Zero Waste Living

You may have seen around the expression “zero waste living”. Today, we bring you an article dedicated to this concept. 

A zero waste lifestyle is a very interesting way of living that some people around the world have adopted. This lifestyle passes by the attempt of not producing ANY waste, in other words send nothing to a landfill. Zero waste living isn’t so much about recycling, it’s more about avoiding everything that can be thrown away. This way of living is focused on an attempt to change the way our economy (considered a linear economy) works, switching to a circular economy, where waste isn’t a reality anymore and is substituted by a continuous use of all resources.

Drastically changing the current type of economy is something that has to be led by our governments. However, adopting this, or a similar, lifestyle (where we are conscious on how we consume) will result in a big push in such a slow process. 

How exactly do people practice this? The answer is “Composting, buying second-hand, sharing when you can, or packing your own lunch are all simple steps you can take toward Zero Waste (…)” (O’Conner, 2018). 

Check this video to learn a little more about the day-to-day of a Zero Waste person 🙂

If you are interested in finding more information, we suggest you check the following social media accounts: The Fairly Local Family, Shelbizleee, Gittemary Johansen, Sustainably Vegan.

Zero waste is a long process. It takes time to achieve the goal of absolutely no waste. Just think about it, you go to the supermarket and almost everything is packed, you order takeout and *boom* more packages, you decide to decorate your house and every little thing is wrapped and wrapped again! And what about the simple day-to-day things like paper napkins or the peel of the banana you eat before hitting the gym? The reality is “The United States is the biggest generator of waste per capita worldwide, with each citizen producing an average of 808 kilograms per year (…)” (Sensoneo, 2019). Although in the EU these numbers diverge to around 492 kg, per capita (in 2018), the values are still astonishing. Almost everything around us, after been used/consumed, is considered waste.

Although a Zero Waste lifestyle is an arduous path, it offers the necessary changes we need to revert our currant problems with the environment. By sharing this article with you, our goal isn’t that you decide to become a zero waste person. Our goal, apart from reminding you that some things we do can actually be done differently, is to show and inform you of another way that people live, a really sustainable life choice that some opt for! 

With this new perspective all those little measures you believe are so hard, how hard are they really?

Green Impact Team.

[1] Lehmann, S. (2011). Optimizing Urban Material Flows and Waste Streams in Urban Development through Principles of Zero Waste and Sustainable Consumption. Retrieved from: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/3/1/155/htm on August 13, 2020.

[2] O’Connor, M. (2018). What is the Zero Waste Lifestyle? Retrieved from: https://www.centerforecotechnology.org/zero-waste-lifestyle/ on August 13, 2020.

[3] Going Zero Waste (2017). About Zero Waste. Retrieved from: https://goingzerowaste.com/zero-waste-1/ on August 13, 2020.

[4] Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Waterstaat (2016). From a linear to a circular economy. Retrieved from: https://www.government.nl/topics/circular-economy/from-a-linear-to-a-circular-economy on August 20, 2020.

[5] Kenniskaarten – het Groene Brein. What are the environmental benefits of the circular economy? Retrieved from: https://kenniskaarten.hetgroenebrein.nl/en/knowledge-map-circular-economy/ce-environmental-benefits/ on August 20, 2020.

[6] Eurostat Statistics Explained. Municipal waste statistics – Statistics Explained. Retrieved from: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Municipal_waste_statistics on August 27, 2020.

[7] Sensoneo. The biggest waste producers worldwide: Sensonseo Global Waste Index 2019. Retrieved from: https://sensoneo.com/sensoneo-global-waste-index-2019/ on August 27, 2020.

Sustainable Kitchen

Hello there,

Welcome back! Yesterday we talked about sustainable houses and today we are going to talk about the kitchen, the room where we spend most of our time preparing and cooking food. Did you ever stop to think about how you can make your kitchen more sustainable? On today’s article we will give you some tips about how to make yours a more ecological one. It all depends on your choice of products.

First, before going shopping, check what you already have and make a list of things you really need. You don’t want to buy products that you already have, right? This will help you avoid waste. Try to buy in bulk, it will replace the excess of packaging. A great way to make your kitchen greener is to storage your food in glass containers as a replacement for plastic wrap.  Also, prefer organic food instead of frozen, not only will it benefit your health, but also reduce the use of electricity when preparing it. It is very important that you organize your fridge properly too, different products need different refrigerating conditions, it makes it easier to preserve food and therefore prevent food waste.

Now talking about utensils, nowadays there is a big variety of kitchen products that are environmentally friendly, so there are no excuses for not using them! One of them is napkins. As an alternative to paper ones, why don’t you try fabric ones? In the USA, paper represents up to 25% of municipal waste produced each year which is more than any other material. Then there are the trendy reusable straws, these are great to substitute plastic straws. Talking about substituting plastic, you can also opt for reusable water bottles instead of the ones you buy on the supermarket every other day, mainly because plastic bottles and the process of producing them harms the environment since it releases about 2.5 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. Still on the topic, don’t forget to use reusable bags! You can find more about them on our other article.

Finally, try to recycle at home, it makes a great difference! You can recycle paper, plastic, glass, batteries, among others. It will help to prevent pollution and waste, it also helps to conserve natural resources.

Hope this will help you be greener in your kitchen! 😊

Green Impact Team

References:

[1] United States Environmental Protection Agency. Recycling Basics. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling-basics#Benefits on May 10, 2020.

[2] United States Environmental Protection Agency. How Do I Recycle?: Common Recyclables. Retrieved from: https://www.epa.gov/recycle/how-do-i-recycle-common-recyclables on May 10, 2020.

[3] Printwand (2018, April 4). Stop Polluting the Planet with Disposable Plastic Water Bottles. Retrieved from: https://www.printwand.com/blog/plastic-water-bottle-pollution-effects-facts on May 10, 2020.

Sustainable parties!

Hello again, 

Let’s talk about a thing that most people love. Parties!!! Gathering people you like, spending time with them and having fun is something that we are used to do. But did you ever stop to think about the process of organizing a party and the amount of waste that it produces? On today’s post we will show you some tips to organize a successful but sustainable party. 

To start we will take a look at food. If you are thinking about throwing a party, why don’t try to make finger food, this is food that doesn’t require plates or cutlery like fruit, popcorn, cheeses and canapes, among others. 

Moving on to the tableware. Instead of buying all those plastic cups and plates, try to use the ones you already have. Choose to utilize glass materials that you can wash and reutilize and, in case you are throwing a kid’s party, you can opt for paper-based supplies. Try to use some of those super trendy reusable straws too. All these are measures to reduce the amount of trash produced in gatherings. 

About the decorations, now this is important because when you decide to throw a party you feel like it has to be perfect and beautiful, ending up buying those plastic decors and balloons that finish up in the garbage when the party is over. No need for that, because that are reusable decors at stores too! You just have to look better and get away from the plastic. Choose fabric and paper-based materials, we assure you that it will look amazing! 

These kind of plastics used in parties and other situations have a negative impact in our environment, but some measures are being taken at the moment so that we can avoid polluting even more our planet. The European Union is a great example of this! The Parliament has decided that these type of single-use plastics will be banned by 2021^[1]. Things like plastic cutlery and plates, plastic straws, and even plastic balloon sticks will all be barred from EU. 

Thank you for reading and let’s do some ecofriendly parties! 

Green Impact Team

Reference:

[1] News European Parliament (2019, March 27). Parliament seals ban on throwaway plastics by 2021. Retrieved from: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20190321IPR32111/parliament-seals-ban-on-throwaway-plastics-by-2021 on April 10, 2020 

How to fight plastic bags

Hello again, 

Most of us know that plastic is one of the biggest polluters of the world. In the USA, for example, every year, 100 billions of plastic bags are used, which gives the estimative of more than 300 bags per individual^[1].  

Fortunately, there were people that started creating ways to reduce the amount of plastic used in the world. This is where reusable bags came in. Continue reading this to learn more about these reusable bags and why you should use them. 

Using sustainable bags brings a lot of advantages, mainly being fashionable (just kidding, guys!), but apart from that, the reduce of plastic used in stores and supermarkets. 

Usually when you go to a supermarket you probably don´t even count the number of plastic bags and containers that you are using. It goes from using a different plastic bag to store each type of vegetable and fruit, to when you check out and place all your groceries in several other plastic bags, all of these being single-use plastic bags. Each year 40% of the plastic produced is single-use, this means that these are the plastics that you use one time and throw it away a few minutes or hours later, but they will keep being in the environment for at least hundreds of years^[2]. 

With reusable bags you will dramatically reduce the use of this toxic material and you will be helping the planet to become more sustainable. More and more, people are creating these bags and personalizing them with designs that are very fun and creative. 

See you,

Green Impact Team

P.S. We hope you decrease the use of “plastic” as much as we should reduce the number of times we wrote it on this article!

References:

[1] The World Counts. The Bad Boy of Pollution. Retrieved from: https://www.theworldcounts.com/stories/Plastic-Bag-Pollution-Facts on April 1, 2020 

[2] Parker, L.(2019, June 7). The world’s plastic pollution crisis explained. Retrieved from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/plastic-pollution/ on April 1, 2020 

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