Member-only story

A New Year Resolution:

Geri Spieler
ILLUMINATION
Published in
5 min readJan 21, 2025

--

How to Start Living a Zero-Waste Lifestyle (Without Feeling Overwhelmed)

Photo by Polina Tankilevtich for Pexel

I wasn’t raised with the notion of reducing waste as a lifestyle. While my parents were not wasteful, they didn’t go out of their way not to buy large plastic jugs of laundry detergent. So, for me, living with the notion of reuse and water rationing, I got a fast education about reducing what we now call our carbon footprint. I began to find ways to use less, reuse, and become more independent with what resources I could create at home.

It mattered as I’m a mom and want to my son to grow up and live in a world that is clean and safe. I want him to have water and food that isn’t contaminated.

Easy to say, but how do I, as just one person, make a difference? Can I make a difference? I decided I could. That what I do has an impact on the world I live in. I also had to be a realist and not make myself crazy and overwhelmed in the process.

Doing research, I learned the language of a “Zero Waste Lifestyle.” What is that?

The formal definition says that a “Zero Waste Lifestyle is a way of living that aims to minimize the amount of waste an individual generates, with the ultimate goal of sending as little as possible to landfills, incinerators, or the environment. It focuses on redesigning resource life cycles so that all materials are…

--

--

ILLUMINATION
ILLUMINATION

Published in ILLUMINATION

We curate and disseminate outstanding articles from diverse domains and disciplines to create fusion and synergy.

Geri Spieler
Geri Spieler

Written by Geri Spieler

Award-winning writer, master researcher, journalist, former Gartner analyst, non-fiction author. Reach me at gspieler@gmail.com

Responses (3)