Go Zero and Be a Hero

You read right. But before you completely dismiss the idea, hear me out. It’s easy to say “Let’s do this” and then end up not knowing where to begin or beginning without a plan. That’s exactly what I did last year. Out of excitement I just started swapping out items for something that came in less single-use packaging. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I realized I could have done it better. I started by refusing straws only to realize after that we didn’t really consume much to begin with. So last week I did a trash audit. This allowed me to see what we sent to be land filled the most. We all have different purchases. Doing a trash audit will really help you determine what you need to swap first by seeing what you consume the most. Here are the different steps I took to complete my trash audit. 1. Get a big paper bag to put your DRY trash in. I used those big paper bags from the grocery store. You can also use a mid sized cardboard box so it’s easi...

Do you have NETFLIX? If so, then you’re probably hooked on Marie Kondo’s new show, Tidying Up, by now. The KONMARI method has 5 lessons: 1. Clothing 2. Books 3. Paper 4. Komono 5. Sentimental Items To keep up with the trend I’ve divided our 2019 Zero Waste Cleaner Slate plan into 12 categories for the twelve months of the year. January - Planning and Baselining (Click HERE for the details) February - Refuse: Zero Waste Starter Kit (Click HERE for details) March - Dry Kitchen Trash (Click HERE for the article) April - Envirotech Waste Recycling Inc. (Click HERE for the article) May - Rot: Wet Kitchen Trash and Composting the Bokashi Way June - Cleaning Product Swaps July - Bathroom August - MORE SWAPS and DIYs September - Reduce the JiRi Method Way (credits to E, for the name MWAH!) October - Zero Waste Travel November - Office and School Supplies December: Zero Waste Holidays Whew! Just looking at the list is making me very excited!! BUT.. and this is a...

I know it’s not really day 1 of the year but due to holidays hang over I had to delay this for a few days. First days usually bring so many things. One of those is the feeling of starting over on a clean slate. 2018 has been a good year for our family in terms of being healthy and being more environmentally friendly (hey that rhymes!). Last July 2018 was a huge jolt for us and that pushed us to start being more conscious about how much single use plastic we consume. See that post HERE . Admittedly though, we could have done a better job. I don’t feel bad about how we tackled our first attempt at a more zero waste life. We were able to sustain doing the following: 1. Refusing single use plastic from straws,water bottles to grocery and produce bags 2. Composting our food scraps 3. Swapping SOME products that come in a plastic container such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion, all purpose cleaners and detergent by looking for a product that doesn’t come in a plastic packa...