So every year I have to set
some personal goals for myself,
and one of the ones that I
set for this year was to learn
how to produce less waste.
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All right, so just as
a little disclaimer,
these are all just little steps
that I have taken for the last
maybe six months or so.
I'm not zero waste.
I doubt I will ever be zero
waste, and a lot of that
does come down to my diet.
I guess the three
main culprits for this
would be meat and the packaging
that it comes in, obviously,
having some convenient
options around,
like rice that you can just
heat up in the microwave,
and sometimes, because
our schedules are hectic,
we like to have ready-made
meals-- example, Youfoodz
or something like.
But I'll never be zero waste.
And if you're fater
complete zero-waste tips,
I'm probably not the
best person to watch.
But if you are after
more sustainable ways
to reduce your
waste, then, yeah,
keep watching, because
I wanted to find things
that fit into my lifestyle
reasonably well, like changes
that I was able to implement
without it being too much
of a struggle.
I think this is one of
those touchy topics,
and I have noticed, when
I was reading comments
on blog articles and
things like that when
I was doing a lot
of research myself,
people get really
hectic about it.
But you don't know
all the changes
and effort someone
else has put in.
So I think it's really
important that we all
try to do at least
something, and if everyone
was able to make
some small changes,
it would just add
up so much and make
a huge impact on
the yearly garbage
that we're all throwing away.
Honestly, one of
the biggest things
is not purchasing
heaps of new stuff,
which, obviously, if you've
seen my minimalism series,
is something that I've been
doing for years and years.
And what that
looks like is going
to be so different for everyone.
The next step that I
took when I realized
I want to reduce the amount
of waste that I am putting
is I had to sort of audit
what was coming out.
So the major
contributions that I saw
were food packaging and oral
and beauty hygiene products.
They were my main things.
So one of the first steps I took
was I got myself a compost bin,
and with that, I am able to
compost down any food waste
that we have.
Once that's settled
down, I can actually
use this as a
diluted fertilizer.
The next thing that I wanted to
tackle was cleaning supplies.
While I have sort of dabbled
in making homemade cleaning
supplies, if we ran out
and I didn't have something
done in time, I'd just
pick something up,
and I wouldn't really care or
look where it was coming from,
and I just kept going through
so many plastic bottles
of cleaning supplies.
And I was like, right, cool.
Well, I already know how
to make cleaning products.
And if you check
out my book Less,
I have a whole page
of recipes that I use.
And I was like, OK, cool.
Well, let's just
be more prepared
and make sure that I've always
gotten made things on hand.
There are some things that
I don't want to hand make.
So for example, floor
cleaner, rather than
buying heaps and heaps
of bottles of it,
what I decided to do instead
is get a concentrate.
And same with
dishwashing liquid--
I got a concentrate for that.
So both of the concentrates
are more natural ingredients,
which are probably better
to be flushing down
the sink than some
of the other things.
But I personally don't have
time to make everything
from scratch, and if
you do, kudos to you,
but I feel like convenience
has to play into it somewhere.
There are heaps of
natural alternatives
to store-bought
clean products that
are still capable of
getting rid of bacteria.
Another thing that I
like to do for this
is buy some of these
ingredients in bulk.
So you can see, I have some bulk
supplies in this cupboard here.
This way, you can make
some of your supplies
yourself and just put
them in one of those amber
spray bottles.
Here is a quick little recipe
for an all-natural, all-purpose
cleaner, and it only
has two ingredients.
Firstly, you'll need to start
collecting some citrus peels.
So you could use
oranges for this.
I personally like to use
lemons just because I never
have oranges in the house.
I do have lemons, though.
As you eat the lemons,
start to collect them up.
What you do want to do,
though, is make sure
that there's not too much flesh
left on the skin of the lemon.
So I like to take a knife and
run that along and just take
the pulp away from the lemon.
Pulp and all the
inside parts, they
can actually be thrown into
the compost bin as well.
So then I keep collecting
those lemons in the jar.
This is a 1-liter jar, and
once it's halfway full,
I'm going to fill it all the
way up with white vinegar
and leave it in a cool
place for two weeks.
Citrus peels contain a
substance called d-limonene.
It's a natural solvent,
but what we need to do
is break it down
into the vinegar.
So that's why we're
leaving it for two weeks.
So there tends to
always be a jar
of this sitting in the fridge.
After the lemon peels
have had the time to soak,
you're going to take a sieve and
pour the mixture through that
into your glass jar.
And you can chop up
those leftover peels,
and they can be thrown into
the compost bin as well.
Grocery shopping is one
of those tricky things
because I don't have a car.
Like, I'm not going to
drive around to a million
different places
to get my things.
I personally go
between three places.
When it comes to the
grocery shopping,
it's just about adopting
some new habits.
Firstly, you're going to want
to bring reusable bags with you.
So I have a few different kinds.
You can see, I've got these
big, heavy-duty canvas bags,
and I got these
from an art shop.
So they do actually have
seams along the sides,
and it's a more supportive
base rather than
just being branded like
a regular tote bag.
And then I have cotton
produce bags for bulk items--
so for example, nuts, pasta,
quinoa, any kind of flour
that we might be using,
all that sort of thing--
because these sort
of bags, there's
such a fine weave on
them that the produce
won't get out of them.
And it saves having to buy the
pre-plastic packaged version.
One of the biggest ones I
noticed was, like, oats.
I was like, damn it, we're
buying oats all the time.
Like, things like that
are so easy to swap over
into buying in bulk.
I've bought in bulk before, but
I've never been super, super
consistent with it.
So it's one of
those things where
as I start to run
low on a product,
I write it down in my shopping
list in my app in my phone.
If you are going to something
like a package-free shop,
you're also going
to want to make sure
that you're bringing
things like glass jars
with you, if that's
convenient for you.
I try to bring the produce bags
and a couple of glass jars.
Too many glass jars just
make the trip to heavy.
So produce bags, a few
glass jars-- you're good.
Now, a crazy stat that I read--
now, this was based on the US--
and it's that, on
average, Americans
go through 1.6 straws
per person per day.
And I was like,
Jesus, that's so much.
I personally just
don't use straws
unless it's like this container.
But if you're someone who
uses straws when you go out,
just grab either a metal
straw or a bamboo straw.
And yeah, you can just
leave that in your bag.
And that's another
thing-- in my bag,
I leave a bamboo cutlery set.
If you are eating
somewhere out of the house,
rather than picking up
plastic, cutlery you
can just use the bamboo
set that you've got.
There's also metal
versions of this available.
One thing that I knew needed
a shakeup was my beauty slash
hygiene routine.
OK, when it comes to
this stuff, don't just
go out and buy new things.
That sort of defeats
the whole purpose.
What we're doing here--
just wait till you run out,
and then we're choosing
the better option.
So it's waiting until you're
about to run out of a product
and going, OK, well, what
can I replace this with which
is going to cause
less impact when
I have to throw it away, or use
it, or whatever it might be?
When it comes to
dental hygiene, there
are a couple of
things that I did.
You have the option of
making your own toothpaste.
But to be honest, I'm not
going to sit there and make
my own toothpaste,
and I also really hate
the idea of using toothpaste
that's got coconut oil in it.
Like, being on keto, which was--
I finished keto a year and a
half ago, by the way, guys.
I still get comments about
it, but I finished that off
so long ago.
Yeah, it really turned
me off coconut oil.
One really easy swap-- when
your toothbrush is dead,
replace it with a bamboo one.
Check on what kind of
bristles you're using.
There are some of these
bamboo toothbrushes are fully
compostable, can bury them in
the garden, that kind of thing,
and some of them the
bristles actually cannot,
just the handle.
So make sure you're checking
which one you're getting.
I did buy a tooth powder.
I have noticed-- like, I've
had this for a while now.
And I brush my
teeth twice a day,
and it's just hardly
made a dent in it.
It's something which
I feel like it's
going to take so long to
get through all the powder.
Floss also has its
issues, so when
I ran out of my last
floss, I replaced it
with a natural floss that
comes in a glass container.
The glass container
can be reused as well.
And I bought another
insert for the floss.
So from now on, all
I have to do is buy
the inserts, not the whole
container over again.
So I'm not chucking away
an extra piece of plastic.
And I thought this mouthwash
was such a great idea
because it's portion controlled,
so it's already done for you.
So the mouthwash comes
in these little tablets
without throwing away
those huge bottles.
If you want to know where
any of this stuff is from,
I am putting together a
blog post for you as well,
and I will link absolutely
everything in there.
When it comes to hair
removal, years ago
I had a bunch of laser
hair removal done.
But I still need a razor
for little things like--
I know this sounds super
weird, but I shave my arms
because it makes the
tattoos look better.
Are they finished?
No.
Am I lazy with it?
Yes.
But anyway, I still
require a razor,
so I swapped it out
to a safety razor.
This thing feels
so much sturdier.
And when the blade is
done, I have a little metal
tin that lives in my bathroom,
and I just collect the blades
up in there because you do want
to get them collected safely.
You don't just want
to be dumping them
into the regular rubbish.
Another quick thing in the
beauty routine-- instead
of using those
cotton face rounds,
I actually started using a
linen cloth to scrub my face.
The skin is showing
that it's fine.
You wash it.
That's what you do.
You just chuck them in the
wash, and then you use it again.
Now, I know paper towels are
one of those kitchen items
that a lot of people have
become accustomed to.
But worldwide, yearly, we
use about 250 million tons
of this stuff.
So I have a couple of
reusable hemp cloths.
Another option that you can
have is cut up some old fabric
things that you have around.
If you have a tea towel that
is on the verge of needing
to be thrown out, use
that, or a super old bath
towel or something.
Cut them up and use them
instead of the paper towels.
Upcycle things in your kitchen.
So any time I finish
a jar of something,
I'm probably going to use
that jar for something else.
So I have some spare jars
sitting in a cupboard.
So if I cut up some veggies
or I have something left over,
I'm just going to
take one of those jars
and use that to keep
the other produce
and things fresh in the fridge.
And you could use the
glass jars that you've
finished to store
home cleaning supplies
or whatever it might be.
You can always use
them over again.
When it comes to
books and reading,
I don't know how I feel.
I know some people
say, go digital,
and then other people say,
going just digital is wasteful.
But I tend to use birth options.
I have some digital and
e-books on my phone,
but then I also have some
proper books because I do
love having books that I enjoy.
And another thing-- uni books.
There's a couple of
uni books that I've
had to just keep because
I keep referring back
to them for things.
So that's sort of
one that's largely
dependent on your
lifestyle, whether you
want to go to a
library, or whether you
want to have that book
and then pass it on,
or whatever you feel is
going to work for you.
Now, I really
don't drink coffee.
So I was not going to
mention reusable coffee cups,
in case you're wondering.
And I don't drive
a car, so I think
that's a huge waste
reduction in itself.
But so far, with these
changes, none of this
has been immediate.
And I would say, the
more I'm doing it,
the more the rubbish amount
that's being thrown out
is dropping down.
I feel like this is one of
those things where you can't
beat yourself up about it.
You can only do what
you're capable of doing.
You cannot compare what your
doing with waste reduction
and minimalism to what someone
else is doing because if you
live two different lifestyles,
you can't even cross that over
at all.
So do what you can do.
So if reducing your waste is
a step that you want to take,
have a little audit
of your house.
Have a little audit of
what you tend to throw away
or what things you go
through the fastest,
and think to yourself,
how can I replace
this was something that
is more sustainable?
I hope you're having a
fantastic day or evening
or whatever the time
is where you are.
Make sure that you hit
the Subscribe button
if you haven't yet, and if you
are looking for ways to slow
down the rate of purchases,
check out my Minimalism series.
I have so many videos
in that series,
and I will leave it linked in
the Description box for you.
Good luck on your journey
to creating less waste,
and I will catch you
in my next upload.
Bye.
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