Getting Started on the Zero Waste Life
I hope that those of you reading this blog are starting to think about how you can get started on the zero waste-ish lifestyle. If you want to learn more about this, there are lots of good websites that can provide guidance in addition to this one: I like the blog by Kathryn Kellogg (Going Zero Waste ) and of course, the blog by Bea Johnson, the queen of the zero waste movement: www.zerowastehome.com. She wrote a book called Zero Waste Home (Zero Dechets in French) which is an excellent reference. I found the book at my local library. Hopefully you can find it at your library!
As I have mentioned, other than avoiding single use disposables such as coffee cups, straws, water bottles, one of the key ways to get started is to buy fewer packaged goods. A good first step is to go to any bulk store. In the Montreal area, you can try Papillon(Papillon Foods) and Bulk Barn (Bulk Barn) Before I go shopping, I pack up my containers, both glass and plastic, and put them in a reusable bag :
When I arrive at the store, I get the tare of my container i.e. weight of the containers so that the weight of what I am buying can be calculated. Bulk shopping is actually very easy and quite economical. I can even get my espresso coffee in bulk:
No one wants to be around me if I don’t have my daily fix of coffee.
I also now buy my bread at bakery instead of the grocery store so that I don’t have to get a plastic bag.
In her zero waste book, Bea Johnson suggested that people use a pillow case to carry the bread that was purchased. When I first started going to bakery, I tried this out. When I came home, my husband was appalled. “What is that? It’s like a beginner criminal kit! The next time you go to bakery, are you going to tell them to put the real bread in the pillow case?” Since then, I bought a baguette bag that I found at the grocery store:
This bag is good, however, I cannot put the bread in the freezer without some risk of freezer burn. I decided to make a reusable “plastic” bread bag. I had a plastic-coated fabric that I thought I could use for a freezer bread bag:
I cut the fabric into two sizes: 26 inch by 6.5 inch for baguettes and 13 inch x 11 inch for a loaf of sandwich bread. I then sewed a green ribbon on the outside of the bags and then sewed them up. Voila, reusable and freezer ready bread bags!
Not bad for 30 minutes effort.
Challenge for the Month of March: Try a 1 month experiment of zero waste living. Refuse to use disposable straws and utensils (bring your own), bring a reusable water bottle and try out some of the things I’ve talked about in my blog. Please share your experiences!