Zero Waste Challenge — Final Week, But Just The Beginning

Reflection on what I’ve learned and where to go from here

After 31 weeks, the Zero Waste Challenge through Hennepin County has concluded. I began chronicling my family’s experiences on December 1, 2020.

Since then, I’ve written about challenges in waste creation related to holidays like Halloween and Christmas, I’ve written about why we stopped using Hello Fresh and why they have a significant waste problem and quick posts about ways that we changed our daily habits for the better.

Through it all, it has been a long journey of daily diligence to thoughtful waste disposal and weekly reflection.

The Program Review

I think it’s fair to give a quick review of the program that is put on by Hennepin County.

They “require” that applicants who were chosen attend four monthly meetings during the six-month challenge. Because we were in the midst of the pandemic, this was altered a bit so all things were done virtually. The meetings would be hosted overviews of specific lessons like shopping more intelligently at the grocery store, how to recycle better and how to declutter and dispose of household items rather than throw them away.

I ultimately found this to be pretty useful, if not somewhat repetitive to things that my family and I already knew and sought out previously.

Honestly, our family is probably ahead of the curve, but certainly not leaders in the zero waste movement. We think carefully about our choices, we use compostable bags for our trash, recycle and compost to reduce trash waste.

When it comes to getting rid of bigger ticket things, we look to fix what we can, donate what needs to go, and take advantage of the county’s programs for hazardous waste disposal and other items like plastic bags, batteries, and lightbulbs.

So at the end of this hosted journey, I am most grateful for the inspiration the challenge has done for us. We didn’t really learn more than we already did, but it did reinforce our beliefs, help us further refine our choices and behaviors, and more importantly — inspire me for a slight career deviation (more on that later).

I would absolutely recommend this program to anyone who is interested in making better choices and not sure where or how to start. If you’re well versed in the concepts of zero waste, make efforts to reduce consumption and usage of plastics, and other single-use items, then you really don’t need it.

Goals: What was set and the end results

As part of the program, we set personal goals in mid-October that we would try and meet by the end in May. Here are the goals my wife and I set.

1. Teaching children to start thinking about what they throw away
2. Be better about single-use plastics (Grocery delivery, food delivery)
3. Shopping more intentionally (Cereal; food purchasing)
4. Reduce junk mail

Here are the results of those goals.

1. Yes! Our kids (4 and 6) are now well-versed in the “ask if you don’t know” disposal process. We labeled our containers and they’re all at levels where the kids can reach them. They learned that paper products are recycled. If they’re soiled (with food spill, or a tissue) then it’s compost. They learned to look for a number 1, 2, or 5 to recycle and ask if they don’t know. And most importantly, they understand why it matters!
2. Yes, although when dependent upon others (grocery delivery), it was out of our hands other than requesting to not use plastic if possible. When we shop we use tote bags, reusable bulk food bags, search for products and produce not in plastic recycling. If we can’t get that, than only products with visible recycling labeling.
3. This ties in nicely to single-use plastic. We’ve put real effort into purchasing produce not in bags (sorry, no more Clementines), we only by produce we can pick out and put in a cloth bag (no pre-packed apple bags), ensure that berry packaging is recyclable.
4. Adios, junk mail! We used the resource provided by the county and requested to receive less junk mail earlier this year. Since we didn’t actually measure the junk mail, it’s hard to determine if this has reduced, but it sure seems like it has. We’ve seen less of the random “Current Occupant” style mail.

Next Steps

Now that we’ve reached the end of the challenge, the reflection has really set in.

We have established new home routines, our children are better informed and care about participating in making good choices and we’ve inspired our neighbors with our stories and tips we’ve learned.

As the pandemic continues to improve, we are also able to begin expanding options to supporting local smaller businesses that participate in low and zero-waste efforts like a zero-waste store and a bulk olive oil and vinegar store.

There are always ways we can improve. We are not actually zero waste in the literal sense. We are “less waste” and take pride in knowing that we did improve and did make changes for the better. And we will continue to work to further reduce our waste footprint.

But the big next step is less about us and more about how I specifically can make a bigger difference.

Choosing Eco’s Future

Choosing Eco has been little more than a small (very small) passion project until the past few weeks. It was created as an idea to provide a portal of resources for those who want to do more and figure out how to start their sustainable lifestyle.

It’s evolved, in significant debt to this challenge. Last week, I took the steps to make Choosing Eco a new extension of my consulting business. It is now also, a sustainability strategy company.

The goal is simple, help other businesses figure out how to create a sustainability platform and policy, how to actually implement it, and how to ensure their efforts impact the consumer and make incremental improvements for everyone.

It will take time to start it further, but I have started a newsletter you can follow here. I created a Patreon. I’ve set up the extension of my consulting business with the state of Minnesota and I am preparing my work to speak with local businesses in Minneapolis.

This is not going to be easy, but I hope that I can inspire you to follow along through the newsletter and learn what I’m learning, inspire you to make small eco-choices, and together make a big impact. It isn’t about me and it isn’t about you, it’s about all of us.

I’m inspired and I’m excited. So, let’s get to work!