11.5 ZERO WASTE!

Personally, living a ZERO WASTE life would be extremely hard with my lifestyle- especially with having a child. My son contributes to messes. Lots of messes from snacks hidden in his room to wasted papers he brings home from school. We do have a recycling bin that is constantly being filled to the brim from all the packaged products we use. It is seemingly Impossible to live a ZERO WASTE life because all food comes in packaging. I can be more conscious about the stem of trash within my household; making small changes overtime. For example, I could request no plastic or paper bags from grocery stores and stores in general. I usually bring my own cloth bags anyway, but I do like to use the little bags for trash because they seemingly keep the trash levels low around the house. I could use my water filter more, so I don’t have water bottles lying about around the house or in my car. I don’t drink a lot of juice or soda so this would be easy enough. I do overuse paper plates because I am too lazy to wash dishes constantly. Eliminating paper plates will impact the amount of trash I have. Finally, by buying whole foods I can kill two birds with one stone- get healthier and reduce the number of pre-packaged products in my house. With any habit change it will take time and commitment. It will not happen within a day.  I even saw a website that has reusable straws and silverware (even chopsticks) that you can use at restaurants. I was unaware that recycling is a part of the ZERO WASTE effort. Overall, I would give myself a C in my efforts to stem trash. Recognizing that I can make small changes that are not too drastic I will be more likely to try this out.