MORE unhinged zero waste habits to STOP in 2024!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- in part 2 of this series, we talk about a few more zero waste habits + beliefs to think about leaving behind in the new year. why? because sometimes sustainable habits can be too difficult to keep up for the long haul, but ALSO some “tips + tricks” taught by self-proclaimed sustainability experts can do more harm than good!
so as we think about which eco goals to aim for this year, let’s also consider which ones are serving neither us nor the planet 🌱🌎
↓ WATCH THIS NEXT
part 1 of the series ☞ • unhinged zero waste ha...
why i quit zero waste ☞ • why i QUIT zero waste ...
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◖ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - zero waste habits to throw in the trash
0:39 - the 10% rule
2:30 - catch-22 paradox
4:28 - walking on broken glass
7:46 - the C word
9:28 - now that’s a fun time
all music in this video was written + recorded by my band, the mites
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well dang! my last two videos have been which “sustainable” habits i’m quitting, so how about a video dedicated to which research-backed positive eco goals i’m going all in on?? let me know if that’s something you’d enjoy 🧡
that would be really useful!
Yes please
I would love that!
Yes please! I have been trying to find sites that list actually backed eco things but you just get zero waste stuff!
i would love that! just left a sub because I really liked pt.I
I'm autistic and ADHD and letting myself buy frozen food has been a game changer. My diet is much healthier and my food waste is SIGNIFICANTLY less since nothing goes bad if I just don't have the energy to deal with it for a few days. I still buy fresh, but I don't rely on it when I'm busy and I'm really happy with that decision at this point in my life.
That is great! I am doing foodsharing so i am often getting bigger amounts of fresh food and i wish i had a bigger freezer so i could freeze all the fresh stuff to have that convenience too
Buying frozen produce has been a game changer for us too.
Amen, I basically only buy stuff that'll keep. There is nothing as frustrating as buying some healthy food and getting distracted and hyperfocused for a couple days and when I realize I haven't really eaten in two days the food has all gone bad.
i'm so glad you brought this up. i'm an ADHDer too and i can't tell you how wracked with guilt i was for buying frozen veggies even a year ago. not only was it seen as "lazy" and "wasteful" in the zw movement, it was also considered to be less nutritional than fresh -- which is TOTALLY FALSE!
Frozen food is awesome. Not only does it almost completely eliminate food waste, but for my household it makes us more likely to cook at home. Before switching to frozen veggies for about half or a little more of our produce, the day in And day out effort of washing, chopping, and cooking vegetables led us to burn out and splurge on takeout at least once every couple
Of weeks. It sounds like a small thing it really takes the mental load off of cooking. Now we eat fresh produce 3-4 days per week and the other 3-4 days we just microwave steam frozen vegetables and serve them outright or in a stir fry which cuts a significant amount of work out of cooking on half the days of the week. This single shift took us from eating out one planned occasion per month plus 2-3 unplanned occasions down to a pretty consistent once per month. Which for a family saves $100-$150 on food every month, giving us more money to spend on higher quality ingredients and more energy to put into our food for the 3-4 days each week when we do cook a full meal without frozen vegetables. Most of that money goes into responsibly sourced animal products.
It started when I was working really long days and my wife and new child both got sick. And we decided to stock up on frozen vegetables. It was such a relief to be able to cook potatoes or rice and beans or quinoa or pasta in the instant pot in just a few minutes with virtually no active time, steam a bag of vegetables in 4-6 minutes in the microwave, and sautee or roast the protein to have a whole meal ready in under 20 minutes with only one pot, one pan, a single cutting board, and a couple of serving/cooking utensils as dishes. Then we started stocking up and using this combo as a sort of “bailout meal” for nights when we just didn’t have the energy to cook. Then we progressed to having our bailout meals be a fixture in our week on busier days and before we knew it months had gone by and we hadn’t bailed out to takeout one time.
This is why reducing plastic needs to be legislated and not just left up to individual consumers. I guarantee that if manufacturers or packaging companies were penalised financially for excess packaging they would find a way to reduce it.
This is very true, we definitely do need better legislation!
I guess the part where it gets tricky is that sometimes plastic IS the most sustainable solution, so punishing companies for using plastic could have negative consequences.
For example, since plastic bags have started getting banned or become more expensive (as a way to incentivise consumers to bring their own) many are switching to reusable bags instead. However, research shows that regular single-use plastic bags are actually much less resource-intensive to produce than eg a reusable cotton tote. In general many reusable products are only better if we actually use them intensively but the regular consumer probably won't do that. Now I see my family members buy so many reusable bags because they forget to bring the ones they already have with them when they go shopping :/
Actually the most sustainable would be to reuse the "single-use" plastic bags until they fall apart but that is a habit the consumers need to adapt...
In some instances, producers might choose to use plastic packaging because it's ideal for transportation (takes up less space than eg glass, so more products can be packed in one vehicle, and it's lighter in weight and therefore requires less fuel to move) or because it keeps the produce fresh for longer, which can help reduce food waste.
I get that you aren't talking about completely getting rid of all plastic but how do we determine and regulate when a company is using too much? I'm actually really curious about this because, like you, I think it's a conversation we desperately need right now!
@@victoriabro5447You bring up some practical points. But the KIND of reusable plastic bag is important. The flimsy film kind usually have a hole in them and are easily blown far from the trash can that they are disposed in(when they are disposed of properly). I did a trash clean up in a large desert park and the bags are extremely difficult to get out of trees and plants. Not to mention when they fall into water ways. In Europe, they give you thicker ones that can be reused for years, tear a lot less often and take a real gusty wind to fly around.
@@Neenerella333 This is a really good point! And why it’s so hard to find the right solutions, because it’ll vary from one place and situation to another. And of course there’s always the production vs end of life question. If one is more resource intensive to produce but the other is more polluting after it’s use then which one do we choose?
Yeah, they would increase the prices for costumers.
If we wanted to reduce waste, the easiest way would be to require all manufacturers and suppliers to retrieve all waste from their customers. Waste would disappear overnight.
Yeah it used to be like this! When coca cola came in those old timey glass bottles, the stores selling them would have a little cubby place for the bottles to be returned to to be sanitized and reused. I think it was a much cooler system tbh but it likely can't scale.
@@zenleeparadise It can't scale, but that is the point. We don't need to buy a new cup every time we get a drink. We should reuse things as much as possible. If all of the companies had to keep their waste, they would do everything they could to reduce waste and still make money. Amazon might end up using reusable plastic bags instead of the one time use bags if they started to get a massive pile of them. Or they would make them much easier to recycle.
@@MegaLokopo I think there's ways to make it scale, but the system doesn't find the need to try right now. Jobs, careers and markets would have to shift from the disposables market to the reusables market. It would take effort but it is a possibility if there was "demand." ...whatever that is. (I say that because "demand" seems to be ITSELF highly manufactured.)
@@kateherr2893 True, all it takes is one well written regulation, or one company like apple deciding to actually do good and stand by the principles they claim to have.
Or a company like framework.
@@MegaLokopo it can scale, but it impacts how drinks are traded and requires a deposit scheme, so that the glass bottles are brought back. Look up the pfand system in germany
DRIVING around stores to find pasta not in plastic is fucking wild
YUP when removing every bit of plastic from your life becomes a competitive purity test, behaviors that benefit the environment fall by the wayside
Shelbizzle coded for real. So out of touch.
@@Kris-st4zwI’m curious to know what you mean by this response?
@@lilyflower0616 she has a privileged life/resources, etc when it comes to looking eco friendly…but I think she’s out of touch with a lot of her advice. I also think it’s funny when ppl pander this message while filling the cloud with a much of repeat vids of the same nonsense regurgitated. She’s also stolen a famous quote by someone else and tried to coin it as her own..which that’s something else entirely.
@@Kris-st4zwShelbizlee has been so wrong on so many topics but that’s the problem when you’re just an influencer without a real scientific background. Yeah she says she studied environmental science as a bachelors degree but that’s an entirely separate thing from like actually being involved in things like waste management or environmental engineering. So as a result, she and many others are more wrong than not and it’s what has mostly killed the “zero waste” movement.
For the record, as someone just barely peeking into the Zero Waste movement, this is an incredible introduction to it. It feels so impossible for someone like me, who has not tried any waste management in the past, that I've just been putting it off. It's this looming yet unattainable goal. But when I see videos like this, where it's made much more realistic to what my lifestyle requires, it suddenly feels like I can do it. ♥
thank you for sharing that with me! micromanaging and obsessing over the necessary use of plastic is sooo not the way to help mitigate climate change, there are dozens of actions that require less effort but pay off more 🧡
yes! same here!
I don't know if you've been getting pushback, but these videos have actually inspired me to get started trying to reduce my family's waste
just subbed and I hope you are going to put something together about what the most impactful/science-backed changes we can make are
We need to push companies to avoid unnecessary plastic! It's their fault they wrap everything in plastic. It's their fault their products are unsustainable. It's their fault they don't provide better options. We shouldn't have to bear the weight of sustainability as individuals, when it's a systemic problem! Driving hours to get groceries from a bulk store isn't going to change anything. Organising and agitating is!
I disagree that it's all "their" fault. "Companies" produce what consumers will buy. It's a symbiotic relationship (and not always a healthy one).
@@emmelia-6068 I see your point, but many consumers don't even have a choice because the vast majority of affordable and convenient products are wrapped in plastic. If companies gave consumers a choice then there would be more responsibility on the buyers, or if companies made the only choice a more sustainable option, then the consumers wouldn't even have to worry about it. But as of right now, unnecessary plastic waste is mainly the corporations' fault and needs to be changed primarily on a systemic level, not an individual level.
And this is why we need to agitate for policy change to add regulation in these areas, because these companies aren't going to change otherwise! A few people boycotting buying certain products isn't going to be _nearly_ as effective as those same few people collectivising and bugging their elected officials about it until the systemic change is made ❤
I saw recently a video explaining why cucumbers are wrapped in plastic. It prevents twice as much carbon dioxide compared to cucumbers without plastic, that will go bad soon and got threw to waste. All that energy to grow them and transport them produces more CO2 than this plastic that helps reducing them to get spoiled.
@@emmelia-6068 Most consumers don't care, which is why we're in this situation. I think it's also clear that most consumers will buy whatever is produced, your logic goes both ways.
I always run a FULL dishwasher or laundry load, use the least amount of detergent in the washer (and wash in cold water), hang things to dry, keep the thermostat on cool side in winter and wear a sweater, have scrub rags for cleaning, usually buy used clothes, mend my clothing, shop/cook/store for minimum food waste ... all those thrifty habits probably have a smaller carbon footprint than the influencer's ostentatious "zero waste" lifestyle.
PRECISELY 👏🏻💯
There is no 'one size fits all' approach to being sustainable, we all have to make the best possible choices within our own unique parameters. No one should be made to feel guilty for doing their best.
Yeah dependend on your needs and opportunities Things are very unequal in how obtainable they are. I have to eat meat to Cover my nutritional needs due to food intolerances and Others conditions that firstly Cut a Lot of plant sources and secondly Drive Up how much of for example zinc I need. Talking 5 suppliments at the least IS Just Not the way to Go.
My way to cope with that and the plastic IT comes in IS going for Frozen Organ meat. IT IS more nutrienz dense which means smaller portions Cover my needs, IT avoids waste If WE eat the less popular parts of Chicken for example too, instead of Just breast, Wings and legs, and ITS so much cheaper, because ITS an unpopular byproduct.
On the Others Hand, I use my egg shells and sunflower seeds to make a milk replacment that IS fortified with Calcium which avoids a Lot of plastic and costs from buying plantmilk.
There IS No Shop In an get mushrooms plastic free anywhere near I live, but in the Others Hand, I never use a car or Public Transportaktion to get around.
IT varys wildly from Situation from Situation what works for you and driving yourself or Others crazy overnight helps no one!
Lets Just all encouraged eachother so weit feel good about what WE can do
Re-using bags from products as poo bags for walks with my dog has helped me not feel as guilty for purchasing items in plastic bags. I don't buy those bags specifically made for that purpose so I'm saving money and giving plastic bags one final use before garbage.
i have never bought trash bags bc i usually use my left over grocery bags as garbage bags. technically yes it’s going in the garbage but i’m using it for garbage 😂
Yup. I used to use reusable bags, but now that I have cats I could either buy bags to put waste in, or I could use plastic shopping bags...
Same for trash. I can either buy bags just for trash, or I can use plastic shopping bags. I still have a box of large trash bags if needed. But I just use the free bags from the store
Same for poopy diapers!
(Kid can open the diaper pail, we have no time for cloth diapers so have to use disposable, and those go straight in a grocery sack and then the outdoor garbage bin)
Love this! It’s like the Pareto distribution: 20% of our efforts makes 80% of the change. Why exhaust ourselves on the 80% that may or may not be making a real difference? A lot of it is just chasing our tails to virtue signal.
excellent point, thank you for bringing that perspective to the conversation!
Going completely zero-waste has always felt, to me, like a fun and useful challenge for 1 to 2 weeks. That way you can really evaluate what things in your life you can easily ditch for eco-friendlier options, and which things just aren't worth the hassle, because honestly, 100% zero-waste is impossible if you don't wanna make it your full-time job, and as you've already been pointing out, you'll end up producing pollution in other ways in trying to achieve it.
I would LOVE to see a video on things you've been doing that actually move the needle, because honestly, even researching what actually works gets so exhausting!
For example: I have an Etsy shop and try to keep my packaging minimal and easily recyclable. Is it better to buy recycled paper padded envelopes because virgin paper is evil? Or is it better to buy virgin paper padded envelopes that are only half the weight of the recycled ones? I'd only be using half as much material, and I recently read recycled paper takes almost as much energy to produce as virgin paper does anyway. So virgin would win. But those have a LOT of glue on the closing flaps, and that's bad for the recycling machines. And every step of the way requires me to dig into research that I'm pretty sure doesn't even exist 😭 I'm so tired!
Honestly thinking of “total zero-waste” as a useful challenge rather than a life goal is really helpful for me, I know when starting that staying completely zero-waste is unsustainable (lol) but using it like you said is a great idea
Well, no wonder! Doing a full life-cycle analysis on everything that comes into your life does sound exhausting! Honestly, that is a lot of homework to assign yourself, and the input parameters for the model probably aren’t easy to find, as you noted.
I’ve been hoping for a comparison tool for years! I still have to learn how to do a life-cycle assessment, but I hope to make a blueprint for it one day
What is sustainable for one person is not for another. And if its unrealistic then people will often give up doing the bit they can do because they don't see the point of small doable changes when we are often told we have to make a total unrealistic change of lifestyle.
Using what we already have until we can't anymore is way better than buying a new item because its labelled 'eco-friendly'. Never fails to amaze me how many people will throw out perfectly usable things to buy a more 'sustainable' product, instead of waiting until the item is no longer suitable for purpose before replacing it!
That's such an obvious, important point that I don't understand how so many people seem to either not realize or just ignore it.
Having one water flask that you fill up with tap water so you don't have to buy it bottled is great. But most people seem to just buy them as accessories that get in and out of fashion and follow the same toxic trend cycles like everything else does now.
I'll never get it.
My favourite drinking bottle is a 0.33l glass bottle that originally had some lemonade in it. It's not too heavy and my country has good tap water, so I can refill it anywhere.
Thank you for this! It really struck a chord with me as I fell into the zero waste movement in the 2010s and ended up giving myself a severe panic and eating disorder trying to go completely zero waste. It tanked my mental health and I'm still trying to recover from my experience. The zero waste movement seems like such a good way to help the environment as it is something we can all tangibly do, but (in my personal experience) turned into a competition of who could be the most zero waste without any real impact on the climate crisis we are in now. I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this content and I know had 2010s me found this she would feel better about buying the cheap frozen cherries at Safeway.
i think many people relate to this so much. really appreciate you for sharing 🧡
If you read the headlines over the 70s, at least, you'd see that they have been predicting the end of the world and haven't got it right yet.
We were supposed to have been in an ice age, then all the glaciers were supposed to have melted. We were supposed to be out the ozone layer, and acid rain was supposed to melt our cities. We were supposed to have run out of oil by the time I was a teenager (I'm half a century old). Waters were supposed to recede, then CA and FL were supposed to no longer exist by now due to flooding. I was here when they tried to mandate plastic shopping bags, because paper grocery bags were killing trees.
If you look back far enough, you'll begin to see who is good at guessing right, and who are consistently wrong with their predictions.
You might find your mental and emotional health vastly improved if you disregard those who history has not proven correct. And also by remembering that, despite all the doom-saying through the decades, we are all still here.
Thank you for this video. I have depression and this video echoes a lot of realizations I've been having over the last couple years. I also went pretty hard into trying to be zero- or as-low-waste as possible for many years, and totally burned myself out, not just because of the extra effort and thought that goes into everything, but also from feeling an immense amount of guilt and anxiety pretty much no matter what choices I made. I've finally come to the realization that this isn't an issue of individual behaviors. These are systemic problems and they have to be solved on a larger, systemic scale. If I exhaust myself constantly policing my own behaviors I'll never have the energy to help influence things on that larger scale. And depression makes energy an already-scarce resource. Of course it's still important to stay conscientious, and do what you can to avoid unnecessary waste where possible - a good example for me is that I find it very easy not to use paper towels, and opt always for either a sponge, a kitchen towel, or an old rag, and it feels good to cut down on my personal waste that way - but I'm not doing anyone any good by beating myself up for never meeting a made-up, constantly-changing, basically impossible standard that I've imposed on myself.......that is likely not making that much of a difference anyway.
I relate to this a lot. My assortment of mental health issues has always made low waste feel really unattainable. I especially struggle with food-it’s already difficult for me to feed myself, and putting more barriers between me and a balanced diet in the name of a tiny bit less plastic is just all around bad for me. I do aspire to be more sustainable, and hopefully in the upcoming years, we will get better options that are easier to access. But for right now, I’m focusing on the handful of sustainable practices that I can do and challenge myself by trying a new one when I’m able.
@@myconfusedmerriment Totally same to everything you said. I also noticed that the more I tried to incorporate low-waste behaviors, I would end up wasting a lot of food, and kind of created this endless loop where I would buy things and then not be able to prepare them, which created a huge inconsistency in learning sustainable grocery/eating practices, and my diet totally suffered as a result. I'm glad you're finding a happy medium that works for you and looking out for your mental health as your top priority! So important!
I remember seeing some unhinged stuff on /r/zerowaste back when I was using reddit. One of my favorites was people circle-jerking over how much they enjoy the suffering of taking a cold shower.
I don't mean they enjoyed the cold shower. They openly thought it sucked. But they equate that to saving the planet, so it gave them enjoyment.
Which like good for them if they ultimately enjoy it, but it's definitely unhinged. I did end up getting a heat pump water heater when my existing gas water heater was in need of replacement, which I'll consider a worthy compromise over a cold shower.
I feel this video so much. We stopped using the vacuum sealer for freezer foods due to the plastic and tried other methods such as butcher paper, stasher type bags, etc. We ended up with so much food waste due to freezer burn. We are back to using the vacuum sealer and the plastic.
I'm a senior citizen and I remember as a little girl that plastics were not so prevalent. But we had to be careful walking on the beach, because of broken glass beer bottles, broken glass soda bottles, broken glass wine bottles, and broken glass sunscreen lotion jars. As I got older, I remember a sign in the women's showers of a swimming pool, it said: 'NO glass shampoo bottles are permitted.' So, what's safer in your shower, glass or plastic shampoo bottles?
Wow. The thought of glass bottles in a slippery shower just sounds insane.
@@somad6997 Unfortunately, shampoo bars have not made a lot of progress in formulation and still only work for a narrow range of hair types (This is including an apple cider vinegar rinse). I find none of them boasting about being pH balanced, and they dry my hair into straw and/or they're leave some weird film behind and are very likely to irritate my sensitive scalp...basically a sensory nightmare.
Funny story: my dad made his own concoction that only 'worked' for him, and stored it in some old tin container. He would grab a handful outside the bathroom to keep it from getting rusty right before getting in the shower. I'm 90% sure he put leftover anchovy oil in it, which is why it worked only for him.
@@somad6997 If you can make a shampoo bar for every hair type and texture, every skin condition, every style need, etc. then a shampoo bar is viable. It's *not* sustainable if it's not inclusive and accessible - it's just rich people marketing.
I think silicone mini bottles could be an option
@@somad6997 A product which is generally so gross and unsuitable for most people's actual hair that it remains a fringe item. Nah.
Ugh. These videos hit hard. I’m glad so many of the former “zero waste” creators are moving on to more practical sustainability. I definitely got a little unhinged for a bit too. lol! Great video!
ahaha we're in good company then! thank you so much 🧡
Plus: Not beeing packed in plastic in the store doesn't necessarily mean less (or zero) plastic. Example: In my country they have bananas w/o plastic in the supermarket shelves. But an employee said, that they come in a big cardboard with a very large plastic bag and that this is not less plastic than before, when the bananas were individually packed up in plastic.
But it still is better. One big bag versus many smaller bags mean much less plastic is needed.
Not the same end result at all. The relationship between size and surface is important here. A lot less packaging is needed per mass or volume the bigger something is. So the bigger the bag, the better (if it's filled up as much as the smaller ones, of course).
Thanks for this, Allison! I have definitely mellowed out more recently. The milk cartons aren't single handedly destroying the planet! I live an hour away from bulk stores, so I just do the best I can. I buy large sized packaging of frozen and shelf stable items, and I buy produce that is most affordable. I would definitely love to hear about your research backed eco goals and/or new habits!
heck yes! would i love to see silk switch to a closed-loop glass return program for their plant milks? yeah!! but for the time being i'm happy just knowing i can properly nourish myself with a less impactful alternative to dairy 😊
Yay! New video!
1 - I can get berries plastic free (own garden, lots of local places to pick, wild blackberries I pick in summer) but there are some things I've decided are worth the packaging - double strength vinegar is $1/L at the shops and normal strength is about $10/L at the zero waste store. Both are food grade. The HDPE bottle is worth it, it's my main cleaning product.
2 - I actually left a zero waste community over this, people didn't appreciate me daring to question the people who were driving miles and miles to avoid absolutely minuscule amounts of plastic and I couldn't take not being able to raise important questions to help people think about GHG emissions rather than their rubbish bin. About 0.57-0.72 kg of polyethylene can be made using a litre of petrol (see THE USE OF CRUDE OIL IN PLASTIC MAKING CONTRIBUTES TO GLOBAL WARMING - don't think links will work but that's the title... seems like a fair estimate but multiple sources would be better, it's a start... I went looking for info like you and that's the best I've come across to provide some sort of indicative comparison so far). You can work out how much fuel your car uses, vs how much fuel would be used to make the plastic, and compare that way. Plastic is very light... using 5L of petrol to avoid 7.2g of polyethylene (which would have taken 10mL of petrol to make) results in 500 times the GHG emissions. If you crunch the numbers the increase from needing to drive far out of your way is staggering, and it's good to think about.
3 - I take plastic containers to the bulk store. Maybe some people will not like me for it as they're worried about being exposed to plastics. But it's not dangerously slippery when wet, tends not to smash if dropped, and is much lighter to carry. I use homemade calico bags for dry goods but plastics are better for damp ingredients (prunes etc) - heaps easier to clean too.
4 - I make most things I need (I love making my own bread, baked snacks and yoghurt), but some things are not worth it (e.g. think of the energy use required to make 1kg of corn chips in my own oven) - I just weighted the bag 1kg my plain corn chips come in and it's 8g. It would take HOURS of time and oven use to make those at home, domestic kitchens just aren't set up for that. If you have fun doing it and can sustain the time it takes it's great, but for most people doing absolutely everything from scratch isn't realistic. I tend to do most things and then being able to get the store version occasionally feels like a treat food (currently I have a pack of store bought frozen fruit icypoles in my freezer as a treat) :P
I always think about your 4. point when I see people save food scraps to make homemade veggie broth. Is it actually better to run the stove for an hour, and then waste soap and water to wash the pot, strainer and containers, than it is to buy the little broth cubes at the supermarket? The packaging is pretty minimal and the shelf life is much longer on the store-bought ones.
Interesting to think about. It takes resources to make the store ones too (they will have raw material costs, cooking costs, cleaning costs too) - but producing at scale is efficient. Food miles are relevant too - I don't need to travel to get broth made from food scraps. All we can do is our best, we don't have all the data :)@@victoriabro5447
It never ceases to amaze me how people in the USA rarely have a greengrocer's or a market nearby. In my country, even in the most rural of villages, there is a tiny shop with fresh produce, basic ingredients and sometimes even a fresh meat stall, and the capital city has a farmers' market day I think. I understand we're waaaaay smaller than the US, but still, I've got at least five shops within two-minute walking distance from my house where I can buy fresh produce which was grown on a farm a few kilometres away from our suburbs. I guess we're priviledged too, just in a different way. By the way, you should check out our apples if you have a chance, we're one of the biggest producers in the world! (I know, weird flex but please let me have this 😂)
My local fishmongers recently had to close their business after 84 years and I am crushed 😢only a few more months before they close fully. The loss of these small businesses is making me really sad, much more than the fact that I might have to travel further afield to find fresh fish
I think you misunderstood the point of the video.
We have green grocers, meat markets, bakeries, etc, but they are usually all under one roof. They’re called Supermarkets! And they’re everywhere! She’s not talking about availability of a particular foodstuff, she’s talking about packaging! She tried to only buy foodstuffs that had no packaging. Very difficult to do in the US.
And we’re a huge producer of many varieties of delicious apples.
@@theheartoftexas I did, in fact, understand that. I just made a remark based on thoughts the lovely video provoked. Believe it or not - we have supermarkets as well, with plastic wrapped stuff imported from all over Europe and beyond. It's just that you don't have to spend hours driving from one shop to another to find quality produce. I didn't mean the US is worse - just different and that's okay ✨ To give an example of what I like better over there - we may often know who grew our carrots personally, but people in the States have a much wider variety to choose from. And one more interesting thing - you're much better at labeling types of produce. I mean - you want a russet potato? There it is on a label. The only type of crop labelled in shops by type are tomatoes and ... apples of course 😅
it's our sprawl that does it. to give the best example, my mother's kitchen garden is more than a two minute walk from her house. there is a small grocer another two minutes, but they don't have enough volume of sales to make it worthwhile for them to sell much in the way of fresh produce. there is a weekend farmer's market in the middle of town in the summer, but that's midway between my house and theirs - about 12 miles. combine the sprawl with the corporate superstore mentality, and we simply don't have the number of smaller merchants other countries have. and sadly, our superstores are encroaching on other countries as well. with globalization, if your harvest seasons are offset from ours, we've probably seen your apples in our supermarkets.
Where are you from? I guess Poland maybe? (4th largest apple producer in the world), and abundance of greengrocers fits too :D
I've never gone all out, but my family has had a generations' long history of reusing plastics & jars for various purposes, such as storage, as a "snippit jar" (something to put threads & teensy bits of fabric in while you're sewing,) as dishes (like to put my kids' goldfish crackers in,) to make pickles in, and in the case of plastic grocery bags, to put the contents of my cats' litterboxes in. Sometimes crafts with the kids, Mind, this was usually for financial reasons rather than ecological ones, but hey, works for both.
I repotted a plant recently in the bottom half of a milk jug, lol Not pretty, but the plant's happier
Since Covid I have really mellowed about zero waste. No more handkerchiefs. I now buy more beauty products b/c I learned so much from Dr. Dray about product ingredients. I use to be terrified of everything in skincare. My skin looks better & my products make me happy.😊
Happy New Year & always look forward to your videos.
dr. dray is doing the lord’s work with her mythbusting!
TH-cam decided to show me the first part of this video and I’m so glad it did! You make so many good points in both of these, and it’s a relief to see someone with science-backed and nuanced takes.
The guilt about not making everything from scratch is so real! I have never baked my own bread, but I did DIY Tortillas a few times and, while kinda fun and not super difficult, was just an extra time suck to kill the joy of Taco Tuesdays if you know what I mean. I buy Tortillas, bread, Pasta sauces, and yogurt now.
If you want to keep doing it, tortillas freeze pretty well. Definitely makes night-of prep easier.
Thank you for speaking out on this topic! I really have struggled with a lot of these concepts over the years and have made similar shifts in my mindset recently. Knowledge is power!
I like that you are willing to see the secondary effect of what may have a good intention initially.
I live in a rural area and it’s a 15 minute drive to the closest grocery store. Walking it would take a couple of hours along very dangerous roads. The next closest grocery store is another half hour drive beyond that. Needless to say, I buy what the closest grocery store has to offer and I’m not going feel guilty about that. If there are plastic free options, like a cardboard egg carton versus a plastic or Styrofoam egg cartons, I choose that. But sometimes there just isn’t a choice. it really is a matter of weighing out which choices make an actual difference and what are the consequences of the alternatives (like gas for driving).
I think your example shows that consumers alone cannot stop the waste. Sure, we can do a fair bit but it would help us so much if the industry would give us more eco-friendly options or stop using so much plastic
It's an if for cardboard egg cartons ?? I've very rarely seen plastic ones here!
@@AM-qp1ld I agree - it’s frustrating not to even have the options.
@@kaycollarfeild They are very common here, unfortunately.
@@cs4849 your cat is stunning btw
i was really passionate about zero waste in high school & thought to watch some videos for inspiration for when i moved out i could make big changes. i watched two, & then i decided i will not be doing zero waste as i still have some hope to have joy after coming to terms with how easy it is for me to fall into depression; however, i will be doing what i can to minimize. every year i minimize my impact on something just a little bit more. i go slightly more plant based, i reduce my waste with calculated efforts… but all slowly, & intentionally. easing into change really helps
me adapt change rather than get overwhelmed & give up. i really would love to see a world where everyone was more encouraged to ease into changes to better the planet & animals, rather than scared or shamed for not doing enough & therefore never doing anything at all.
love this video & i hope more people allow themselves to not be perfect, but to feel good in their choices for themselves AND the world, not just the latter.
I'm so glad this video appeared in my feed, so I could discover your channel! Loving them so far, and I find them pretty inspiring in the sense that you don't ultimately go with the flow considering ONE big topic. You adapt to whatever suits you best and it's great to be reminded that we *can* break a pattern for it to suit *us*. Also, I like how actionable your videos. Thanks for sharing all of this with us!
i'm so glad too, thanks for that!!
I changed so much of my thinking about zero waste and plastic use from a combination of cost of living going bananas, RedCycle (the soft plastic recycling pipeline in Australia) going belly up, and realizing that Exxon-Mobile has higher emissions than large European countries.
If we want to survive as a species on this planet, we need to spend our personal energy fixing our literal energy problems, rather than baking bread from scratch and carrying glass jars to the shops.
I'm all for things getting better, and I can see plastic use reducing in supermarkets because that's what customers want which is wonderful. Large companies checking is what will actually help.
I think what i liked from your video is because it's a self reflection regarding your habits and you are not judging other people to do stuff. Like the positivity!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I see SO many videos and Reddit posts and whatnot that obsess over tiny details like this, and if you question or challenge anything (for instance, by pointing out that paper bags have a bigger carbon footprint than plastic ones) they absolutely tear you a new one. That isn't just unhelpful; it's counterproductive, because it gives eco-friendly lifestyles a bad name. It makes much more sense to focus on the low-hanging fruit: the easy choices that make a big difference and that most Americans outside of our little green bubble still haven't made.
Glad I found your channel. Yours and Gittemary's give some great science based information. I used to be way more restrictive with my plastic usage but now focus more on reducing food waste. Luckily in NYC we have tons of plastic free options but my favorite place to shop are product stands/stores that sell items that are close to going bad for a big discount. Lots of this comes in plastic but helps save food waste and money. Lauren Signer would gasp but I love my produce shops!
On the second point. I live in the countryside of Germany. It is sooo difficult to find plastic-free stores "Unverpackt Laden" near me, without driving like an hour or something. The only zero waste option is buying fresh products at the weekly market but that option is also the most expensive one. That feels so defeating because I want to be low waste/ zero waste but I can't achieve it right now.
that is a.o.k.! there are many many changes we can make that will not only be simpler than avoiding plastic, but have a much more positive impact on climate change. a recent video i made called "why i quit zero waste" has a chapter about the positive eco habits i'm doubling down on and my next video is going to get into specifics!
I am glad to see videos like yours asking questions about the sustainability of some aspects and attitudes of the zero waste movement. I think people get so caught up in keeping their own trash cans empty they don't see the broader impacts of their actions and choices.
One thing that really got under my skin in Zero Waste Home was this whole attitude that as long as the author/reader doesn't have to personally throw anything away then no waste was generated. Like when buying the floor model laptop was suggested because it comes without packaging. She made it sound as if the packaging never existed because the buyer didnt have to personally dispose of it. But it did come in packaging, just like the new laptop that is going to be put out on display as the floor model.
ugh YES it's almost as if one of the goals of zero waste is just to protect our delicate sensibilities from the non-aesthetic cheapness of plastic / branded packaging 😅 to the point where you have to dig through a barrel of apples to find the one without a PLU sticker -- oh that apple *did* get stickered, it just fell off at some point and is no longer your problem lol
I just found this channel and I haven't really been doing anything special for zero waste, but I have seen stuff on it and I must say that it seems so nice to see someone talk about the practicality and think about where people live isn't always condusive for some of the advice given. Especially when talking about how it is not reasonable to expect that everyone can walk to stores to get everything without plastic.
This makes me feel really fortunate living in Brazil as I can buy mostly anything without disposable packaging. Even in bigger cities is common to have small street markets on a walking distance from home, where you can take your own containers. Sometimes you can even make some friends with local farmers and they take all the fresh produce to your door.
This removed a lot of guilt for me. Thank you so much.
Totally agree! Thank you for bringing this up
thank you for watching 🥰
Thank you so much for sharing this! It's so important that we take care of ourselves and don't allow guilt to dictate how we should live our lives. Several years ago I was also making a lot of choices in my diet and lifestyle for the environment but couldn't sustain the cost/effort level associated. When I eased up I realised that I hadn't just wanted to help the environment but was feeling so guilty about my impact and use of resources that I wanted to reduce my impact as close to 0 as possible. It's important to remember that while we have individual responsibility and together our actions can add up to a lot, we're not in positions of corporate or political power making the huge changes that have a lot of sway. And also what we're encouraged to think of as eco-friendly choices are often just aesthetic choices that corporations reinforce to absolve themselves of blame. Plastic packaging for example can be more eco friendly at large if it means that less fuel was burned in the shipping process bc the weight of the shipment was much less, and food waste can be less too because plastic is very strong. To everyone doing their best, well done! And also remember that you must rest and you deserve to live a happy life free from classist aesthetic expectations about your diet or consumption - it doesn't mean you're not conscious of the environment or good at taking care of yourself.
beautifully said, thank you 🧡
You're so real for saying this, thank you.
This is a random video in my recommendations, but this is so refreshing to hear someone say the fully zero waste is unsustainable for most people. I am chronically ill & disabled & there's so much ableism in zero waste circles. I do what I can & sometimes I can do more than others. This gives me hope & makes me feel so much better about trying to do my small part & that matters
I love reusing plastic containers. I mostly use them for craft supplies storage but it's great for pantry organization too
Almost everything you purchase has some kind of plastic in its supply chain, even unwrapped fruits and veggies might have been pallet wrapped in plastic for shipping. Great to reduce when possible but extremely unlikely to be plastic free while shopping at mainstream stores.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS!! I'm car-free and it boggles my mind when low-plastic types drive to multiple bulk food stores to fill their 5 pounds of empty glass jars. In addition to the CO2, car tires are a huge source of micro-plastic pollution.
Your view is facinating. I am one of those lowly paid grocery workers you speak of. Zero waste does exist. I work hard every day to reduce loss. Our ideals may be different. Yet similar. Food loss is a constant. Providing food for humans is mostly the goal. To reduce how much you waste does not begin with plastics.
We waste so many things. The ideal of zero is a joke. Come to terms with a harsh world. Take pride in not wasting food or the energy of other's whom made effort to feed you. I bet 10/1 if you were starving you would eat food harvested from the world around you instead of going to the store if you truly stand on this platform.
I love this so much. I just had to walk away entirely from the zero waste movement because I just couldn't handle the stress and guilt. This video gives me a little hope for the future.
that warms my cold shriveled heart 🧡
Really love your channel and look forward to new videos as inspiration! ❤
I am so happy to see such videos. When I look back on me trying to be so zero waste and the guilt I carried all the time because I did not feel I did it good enough or the anger I felt that everybody else was not doing it too because I thought they did not care.
It is clear now to me that I will try to do my best to be less wasteful but I am not wasting my time and money trying to buy unpackaged food, etc. It's not my fault or my guilt to carry - this is how the world is and my best effort is insignificant in the face of the no effort of big corporations that destroy our environment and pollute our planet.
I am so happy to finally have gotten to this place of normalcy. I agree with everything said in this video 100%
thank u so much for this video!!
There are so many things I want to say but it ends up being very long and involved as this is something I am passionate about. But to sum it up - make the best changes you can and keep modifying your lifestyle to be sustainable and that's the best we can aim for.
Great videos! I'd love to see a video about what habits you are going to keep or incorporate this year.
I love this so much. You are so level-headed and pragmatic! I'm thrilled that YT recommended you to me.
unfortunately i had to learn the hard way haha! thanks so much for this 🧡
These 2 videos were awesome. Thank you for dispelling some of these beliefs. I have friends who believe so much in some these things, that they become judgemental and self-important around people who don't do it.
Glad to finally come across a zero waste video that is not afraid to reuse plastics as well! Coming from a balkan country where we tend to reuse "single use" plastics I was always wondering why western countries shy away from reusing when it came to the zero waste movement.
i'd say it's a combo of pseudoscience and elitism 😅 haha thank you!!
That was always baffling me. It's like people hear "single-use" and take it as gospel.
i like that the points you bring up are all things you did yourself and can‘t recommend anymore, and also telling why you used to do it and why not anymore. i thought it would be a video along the lines of „Stuff everybody else does wrong“ haha ♡
haha i know what you mean! thanks for finding value here 🧡
I wouldn't consider myself zero waste whatsoever but I've always thought that extreme practices of any kind are detrimental. You can't be fully zero waste in this society unless you produce all of your groceries and that's unrealistic. Do as much as you can with what you can afford, both in terms of budget as well as lifestyle and allotted time. Be kind to yourselves 🖤🖤
I live in Japan and I find it quite hard to shop waste free, especially groceries because most of them come in plastic packaging already - but among the few veggies that can be bought without packaging, one of them is cucumber!😂 Your video made me think more about how I can make my part of impact. Thank you and I’m looking forward to more of your videos❤️
some points are very interesting for me. thanks!
Thank you for this! It's so important to discuss the more realistic and adaptable gray area of enviromentalism bc it's only sustainable for the planet when it's sustainable for your life.
We have an electric bread making machine that we bought second hand (pretty cheap). It bakes bread for us every day, and the whole process takes me literally five minutes. That's the time needed to put the ingredients into the machine, and than take the loaf out of it and washing the dish.
My grandma has a huge freezer when she makes bread, she bakes about 20 loaves, slices them, and packages each loaf separately. When she is out of fresh bread she has the option to take out an entire loaf or just a few slices and put them in the toaster. She keeps the plastic bags and reuses them until they can't be used anymore.
Love your point of view ❤
🧡🧡
Like, you, I've tempered my shopping habits to be more reasonable. As an example, I buy frozen vegetables in plastic bags that can largely be recycled. I find this to be more sustainable, as there is no food waste with frozen vegetables, whereas I often ended up throwing out fresh produce that couldn't last the week. A lot of organic produce, in particular, does not last long. I take public transit, so glass jars are not very convenient. I prefer to use cloth produce bags to buy bulk items, especially since they are so light that I don't bother with the tare weight.
such a great point, freezing is one of the best food preservation methods ever! i'm also giving myself permission to buy more frozen fruit + veg because food waste is no joke! especially in this economy!!
Thank you for bringing up driving all over town for zero-plastic...the trade off? I have this issue with battery usage for led candles vs. the carbon issues from burning real candles...gas fire vs. wood fire...and so on...
Love your honesty!
🧡🧡
I'm so glad I found your channel!
me too!! 🤗 welcome!
I wish there were more sustainability creators who talked about disability. I would love to watch more but it is difficult to find content that doesn't make me feel bad or guilty all the time.
Everyone in our home is neuro spicy and I have autoimmune issues (don't get me started on the eco creators who "cured" their diseases with sustainability and organics 🙄) so it is hard for us to do/remember to do a lot of the recommended things in the various lifestyles - crunchy, eco minimalist, zero waste and so on.
I love these videos!!!
yay!! cause i love makin 'em! thank youuu 😊
Just found your channel. Love it so far!
It's good to question the status quo, it's even better when you question the answers you got from questioning and realize the truth is somewhere between the cult of normal and cult of the unhinged fringe.
Thank you for speaking up. As a family member of someone who became unhinged on zero waste it is exhausting. And detrimental to relationships. I don’t think those big influencers in the space really live as zebras they say. Fortunately my family member found a more sustainable balance.
Oh my goodness! I'm so glad I came across this video. I've been vegan for almost 5 years but I never really got into the zero waste movement and I've been struggling with shame over it. I'm grateful to have a Natural Grocers within 20 min or less from my apartment and I love their (mostly) plastic-free produce section. But yes, berries still are in plastic! And you're absolutely right about bread too. No doubt, homemade bread is amazing but it's sooo time-consuming...so plastic-packaged store bread it is 😅 I really love getting JOI milk base though! I have to order it online but it comes in glass jars and it's just like a thick paste/butter that you mix with water.
I know there's other things I could definitely do better on (like figuring out how tf to compost in my small apartment), but there's things like my beauty routine that I just need to come to terms with. I love plastic-free beauty and bars, but what's a girl to do when the shampoo and conditioner that work best on my wavy hair still come in plastic bottles? I'm glad that at least they're #1 or #2 plastic so I hope they actually get recycled.
There definitely needs to be more transparency and flexibility in the sustainability movement as we move forward. We should absolutely try to be better every day but normalize analyzing and scrutinizing what that looks like for YOU rather than just trying to copy influencers (which is very filtered content anyway).
I gave up on zero waste and switched to buying nearly everything secondhand. I feel like buying used and reducing consumption is so much more important than obsessing over the amount of plastic waste you generate.
the aesthetics of zero waste were something i struggled with for awhile- still do! no toothpaste in little glass jars, “clean” cotton and stainless steel. but it works!
Also, at least in European shops, you can buy those clear, reusable bags (they look kinda like those laundry bags you use for small items). They don't weigh much, so they won't add to the price and are reusable, easily washable and practical.
And if you are nice, even people at the farmer's market are willing to weigh your stuff in them for you!
AuDHD here (who's also violently poor). who reduces, reuses, and recycles whenever possible. We do the reusable bags, currently working up our reusable bottle and jar collection (but never bothered to, nor do I plan to carry them to the store). Also fun fact, like you said-reuse those plastics from the bulk aisle. Those little spice baggies are a life saver (also, reuse the old plastic spice bottles until you can get the good glass ones-build your storage slowly).
Also, autistic special interest, that Jaguar (Jazzmaster? hard to tell, looks like the soapbar pickups, but looks like it also has the controls of the Jag) and pretty sure that's a reissue P-Bass on the wall behind you, what's the story with them? :D
yes! it’s a jaguar! and the bass is a 1960s teisco 🤗
@@allisonfromearth Ah! Not as familiar with Teisco's offerings, but from what I can see it looks like a riff on the '51 style P-bass body type for sure, just a bit jazzed (that pun wasn't intended) up.
Always wanted a Jag (and a Jazzmaster, honestly). Such a neat bodyshape. Love an offset.
(I'll stop there, because as stated, instruments are a *super special interest* for my autism and I'll talk your ear off about them if you give me half a chance).
Thanks so much for the response!
@@Diana2112Gaming dang i wish i could geek out with you till the cows come home but sadly i know nothing about guitars! they belong to my dude -- he actually wrote and recorded all the songs on my channel!
@@allisonfromearth That's awesome. Great music on the channel as well. So cool to know! And no worries. Again, thanks for indulging me!
regarding jars: I'd use cloth bags and sometimes resue plastic bags.
If you have worked in fast food for one day, you know that zero waste is useless. Corporate accountability is the only answer.
The thing a lot of people don’t understand is that the corporations are the problem not us. I’m sorry but a small percentage of people being zero waste is doing literally nothing for the environment. I worked for a retail company and every truck day (once to twice a week) the entire back corner would be stacked with 10+ industrial sized trash bags full of plastic. We would get boxes of clothes and every individual item of clothing would be wrapped in plastic. Nothing is going to change until corporations change. It’s that simple.
I dunno how this works out, eco wise but using a bread machine to make bread is extremely easy and I like having control over additional flavourings (i love putting thyme in my bread).
When I heard the food waste part, I was so thankful to have my lil guinea pigs who avoid me so much waste by eating most of our fruits and veggies 😭 And yeah! Zero waste doesnt need to look cute!! Reuse the ugly plastic containers!
Where I live in the UK i'm literally 1min 20 secs (I counted) away from the town centre. We have 1 grocery store (which isn't big at all) and a couple of smaller ones (they may as well not exist) and they have so much plastic and cardboard that 100% I buy is just that. And what's worse is the estate where I live we have no room for recycling bins so everything gets put into general waste.
I’m so lucky there is a low/zero waste farm co-op on my way home from work but I eat so many strawberries like I would have such a hard time with absolutely no plastic. But during strawberry season when they’re at the farm co op 😍😍😍😍😍😍
We are food savers - we collect food that couldn' t been sold anymore because maybe there is one tangerine bad in the net the grocery store would throw away the whole net. Or the got just a new delivery of bananas and have some boxes of older bananas or "freckled" bananas - they will throw away these and we will save them. So in order to save food we have to accept all this plastic packages and this is A LOT!
But if I buy packed berries I buy them frozen because here in Germany they have cardboard packages. And during the harvest season they are also in 500g open cardboard "baskets". Mostly the off- season berries are in plastic. I have sewn a lot of fabric bags out of bed sheets and nets out of old curtains (from the 60ies, thrifted). So much lighter and easier to handle than glass.
And yes: I bake my own bread even if we have A LOT of saved bread in our "saved food shop for free". Because I can choose the ingredients and it's whole grain sourdough bread - even in the Country of bread not always easy to get.
Anyways: I want to encourage you. You never can save the world (only Jesus can, did and will do again!) but every little step counts being good stewards of his creation.
Be blessed! Greetings from Germany
I like getting croissants - but the club packs always come in plastic. I now use the ones I'm getting as art storage. :) I tried eco bags before (silicone ones) but found the clasp system either didn't work, ripped the bag, or didn't quite work, so I reuse ziplocks (eco bags are better now just so pricy). I think my favorite plastic thing I own is actually my dish set. I straight up use a thrifted takeout dishes. They have high sides, not pretty, but zero new waste was created :) (I'm disabled so constantly ruining my shirts but never thought of a good solution as well). I like limiting new waste.
The fact you also went back to plastic for some grocery items will also be nicer on the clerk's wrists. x.x glass is so heavy, along with as you mentioned the shatter risk. If you thrift you might be able find, corn, or bamboo plastic containers, they are lightweight and might be a good option since they are less crack prone than plastic
All the store local to me don’t even have bulk… anything. They didn’t before the pandemic, and the certainly don’t now but it was so frustrating trying to find a store that did when I started looking into it 😅 the drive definitely would not have made up for it. I suppose the other option is farmers markets but those are usually only around in the summer and the last one I went to felt like more of a craft fair. Did get myself a cute little handmade mug though!
well done to point out the fact that sustainability is not over the top eco puritanism. sustainability is the balance between what the planet can sustain and what people can sustain.
so well said 👏🏻
So many things I want to say, and mention; first, we are all unhinged, so you are in good company lol. Here are some other things to note 1st if my social anxiety wasn’t completely unhinged I would totally say we should have a farmers market day because I only live an hour away. Next, while I can totally respect your perspective on making homemade bread, I would say that that was probably one of the easiest for me to do. I do have kids with Nuro divergent nuances, and I found that it was far easier and less time-consuming than I’ve truly thought to just do it myself. The key is to make it in batches so you aren’t having to do it multiple times a week. If you are already freezing a loaf, then that makes it even easier. What I do is whip up enough go for a couple of loaves and bake it all at the same time and all in all it doesn’t really take a lot of active time because most of the process is Inactive time if that makes sense. Looking back when I started following you on Instagram, I sort of got the impression that maybe I wasn’t doing all I could because I didn’t look like you. In fact, on some level you were another Bea Johnson to me, and that was simply due to access or the lack there of as I didn’t live where I do now. I embarked on my sustainability journey eight years ago, and I agree it has been a process. While other well-known sustainability influencers talk about our impact as individuals they really failed to mention what they were doing or what we could do to actually fix the problem.; the problem being that we do not have a closed loop system, or even a workable recycling system. In Europe, it was so much easier to recycle and know that those items were truly going to the right places, and in terms of trash, it was turned into energy. A big part of our problem is advocacy to our government to demand corporations to take accountability for the waste that they produce while also keeping affordability at the forefront. Truly, I could go on, but that would end up being a novel so I’ll leave it there and just say some ideas that I would really like to see from you in the future are how are you moved from Texas to North Carolina sustainably, what your five point plan would be to get big corporations to do their part, and really just more unhinged sustainability content lol. How are you? Found the truly sustainable brands that you use or more about your kitchen and bathroom stuff. Also, maybe the information to your dad so I can purchase some of that beautiful furniture lol because truly there is no better way in my mind of obtaining things like furniture, then to go through someone who has bills to pay
I used to work in a grocery store and every single palet of food comes wrapped in a thick layer of plastic wrap so things don't shift during transport. Then, some products (i.e. jars of food, drink bottles, bins of bananas) are also bunched together in their own plastic which I would cut and remove before placing them individually on the shelf. You have no idea what the plastic use and energy footprint of your food is before it hits the shelf.
one of the big super markets in australia has started doing LOOSE cherry tomatoes!! and im so happy - its the only reason i go there
Plant some trees or grow some veggies on the balcony if you live in an apartment. I've not understood people's hyper-ness about the zero waste thing. I'm too old to make life so difficult. I'm glad to see you are starting to think for yourself. Don't let yourself respond to criticism from unknown people so much. It's your life - and you only have 24 hours a day.
I love baking my own bread - when I'm in the mood. But not as a MUST. And yes, I have put store bought bread in the freezer, because the urge to bake a loaf came over me.
I think a lot of people get caught up in "little" things like packaging or the food they eat.
But the things that make the biggest difference by far is traveling less (especially flying) and the way you heat your house and water with.
(Where I live, most people rent apartments. And most of these apartment buildings are heated with oil, which is very wastful. But as a person only renting a space you can't do much to change that. If you have your own space look into alternative heating options.)
So before throwing out anything that's plastic, try to fly as little as possible, take public transport (or a bicycle) and try to buy as little new things (clothes, furniture, electronic gadgets) as possible.
You can also use home made cotton bags to take your loose groceries in.
is reusing ziplocs healthy? my mom did it my whole childhood and i worry about microplastics since the bags got super beat up after years of washing and reuse
It's probably not great for your health since those aren't designed to be reused... Instead, you could reuse them for non-food items, for example, I save old bags and use them when I scoop my cat's litterbox.
The tough thing about trying to be eco-friendly is there are several different - almost unrelated - factors to consider. When you mentioned comparing CO2 output in driving vs plastic packaging, those are two different things. Plastic production and disposal doesn’t produce much CO2, but it does financially and politically support the petrochemical industry, which is a big problem. Driving also supports the oil & gas industry, while also contributing to car-centric infrastructure.
GHG emissions, plastic pollution, toxic waste, habitat degradation, water consumption, political divide, these are all different considerations that can vary from person-to-person. Water consumption is a lot more important in California than in Canada, and plastic waste is a lot more important in a poor region that lacks municipal landfills.