Laura Young about living an environmentally conscious lifestyle

Laura Young is an environmental scientist and founder of Lesswastelaura, a platform where she actively promotes ways to live an environmentally conscious and as close to zero waste lifestyle as possible.

Moreover, Laura creates content for her 36.4k followers on Instagram and manages an active community.

We have contacted Laura to learn more about her and the concepts she supports.

It was a great pleasure for us to follow your pages. When I see your posts and stories online, I have a feeling that living environmentally conscious and close to zero waste lifestyle does not present an insurmountable difficulty. Could you please give us some advice on how to start a zero-waste lifestyle? Furthermore, we would be grateful if you would describe the first steps and challenges you have encountered from the very beginning?

The best and easiest way to start living a zero-waste lifestyle is to reduce your own waste. Pick out the things in your own life which are the ‘bad’ bits, and find switches with them. If you have a lot of waste from your lunches at lunch or school, work on that first. Or maybe you like to get takeaway coffees, so make sure you always have your reusable cup with you. It is easy once you begin to reduce the waste which you make the most of. The first swaps I made were in the bathroom. When I finished a product, I tried to find an alternative for it. It began with shampoo bars and bamboo toothbrushes, and then stemmed into the reusable items I have with me every day.

The entire world faces the same problem today — this is the COVID-19 crisis. Regardless of how environmentally friendly our countries are in general, we are all sitting at home and that is why the number of waste increases. Could you please share with us some basic tips on how to reduce waste in the time of the pandemic?

The basic way to reduce our waste while at home is by avoiding lots of food in excess packaging. We now have more time than ever to cook from scratch, avoiding excess packaging from snacks and processed foods. Why not begin good habits with meal prepping and baking now which you can carry on after! Also remember that during this time, there are lots of savings from living differently. We will be eating less take away foods, getting less disposables from that, traveling less, and buying less fashion! These are all important savings!

What can each of us do individually while staying at home to make our little contributions to tackling the serious environmental issues?

We can help make our homes more eco friendly. We can swap to renewable energy, make a compost heap for food scraps, cook more food from scratch, plant some fruit and vegetables in our gardens, and mend old clothes! There are so many ways to implement more eco friendly life tricks during this time, and the key is to pick a few and stick with them long term!

I have seen lot of zero waste shops. Mainly, their prices are too high, unlike your own one. Can you please tell us more about your shop?

I think there is always a trade-off. In many zero waste stores, they also sell independent farm produce which is likely organic. These will be higher in the supermarkets too. I, however, have found that I have saved money in the long run. I have saved on items like spices, toiletries which last a lot longer, and I don’t buy fast fashion or expensive disposable items like other people do. You have to look at the holistic view of living sustainably, and once you do…you’ll see the amazing savings you can make!

Thank you very much for your time and amazing work you have done for our planet.