This journey is slow, it takes time, it takes effort and patience – but it is one of the most important things to me and to the world. It is defiantly a learning curve and it doesn’t just happen instantly. You WILL make many mistakes along the way. It WILL be frustrating but it WILL also encourage you to take it more seriously and be more stubborn and organised. I will walk you through what steps I took to be zero waste.

1. The first step is to care. If you’re reading this then you are already there! I have found that Blue Planet 2 has had a huge impact on those around me and their opinions on waste. Before this it was a mission to get anyone to understand. Educate yourself. Watch documentaries or Google the effects of plastic on the environment. Did you know that food cannot decompose properly if it is left in the landfill? Maybe right now you can Google why that is. The first step is to care because without caring people will go for what is more convenient.
2. Secondly, you need to know about your waste. What is the main source of waste in your household? Have a look at you non-recyclable waste and recyclable waste. Is it full of plastic water bottles, take away coffee cups, chopsticks, food wastage or meat packaging? It is important to know what waste you produce before you can hope to change it.
3. Knowledge about how to be zero waste. Looking at post like this and millions of other posts all over the internet will help you know how to work towards becoming zero waste. Have a look at the Free changes you can make right now.

What is plastic?

Glass jars for dry goods!

Zero Plastic Coffee …

Some Challanges:

1. Plastic Tubs: I have so many plastic tubs and I feel that throwing them out to use glass containers is defeating the purpose.
2. Being persistent and getting your point across. Many times the waitress or the butcher will not understand that I want to use my own box and have ZERO plastic. There have been times they take my box away, package the meat in heaps of plastic and then put this package in my tub.
3. No container? No food. No coffee cup? No coffee. No bag? The walk home is not going to be easy! If you forget your container, your coffee cup or your shopping bag it can be a real challenge.

Eating out:

Me and my partner love Sushi. We eat out at a Sushi restaurant about once a month and I kept forgetting to bring my reusable chopsticks! Now we remember or go back for them if we forget. This stops us using a disposable pair every time. Even thought they’re bamboo, it is still unnecessary. We also bring a container with us to take away any leftovers we may have. We did this after needing to take away left over food and having to accept a plastic container. The next step is to bring our own washable napkins! We always drink water but bringing your own reusable aluminium straw is important too or at least remembering to ask for NO STRAW.

Paper straws!

Platic free veggie meal!

Sneaky Salmon Sushi

Supermarkets:

Supermarket shopping is so challenging if you’re trying to reduce your waste because almost everything is covered in plastic. My solution to this is to shop elsewhere.

Change is happening! January 2018 I asked those behind the meet counter in Morrison supermarket to put the meat into my container. I was told that this was against policy. I was told recently that this has changed! Also, in Hungary the meet counter is really impressive with so many options.

I use small grocery shops for my fruit and vegetables. This supports the local business aswell! Try to buy meat from the butchers. This means you can bring a container for it and help the local business again! You can also buy only the amount you need by making these changes which reduces food waste.

Bread can also be difficult to buy plastic free unless you have a local bakery. If you don’t, try baking you own bread!

Vegetarian and veganism.

The challenge here is that you can’t use the butchers. You can’t use the local shops to buy fresh cheese or other products. I have found finding tofu without plastic almost impossible where I live. Actually, finding tofu at all was so hard. Meat alternatives are also usually wrapped in plastic! My advice here is to go too the frozen food section only. Quorn sell a vegan chicken fillet which is on a cardboard box. There are other suppliers that only use cardboard here too.

You can also eat more plant based unprocessed foods and shop at the local grocery store for fruits and vegetables. However, for those time when you need a treat, the frozen food section is great.

At the time of writing I haven’t tried vegan cheese at home because I can’t find it plastic free. I am holding out until absolutely necessary. At the time of writing I am also mainly vegetarian so eat dairy cheese when my body calls for it. I will update on the cheese front!

Keep a look out for posts on how to make zero waste changes and check out the free zero waste changes you can make now.