Less Waste. How to Start.

Reducing and managing waste around the house can feel overwhelming at first, but I believe that it is just a matter of habit and preparation.

There are several ways to reduce your waste:

• When shopping: Think less packaging (or eco-friendly packaging), eco products, clean products (i.e. no harsh chemicals), gently used products
• At home: Think Zero plastic for food storage, trash, household items.
• Spring Cleaning: When doing a spring cleaning, think donating, recycling, upcycling, selling

Let’s take a closer look at some of these efforts:

1. Shopping:

• Bring your own grocery bags as you already know but also bring produce bags.
• If you’re buying in bulk, bring your own light container, or a biodegradable bag if the produce bag doesn’t work
• Think LESS plastic, so try to avoid anything packaged in plastic. When you do that, you will realize how much everything is in plastic: yogurt, cheese, snacks, bakery items, beverages, etc. So if you really need something, buy bigger quantities. If you have a little bit of time once or twice a week, it may be a good time to start making your own snacks for you and the kids.
• Please avoid bottles of water! You can buy a reusable water dispenser that you can fill at Whole Foods. Or buy a Brita water filter that you can refill with tap water.

2. At Home: These are examples of what I use. As soon as you get started with those, it will get much simpler. I suggest you buy all that’s needed at once and you slowly transition as you finish your inventory.

• Household paper products: toilet paper, paper towels and tissue: Who Gives a Crap, which I LOVE. However, I try to minimize the use of paper products by using cotton napkins, kitchen towels and kitchen sponges to clean up any mess.
• Kitchen essentials: Aluminum foil, parchment paper, coffee filters, paper snack and sandwich bags: If You Care
• Plastic wrap substitutes: I completely eliminated plastic wrap and am using Bees Wax Food Wraps. For leftovers I use plates/bowls and cover with this wrap or with another plate.
• Trash bags (certified compostable): If You Care, but this is a tricky one. Compostable is good but only if the bag is then being composted in a commercial composting facility. If it doesn’t seem the case, maybe use trash bags made from recycled content. You can find some on Amazon. Ultimately be cautious as these bags are not as strong as regular trash bags, so don’t fill them all the way up.
• Compostable bags: Again make sure your waste management provides commercial composting services. If so, check out Repurpose Compostables, and if not and you are using plastic bags for your produce at the grocery store, then you can reuse those bags for your small bins.
• Household gloves: If You Care.
• Single use party items: https://repurpose.com/pages/compostables
• Food storage: I use mason jars, some old Tupperware that I have had for 15 years, and Stasher silicon bags.
• Dishwashing: I use dishwashing bar soaps from WasteFreeProducts.com. If I am in Mammoth I use a dishwashing soap from a local soapmaker. I am also starting to test Etee and so far I love it. For my dishwasher detergent, I use Dropps.
• Laundry: I sometimes use this laundry paste, which not only eliminates all packaging, but also is more cost-efficient and eco-friendly. I sometimes use a boost of Borax or Savon de Marseille on tough stains prior to washing. And more recently I am trying Dropps Laundry Detergent products.
• Household Cleaning Products: I make my own cleaning products. Unfortunately some of the items I need come in plastic packaging, such as hydrogen peroxide. Find recipes here. Another option would be to use concentrates or other eco-friendly products. I made a list here.
• Body/Haircare: I will also put this in a different blog, but favor bar soaps with carton packaging over liquid soap with plastic packaging.

PS: You can find most of the If You Care products at Whole Foods and some at Target, or you can also order from Amazon.

Manhattan Beach has a new concept store called The Waste Less Shop, which offers refill stations for beauty products (shampoo, shower gel) and cleaning products.

Webstores:

• https://lifewithoutplastic.com/
• https://ethiqueworld.com/
• https://www.recycling.com/zero-waste-store/
• https://www.wastefreeproducts.com/
• https://www.thewastelessshop.com/
• https://www.ecoproductsstore.com/
• https://repurpose.com/
• https://www.dropps.com/
• https://www.shopetee.com/