Let’s start at the very beginning

A very good place to start

I begin this minimal waste challenge in a formal sense right now, as I (metaphorically) put pen to paper, but really I’ve been on this journey for as long as I can remember. Not letting things go to waste, respect for resources and environment are second nature to me.

Having already enacted most of the ‘easy’ tasks in my day-to-day life means that things from here are a little more effort. With this in mind and to give myself some perspective my first exercise was to review and categorise as much as I could under three headings:

What I already do:

• Use reusables/washables— coffee cups, water bottles, sandwich wrap (wax wrap), baking liners (Teflon sheets), Tupperware, silicone covers (replaced cling film), shopping bags, cotton face pads/wipes, face masks (hello Covid 19), cotton handkerchiefs, kitchen/bathroom & household cleaning all done with washable/biodegradable cloths
• Recycle all hard plastics, tins, paper, cardboard, glass, aerosols, batteries, lightbulbs, electronics
• Disposables — we use recycled/FSC certified toilet paper, recycled paper tissues, 95% eliminated paper towels, paper stem cotton buds, organic tampons & sanitary products, we don’t use wrapping paper (have reusuable gift bags)
• Buy second hand — mobile phones (in the past 10 years have all been from CEX or equivalent), TV (came from the hotel I used to work at -250 TVs were being replaced, bargain!), furniture (almost all is second hand -charity shops, friends, online peer-to-peer sales) clothes, books & other household ephemera (most of what I’ve bought in the past 10 years is from charity shops)
• Buy loose fruit and veg where possible, buy packaged food in the largest available quantity or loose if possible, awareness of recyclability when purchasing
• More generally — I have always tried to reuse or find a purpose for nearly everything that comes my way, jiffy bags always have another use, drawers full of elastic bands and other such possible second life items

What I could do:

• Reduce soft plastics packaging — buy loose bulk foods (will look into options in local area vs online) and investigate recycling of soft plastics in local area
• Buy less packaged goods overall — I will aim to reduce the recycling bin volume as well & make homemade replacements for packaged foods
• If items do not have an unpackaged equivalent, purchase those with better recyclability next time
• Get our apartment building management to add a food waste disposal bin (inertia here that I haven’t contacted them about this already — just hoping that they would do the legal thing by themselves!)
• Look into reusable sanitary products

What I can’t do:

• Avoid packaging for necessary medications
• Account for packaging of products purchased prior to beginning the challenge
• Account for items that have no infrastructure to be recycled yet— I will do my best to avoid purchases of any such products

This exercise has really helped to ground me in the strength of my already existing actions, the next steps will be harder but I will manage them one by one, giving myself time to make changes, forgiving myself when I make imperfect choices and picking myself up when I fall. Importantly I remind myself that some waste is unavoidable, especially regarding medication. In looking after myself first, I will then be able to look after the planet. It’s important for me as well that I call this my Minimal Waste Challenge, because Zero is reductionist, negative language and does not encompass the grey area in which we all live. There is no black and white in real life and I accept that I will not achieve absolute Zero Waste so why set myself up for failure at the outset?

Immediate actions

This week I will be concentrating on a couple of things:

• Contacting the building management about a food waste bin. It’s disappointing that they have not implemented this since the law came in but hopefully a nudge will be all it takes, we’ll see!
• Go back to shopping at the local zero waste shop (Small Changes in Drumcondra) — I will admit that this shop was becoming part of my routine but Covid 19 meant bulk-buying went to the wayside amidst other priorities.
• Focus on homemade foods vs convenience. Trying to stay away from the supermarket as much as possible will hopefully keep me at arms reach from the temptation of an ever-increasing range of delicious (but heavily packaged) vegan products. In the past week I have already made a delicious seitan brisket for sandwiches galore (probably saving money as well vs our usual vegan quorn meats)
• I will be documenting my black and recycling bins by weight each week to track my progress. First weigh-in will be on Sunday.

Next post will be next Friday, until then so long, farewell, auf Weidersehen goodbye!