Zero Waste

Buy less, choose well, make it last
Vivienne Westwood

What is the idea behind zero waste anyway?

Feel free to join a short thought experiment: When you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth and take a shower. The toothpaste tube, the toothbrush, the bottles for shampoo, shower gel and conditioner – everything is made of plastic. Then you go to the kitchen and make yourself a sandwich for work. The toast, the cheese, the ham and the peppers – everything comes from a triple layer of plastic. On the way to work, you get a coffee at the bakery – once again the lid is plastic. Now imagine that all these packaging materials are collected in a pile, probably this collection is quite big and only for the first hours of your day. Imagine how much plastic and waste in general accumulates in the course of the day for just one person.

Zero Waste is generally not about actually reducing waste to zero, as this is unfortunately almost impossible, but about increasingly resorting to sustainable, biologically degradable solutions and thus protecting the environment by avoiding waste.

The 5 R`s from Zero Waste

As a guide, Zero Waste can hold the 5 Rs. To greatly reduce waste, it is advantageous to follow the principles from top to bottom.

REFUSE: Is it possible to do without this product/this waste?
REDUCE: Do I really need this product?
REUSE: Can I use this more often?
RECYCLE: Can I reuse it in another way later?
RED: Can it be composted?

Be part of the sustainable shift in thinking

The change of mindset and the switch to zero waste can take a little time. You can get a few more tips from the following checklist in this article or or you can always find great inspiration on various zero-waste social media channels as well as DIY inspiration on YouTube or Pinterest.

Last but not least, when converting: don’t throw away the products you currently own that are not entirely environmentally friendly, but use everything up before switching to more sustainable alternatives.