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A New Year Resolution:
How to Start Living a Zero-Waste Lifestyle (Without Feeling Overwhelmed)
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…