The Latest…

Hi everyone!

I have been a bit MIA on this blog for the past week. I originally started this blog for a project for my AP Environmental Science class in school. Well, I presented my project, school is over, but the blog is still here. What am I to do? I really enjoyed writing in this blog throughout the short two weeks that I had used it for, and I’ve decided to keep it going over the summer, but a little differently.

I think I will change this blog so it isn’t only zero waste, but all environmental issues: climate change, pollution, etc. as well as tips, tricks, and personal experiences I have had to living a sustainable life. I hope those of you who follow me will enjoy these new types of post, and those who won’t, don’t worry- I will still be blogging about zero waste as well!

I will be posting twice a week from now on, on Wednesdays and Sundays. I hope some consistency will make this into more of a habit than it was before :).

Thank you for reading my blog and following me on this journey!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Reusable Water Bottles

I was stuck with what to write this post on, and then I realized that I haven’t yet written about the most simple aspect of going zero waste- Reusable water bottles.

I learned a few weeks ago that my high school, with almost 3,000 students, makes $200,000 a year on selling just $1 Poland Spring Water bottles. Some students buy multiple a day, even though there are water bottle refilling stations in every hallway in the school. I have a plethora of reusable water bottles at home, and the thought of using a plastic single-use water bottle hasn’t reached my mind in months. If I forget a water bottle at home, I probably will go the whole school day thirsty, not only because I don’t want to buy a single use water bottle, but also because I don’t bring the money to school, so I am literally unable to. I think this is the best way to stop using single use water bottles on a day to day basis, force yourself not to until you remember to bring a reusable water bottle.

I will give recomendations of water bottles that I use or have used in the past- what I liked about them, what I don’t like about them, and which is my favorite.

Camelbak

I purchased the Camelbak Eddy a little over a year ago in the color Charcoal. I know people who rave about these water bottles, but this one goes on the bottom of my list.

About six months into semi-daily use, the straw started to mold, and the water bottle would leak all over my car and backpack. Persistent washing, by hand and through the dishwasher, didn’t work either. After only six months, I had to throw it out. I considered their Lifetime Warranty program, but after reading into it, found out that it only applies to faulty products from purchase. I had to recycle it. Won’t be buying again!

 

S’well

The store I work at sells S’wells, and ever since our first shipment around Christmas time, it has been a best-seller. What I think attracts people to S’wells are the variety of beautiful designs, and the fact that its insulation keeps cold beverages cold for 24 hours and hot beverages hot for 12. I’ve had two S’well bottles over the course of three years (I lost the first one) and can honestly say that this is true. I used to make the mistake of putting hot tea in my S’well, expecting it to cool down enough to drink it within the next hour, but it wouldn’t get to a less-than scorching hot temperature for around five hours. My only problem with the S’well is that like many other reusable water bottles, it isn’t very compatible with lip glosses / lipsticks. The makeup sticks to the mouth of the bottle, which in turn makes it require more washes than other reusable bottles I have used.

Contigo

The Contigo water bottle is by far my favorite, and there are a few reasons why. First, it was cheaper than the other water bottles. The S’well costs $35, Camelbak was $15, and the Contigo was only $8! I bought it at the B&N Starbucks Cafe in Barnes and Noble, and since I am a Barnes and Noble member, I got a discount. But the price doesn’t reflect the quality of the product. The feature that I found useful that isn’t present in the others is the lock. To ensure it doesn’t leak, there is a lock on the side, which I find myself using a lot more often than I originally thought. After the constant leaking of the Camelbak, I found this extra security a blessing. Another aspect that I liked was the straw. The straw isn’t one that you just push into the holder, like the Camelbak, but you actually have to twist it to lock it. With my Camelbak, I found that whenever I had lemon water or ice water that the solids in the container would push the straw out of the holder, which also always happened when I was in the middle of driving, not ideal. Lastly, I really love the spout on the Contigo. With the Camelnbak, you have to bite down on the spout to get the water out, which was annoying and also wasn’t healthy for me because I have a jaw disorder called TMJ, where essentially the joints in my jaw get inflamed with too much chewing, a really annoying and painful problem that I can’t fix, but I can try to mitigate with less chewing, and this didn’t help it. I also found the shape of the Contigo is better shaped to fit mouths, which I enjoyed.

The Contigo water bottle has turned into my daily use water bottle. I am able to place lemons and ice in the water bottle without the straw popping out, can lock it to prevent it from spilling, and it is also cheap and 24 oz! That means I only have to drink 5 to reach a gallon of water a day! Woo!

I hope some of you who are looking for the right water bottle for them found this review helpful. I know I only included three, but where I live, these three brands are the most popular. If you decide to try these out, or other reusable water bottles out, and don’t like it, you can give it to a friend or recycle them! All of these water bottles are recyclable.

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

 

Zero Waste Day 1!

Yesterday, I went zero waste. Or at least I tried. I recycled a bunch, a Dunkin’ Donuts cup, a recyclable empty bag of chips, and a Chipotle container. I decided that I will give myself some leeway with work, because yesterday, I threw away a lot of garbage that wasn’t mine.

I work in a retail store, and our recyclable capabilities are limited. We can only recycle cardboard, everything else gets thrown away. With my zero waste promise in the back of my mind, it particularly pained me to throw away so much packing materials and plastics. Next week I plan to say something to my boss about maybe talking to the person who owns the building and asking for a recycle bin to join the garbage and cardboard bins. Otherwise, I think I did pretty well. Day 1 doesn’t nearly encompass all of what zero waste living really is. I didn’t have to go out and buy food, clothing, etc. Besides throwing away trash at work (which, technically, isn’t even my trash- but I still felt all the guilt), I felt great!

How to be a Guru: Mason Jars!

Mason jars are the backbone to zero waste living.

Although mason jars have been around for a very long time, in recent years we have seen them be used in many new ways. Originally, mason jars were only used for canning foods. Mason jars could preserve foods for up to a year and a half, which worked well in the late 1800s-early 1900s when people were growing their own foods and refrigerators didn’t exist. Mason jars were also used for pickling. This use for them has carried on today with the same popularity as back then. But with the rise of DIY projects in recent years (you can thank websites like Pinterest), mason jars have new uses.

In the realm of zero waste living, mason jars are essential. These multi-use products are durable, reliable, and generic. They are cheap to buy in bulk and easy to use. All over the internet, we see the “Zero waste jar”. People putting all their trash from months, sometimes over years, into a mason jar. Do they throw this trash away? No! They keep it as a makeshift shrine to pride themselves on how little waste they are producing. Although this often times doesn’t showcase all the waste an individual is producing (hint: externalities!), it gives a pretty good idea, and pretty good motivation as well. Although these zero waste jars can seem intimidating, they also harbor hope. The fact that people living in the 21st century, in a first world country, are producing this little waste and not absolutely hating it shows that our society has a lot of promise.  The zero waste jar is the face of the zero waste movement, but it might not be the most practical use for the mason jar. The zero waste gurus of the internet have found a plethora of ways to utilize the transparent 72 cent jar!

Bulk Shopping 

If you are lucky enough to have visited a grocery store with bulk, you often times see that they have snacks and dry foods in these huge containers that you take yourself. Think of it as a candy shop on steroids, these bulk shops are the cornerstone to zero waste living. Grocery shopping can get very tricky without this bulk option, and for many people, mitigating their waste seems impossible. When you shop in bulk, you bring a mason jar (or another reusable container) and fill it with the bulk product of your choice. Then, when you check out, you tare the weight of the mason jar to get the weight of the product, and viola! You just shopped in bulk. Bulk shopping is how zero waste gurus survive, literally. But these mason jars are not only helpful to buy the food, but also to store it! You can keep these jars in your pantry and label them with a cute sticky note (stickers are not recyclable- but sticky notes are!). If you are not sure what grocery stores are zero waste around you, you can type in where you live here and find the closest bulk shop. Amazing!

DIY

Another way zero waste gurus use mason jars is for DIY projects. Household products, like toothpaste and mouthwash, that don’t come in bulk can also be made at home. These products are often times fun and easy to make, using simple cheap products rather than harmful chemicals. You can find zero waste DIY project here.
There are many more ways you can use mason jars: as water bottles, candles, containers for products, storage, and even to cook. But you don’t have to live zero waste to enjoy these benefits.

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Composting

Food scraps make up 13.9% of trash in the United States. For many people, reducing, reusing and recycling works perfectly well- with the exception of food scraps. There is a solution to this! It is called composting. You can’t compost everything, but you can compost a lot of the fresh produce that you use while cooking. The soil that you make from composting can then be used to create or add to your own garden. The best part of composting is that it mitigates the waste you are sending to landfills, and it creates nutrient rich soil.

How do you start composting, is it hard, and is it expensive?

There are a ton of tutorials of step-by-step how to compost, which I will link at the end of the post, but it really all depends on how you want it to work. I’ll first start by giving a lost of what you can compost. I’ve said this before, but you can’t compost everything! If you put something into your compost that isn’t biodegradable then it will look the exact same a year after as it did when you first put it there.

Items you can Compost

• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Eggshells
• Coffee grinds
• Coffee filters
• Tea bags / tea leaves
• Non-dairy milk
• Cardboard pizza boxes
• Paper bags
• Crumbs
• Cooked pasta
• Cooked rice
• Leaves
• Grass clippings
• Lawn and garden weeds
• Straw or hay
• Pine needles
• Wood ash
• Animal manure
• Newspaper
• Shredded paper
• Corn cobs
• Dryer lint
• Stale bread, chips
• Tomato sauce / paste
• Paper towel rolls
• Crackers, cereal
• Tofu, tempeh
• Seaweed
• Popcorn kernels
• Cardboard egg cartons
• Avocado pits

 

To simplify this, you can memorize three kinds of ingredients. Browns: Dead, leaves, branches, and twigs. Greens: Grass clippings, vegetable and fruit waste, other food waste. Water: Having the right amount of water is important. Too little water, and the soil won’t be nutrient dense. Too much water, plants don’t get enough oxygen they need, and they can die similarly to having too little water.

Be sure that the material you are composting is organic and all-natural, so that no preservatives or additives were added to it. It will change the chemistry of your soil and may affect your plants that you use the composted soil to help grow.

Now, how do we start to compost?

I will link some tutorials on how to compost, because there are many different ways to. The best part of composting is that you can do it to your own convenience, meaning that you can keep a little compost bin in your kitchen, and every few days bring it out to your compost in your yard, or you can just put all your food scraps directly into your compost as soon as you make them. You can make it however you want.

Composting is the best way to get rid of food scraps. We are sending so many food scraps to landfills that don’t have to be there. They breakdown and decompose much slower in landfills as well, because the lack of oxygen makes it hard for them to. It also releases methane gas and other dangers that I talked about in my “What is Zero Waste?” tab.

Links:

Composting at Home- EPA

What is Composting?- Recycleworks

Composting Guru- Planet Natural

Guide to Compost- Earth Easy

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

 

Kathryn Kellogg Discusses the Small Stuff

I received the opportunity to reach out to Kathryn Kellogg of goingzerowaste.com. Kellogg has been blogging since 2015, and uses her website to talk about all aspects of zero waste living- from cooking and grocery shopping to sustainable DIYs, as well as her personal thoughts and experiences. She has a weekly newsletter for her subscribers and also authored her own e-book. With over 25 thousand followers on Instagram, Kellogg has given the movement an inspirational voice attracting a large audience. I asked her questions that many have when they first start going zero waste, especially young people.

Have you ever missed out on anything because of your lifestyle? For example, going out to eat, etc. 

“No. I don’t find living zero waste to be inhibitive. Being allergic to dairy is much more of a hindrance than being zero waste. I still go out with friends when they want to get ice cream. I just don’t get anything. Unless they have a vegan cone, then I’m totally down!”

Has your lifestyle impacted anyone around you? Have any of your loved ones become zero waste and been inspired by you?

“It’s definitely a ripple effect. When people realize it’s easy and they see all of the benefits like saving money, most people are on board. Some immediately make changes and others take their time.”

Do you have any advice for young people (teenagers, college kids) to try zero waste?

“I wrote a couple of blog posts on those topics: https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/10-tips-to-go-zero-waste-when-you-live-with-your-parents and https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/2015/11/12/10-tips-for-going-zero-waste-in-college“

Kellogg’s blog is a great resource for anyone who wants to learn more about zero waste, minimal living, or DIY and lifestyle projects. She works hard to make zero waste easily understandable, and gives her subscribers resources to get a head start. She is an inspiration to many who want to help the environment, but not sacrifice their comfort in day-to-day living. You can visit her blog here!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” -Eleanor Roosevelt. 

Welcome!

Welcome to the Zero Waste Experiment!

My name is Nina, and I’m going to be using this blog to document my experience going “zero waste” or producing as little waste as I can. Zero waste living has become very trendy- gaining popularity online through modes of social media, YouTube videos, and blogs.

I was introduced to the idea of zero waste living through watching a YouTube video that was interviewing Lauren Singer of Trash is for Tossers. She was showing the interviewer a mason jar that she had filled with all of her trash from the past four years. Everything in the mason jar was plastic that was not recyclable where she lives. Singer described how she recycles everything that she can, she composts food scraps, and reuses items such as plastic bags and water bottles.

Watching this video, I thought to myself “I could never do that.” I try to recycle as much as I can, I use a reusable water bottle, and sure, I watch a ton of climate change documentaries on the side as well. I’ve heard about islands of trash floating in the middle of the ocean, I once attended a campus cleanup at my school, and although all these things are positive- being aware of what is going on and doing something about it- reading more and more facts and statistics made me realize that what I’m doing just isn’t good enough. What I was doing, and what so many I know are doing, was being passive in my efforts to help the environment. I did just enough to have a clean conscience in what I was doing, but I wasn’t going far enough to see what I was doing impacting others. I’ve decided that my quest towards becoming more environmentally friendly (for a lack of a better word) will start with experimenting with zero waste living.

On this blog I will document my experience with zero waste living, my preparation leading up to it, and how I feel about it. I will discuss the difficulty, cost-effectiveness, effort, and sustainability of zero waste living. I will also discuss the social aspect and externalities associated with zero waste living, that I may not be able to prevent. I will document all 14 days of my experiment, starting June 1, 2017, and at the end of the 14 days have a final verdict on if the zero waste lifestyle really is effective and if it is easy. The problem with why so many people still aren’t doing things for our environment is because it isn’t as readily available as they would like. For example, going vegan is humane and greatly reduces an individual’s environmental impact, but it is expensive, it is hard nutrition-wise, and it is difficult to go out for dinner in public or even go to events such as barbeques, etc. I will be assessing whether going zero waste is easy and effective, because if it is, this trend could catch on and forever change our society.

You can find more information on zero waste living and facts about waste and why this is necessary in the pages bar.

Thank you for joining me on this environmental journey!

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“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” – Eleanor Roosevelt.