How to start low waste living and my mistakes

When you discover the zero waste or low waste movement you want to get all these cool things and look like the picture perfect zero waster. But that makes you forget why the zero waste movement is happening: it is all done to produce less trash. If you go and buy all these new cups and new glass containers and throw all these plastic cups and plastic containers away, you are actually creating more trash. And a thing I have to keep reminding myself is to invest in quality products. Before I owned my clean canteen bottle and my glass bottle I owned 2 or 3 really bad glass bottles that would constantly leak and ended up being thrown away. Again I created more trash rather than less.

My tips on becoming more low waste

1. The first and most important step is realizing what you already own. Down below I mentioned things that I think you should not buy or that at least I shouldn't have bought.

2. Eat out or if you get take out try to get it into your own containers. Same principle applies for drinks as well. In my eyes an even better option is to cook more yourself, you save money and get a fun activity(in my eyes) out of it.

3. Buy things loose or in your own bag. There is no need to put your three bananas into a bag or 4 apples. By now I don't really use reusable produce bags because I buy 3-4 of whatever fruit I am about to eat. If you buy a lot of fruit then of course put them into good produce bags. I will support that 100%. And for buying dried fruits or nuts produce bags are amazing.

4. Make your home( and car)sufficient for you and your new low waste ways.

Have grocery bags in your car and I would say also in your entrance.

Keep your to go coffee cup where you can see so it is easy to grab. Keep a little set of cutlery and reusable tissues in your bag. That way you are ready for whatever life has coming for you.

5. This goes together with the last point but because it is a big thing to tackle then it gets its own special point. Simplify your life and belongings. When you own less and things that you actually love then you are less likely to buy crap or impulse buy. I am a huge fan of minimalism. I don't own many clothes or many things. Like I've said here before my whole life fits into a 23 kg suitcase. By now there is an extra yoga mat and a lot of new books, but these things bring me a lot of joy. Buying books has become my weakness.

My mistakes

1. Buying products I actually don't need:

• cloth bags - there is no need for anybody to buy brand new cloth bags. There are so many of them already in thrift stores and owned by family or friends.

• beeswax wrap - it may be a thing that some low wasters love but I bought it and it never worked for me. If I were to buy anything than I would invest in silicone stretchy lids/covers, but at the same time you can just store things in containers and don't need any special gadgets.

• body creams - I just buy too many because I want to try all these different products but by buying more than I need I risk letting them expire and go to waste.

2. This kind of goes together with the last point but going crazy with "sustainable shopping" meaning thrift stores.

• Because it was cheap and in my eyes sustainable I bought more than I needed and then later when I realised I own too many clothes I would get rid of them. It is obvious to everyone that this can not be sustainable behaviour.

3. Making zero waste DIYs for things I don't get enough use out of.

• I have made zero waste dry shampoo which worked but just am not a dry shampoo person so it was just taking up space in my house.

• I also made deodorant, but I wasn't the biggest fan of the one I made and wasn't fully sure of how good some of the ingredients in it were for my skin.

With thing like this I would say it is smarter to buy from a local company a good natural deodorant unless you are a big fan of making your own products.

Find your way of living with less waste.