The First 5 Low-Waste Sustainable Lifestyle Changes

First 5 Low Waste Lifestyle Changes

A short list of 5 of the very first changes I made. These may not be the changes that you decide to make first but they were the easiest changes for me to make first. Maybe only 1 or 2 of these changes suits you right now in your lifestyle. Don't make all the changes at once. Build a habit and then try another one. I have forgotten to bring my reusable bags into the store at times when I started this. Remember that it is not about perfection, but instead a continued effort towards change. Small realistic changes that are right for you and your lifestyle. 

The overarching theme that I think about in terms of lifestyles changes goes back to the old slogan that now is maybe so overused that people don't think about what it means.

It's actually a hierarchy! Reduce first! This is where the low waste ideology comes in to play. What can we reduce our use of first? Then, what can we reuse? Recycle is at the bottom, because there are inherent issues with recycling, more on that in another post. 

I let this hierarchy be my guide to the changes I make in my lifestyle. So here are the first 5 changes I made. 

#1 Reusable Bags!

So many reasons to avoid plastic. It's difficult to recycle, takes a gazillion years to decompose, pollutes and litters the ocean, threatens wildlife, and more. 

For me it was the whale articles that I kept reading. Like this one A Pregnant Whale Died with 50 Pounds of Plastic in Her Stomach written in April of 2019. Then of course there is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch that is 99% plastic litter. Last time I visited South Padre I was saddened by the amount of washed up plastic in certain areas and I know other coastal areas are struggling with this issue. 

So what can we do? Stop supporting companies that use plastic. This is tough so I started with eliminating plastic bags but the ultimate goal is to avoid plastic all together. It's a process.Reducing plastic use all together deserves its own post. 

#2 Good Thermos and Water Bottle to Replace Disposable Cups and Plastic Water Bottles


I am definitely a coffee drinker. That's not something I feel like I want to change right now. What I can change is the vessel that holds the coffee. I decided I didn't want to be a part of the extraordinary number of Starbucks disposable cups that eventually go to the landfill. Nor did I want to be a part of the staggering numbers of disposable water bottles strewn all over our natural world. Sure you can "recycle," but remember that the coffee lids don't recycle and compared to the number of these containers being used, a very small percentage actually ends up being recycled. I also think about the amount of resources that go into recycling materials. If recycling actually does occur, I don't think it is worth the tradeoff in terms of energy resources. We can use resources more wisely than that. Go to the thrift store and get yourself a thermos. You probably have one already. The challenge is remembering to bring it when you go to get coffee. This took time for me and eventually I just told myself, no thermos, no coffee. Some of these shifts meant being dedicated to being prepared. Use what you have first, but if you need a good thermos I love Yeti and Hydroflask. 





#3 Find Replacements for Paper Products


Kleenex, paper napkins, tree-based paper towels are all on the outs at my home now. Why continue to be a part of the demand for cutting down our beautiful forests and destroying habitats for countless species? I just don't want to do that anymore. Any way I can avoid tree-based paper disposable products these days, I want to know about it. Thrift stores are a great place to start when making this transition. I found old bandanas and hankies for the kids lunches and backpacks. My best friend made and gifted me a set of reusable fabric napkins that I still use today years later and they are so soft and gently on our faces and in our laps at meal times. Paper towels have been an interesting journey. Originally I wanted to replace them with reusable paper towels, but I just didn't have a system that worked for storing them. Right now, I have ordered bamboo-based paper towels with the intention of going all washable fabric replacements in the future. 




#4 Buy Used When and If Possible


Not only is this the more sustainable choice, but also it's so much more cost-effective. There are already so many helpful platforms online to help you find whatever you might need to find used. Personally, I use ThredUp, Poshmark, Patagonia - Worn Wear, and EBay the most. The consequences of fast fashion have been documented in films such as The True Cost.  

The exception to buying used (for me) is socks and underwear...haha! My thoughts moving forward on socks and underwear is to find companies that manufacture these products who value and prioritize sustainable practices in their manufacturing processes. I will cross that bridge when I come to it! I am in need of running socks. I want to be very careful not to just go out and buy things that are marketed as eco-friendly if I don't need it. I think this is a common marketing trap. You are trying to convert to a low waste lifestyle, but then you are convinced that you need to go out and buy a bunch of STUFF to do so. This is IRONY and also green-washing. We must remember to use what we have first and foremost. Let's not contribute to the demand for producing so much that ends up in our landfills. Instead, we can find things that we like that have been gently used and give it more life.   

#5 Shift Food Habits 

Reduce food waste!!! This is the one that I have more recently had my visions set on evolving. This is a global issue but the United States contributes significantly to this problem. We waste money and resources that could be allocated to people in need and all of the waste in landfills releases greenhouse gases as it is rotting. 

    It has become a mission to prevent the food in my kitchen from going bad before it is used up! That means getting creative, researching recipes, and simply eating and recreating leftovers before it is too late. 6 overripe apples turned into sweet little hand-pies yesterday. Often it is a wonderful and creative experience. Sometimes not and I learn from it. Either way, reducing food waste is something we should all strive for to save money and improve the health and resiliency of our natural world. 

I hope that at least 1 of these lifestyle changes is something you might like to incorporate into your life. It might look slightly different from mine but I think that is the beauty in all this that we have to remember. Make changes that work for you, that are right for you to live more compassionately and sustainably. We only have this one Earth.Let's cherish it and be kind to it!

Small Changes, Not Perfectionism

The Low Waste Movement

The popular Zero Waste and Low Waste environmental movements have exposed many people to an alternative way of living in our consumer driven society. Fitting all your trash for an entire year into one mason jar is an impressive feat that opened our eyes to the possibilities of making significant lifestyle changes to reduce our footprint on this Earth. 

Small Changes, Not Perfectionism

While I find this lifestyle shift to be an admirable goal, I also wonder if people intimidated by the drastic measures they would have to take to fit their trash into a mason jar, that they don't know where to start. It might be too big of a leap. Gradual and small changes might be more manageable and less intimidating to some. Perhaps this is also why so many people, including myself, try to go vegan for the planet and all the wonderful health benefits but end up feeling like a complete failure because the transition is too big and there is little or no guidance in between. You either are "zero waste" or you are not. You either are vegan or you are not. The environmental movement risks excluding many from the cause by not being approachable to the realities of the general population and their current lifestyle. To be effective, the environmental movement must meet the population where it is at and provide exposure and education to help them make small realistic changes. At the root of this idea is the belief that when people know better, they do better as long as they believe in the value of the change. 

So I decided to stop being so hard on myself for not being able to fit a years worth of my trash into a mason jar. I decided not to give up just because I wasn't there yet. I'm just not there yet! I'm ok with being a work in progress. The goal is to make small purposeful and impactful changes in my lifestyle. It is not to be perfect and it is not to create a culture of shame around lifestyle choices... I see that a lot too on youtube, blogs, all platforms of social media. 

Changing Our Lifestyle Holds the Power to Change the Marketplace

Why Bother?

A central reason for making any changes at all is the ever increasing detrimental consequences of climate change. But let's get one thing straight, all of us little people had very little say in causing this crisis. The structure of our consumer society and corporatocracy is largely to blame for the current situation we are facing. My little Subaru-driving-self is not going to reverse the effects of climate change by riding my bike to work everyday instead of driving. But it is going to make an important statement. It's going to take many people making changes to change the world. It's going to mean all of us changing the demand in the marketplace. Choosing our purchases more conscientiously, supporting companies that are making sustainable, ethical choices and then spreading the word. I see the possibility of creating a world we want from the ground up. It's a social movement that needs many people and must be approachable, attainable, realistic, and gradual. 

In addition to wanting to be a part of the solution rather than part of the problem, I just simply love our living breathing Earth so much. I have so many precious memories outside in the forests and near the rivers of Alaska, the mountains of Colorado, not to mention other states. I'd like to do something good for something that gives so much back to me. I do not want to take our precious Earth for granted. We forget about the complexity of the living systems of this Earth and how a slight temperature change can cause drastic consequences and cascading effects. 

Purpose

The purpose of writing this blog that probably no one will read ...lol, is to document gradual changes I make in my lifestyle so that the shift between current modern living and low waste living is more approachable and attainable. I want more and more people to feel like they can make these lifestyle shifts to build the movement around living more sustainably and compassionately.