill at home (lemon, rosemary, sage).
And finally, analyze your decisions and actions as a consumer and find the right balance without being too hard on yourself. This conscious journey will not happen overnight. Take one day at a time and know that baby steps have a powerful impact too!