In my family, we have recycled waste for as long as I remember but we have never before shared an idea of reducing the waste itself. I had never even heard about the zero waste movement before it became popular, although planet friendly solutions is a topic that rises up regularly in my family. How did it happen?

Connection lost.

Baznīcas street, Latvia
We started way back by collecting recyclable waste and once a week carried it to recycling containers. As recycling gained more popularity, our city started to provide interested households with recycling containers on their own. We were the first ones on the street who had two of them in our backyard. One for glass and one for paper, plastic and metal/aluminium. For us somehow it didn't seem like something extraordinary or hard to maintain, it came very naturally. This way not only do you do good for the planet but you do good for yourself right away as well. The amount of regular waste decreases and so does the bill to your house maintainer. 
And then it hit me. The most planet friendly way to get rid of waste is just not to create it! 

Connection found.

So here I am, maintaining some of zero waste actions, looking for new waste reducing ideas to implement in my lifestyle and sharing them with you guys. All the mentioned actions below, in my opinion, are very easy to do. Maybe not all at once and not every day in the beginning but the goal is to take the first few steps and, I promise, the next ones will follow. The day will come when you'll start looking differently at the plastic bags in the fruit and veggie isle, plastic straw in your Friday night cocktail and this 'funny' but totally useless plastic shit in the discount store. And it will grow over time and spread to different fields.

What CAN you do?

Just to be clear, I'm a beginner in the zero waste lifestyle. More appropriate word to describe my currently taken actions would be 'less waste'. Everything that includes consuming less plastic, less fast fashion pieces, less useless things I easily can live without, will do. So I learn, I share and I hope that somewhere out there is a reader who is on the same wavelength and finds at least something of that useful!

Reusable goodies
As you already understood, recycling in my opinion is the top thing. That way you are eliminating the amount of your total waste. Very easy to do, even if you're living in the city and don't have recycling containers downstairs. Containers are placed all over the city, just check which one is closest to you. HERE is a map of recycling containers placed in Latvia.

Next one in my priority list is to reduce use of plastic bags. They are not recyclable at all and are bought and used only because of laziness. There are many other options to choose from. For example, instead of a regular supermarket plastic bag you can use a canvas tote bag. I believe there is at least one in each house, somewhere collecting dust next to other bags on the shelf. So take it out, clean the dust off and put it in your go-to bag. Takes a very small space in the purse, light as a feather and becomes very handy in different situations. Or even better, keep one in your car so you don't forget it when heading for groceries. That way you won't have to pay for the big, plastic bag for products as well. I have a few reusable cotton bags because sometimes one is not enough. Now there are so many designs available in almost every shop, you can still look stylish and don't mess up your outfit.

Reusable product bags
Next up, one of the worst materials ever made. Please, be wise and cut plastic food wrap once and for all. Material used in making this wrap is a mix of different kinds of plastic, so it's not recyclable. That means you will use it only once but the planet will remember it. Forever. Somewhere. Floating in the ocean or buried deep under the ground. Forever.
For food storage I'm using either glass jars or reusable BPA free plastic containers. Extra easy to clean, food stays fresh for long and no more wondering where I have lost my dishes while they are sitting in the fridge with some old sauce or half eaten salads in it.

The next key word is refill. Whatever you can, wherever you can. From water and coffee to shampoo, shower gel and even laundry detergent. There are a lot of shops gaining popularity by buying everything in bulk and selling it without packaging. This is one of my favourite things, counting how much plastic packaging I have saved on and what impact it does to the planet. Most of my laundry and other cleaning agents are refilled. All it takes is to collect necessary packaging from home and bring it to the shop, and if the planet saving cause is not enough, it saves a lot of money over the time too.

My favs - cotton canvas tote bag and hot tea thermos
Do you really need this? Talking about the box full of imitation jewelry made in China and those cheap beauty products never opened. Oh, and the fast fashion pieces in the closet which door has been impossible to close for years. Don't buy what you don't need.
I get you. I love shopping too but there is a difference between unnecessarily spending money from right to left and buying things you really like and need. It's hard to stay focused but I have an answer to your prayers. Online shopping! 
Great way to stay conscious while shopping, at least it works perfectly for me. You have an opportunity to take your time shopping and if you're not 100% sure, you can leave your cart and go back online whenever you are ready. Find out product composition, where it's made and is this really what you are looking for. Make research if necessary! It's only a few clicks away, no running around the city like mad. There's no rush, you can think twice and only then make a purchase.

Miit Coffee shop, Lāčplēša iela 10
These were a few easy tips on how to join zero waste movement and start doing it on a daily basis. As this is not my biggest passion, I still get distracted pretty often. 27 years and counting of living in a material world have left and will definitely leave full pockets of bad habits. I tend to forget my canvas tote bag in the car sometimes and I just don't find time to go shopping to market, where it's much easier to buy fruits and veggies without any packaging. Few months ago I bought wrapping paper to wrap my Christmas presents. In general, simple wrapping paper is recyclable if it's not decorated with glitters or foil, but at the same time I could've used more planet friendly solutions, like furoshiki gift wrapping (totally suggest to check it out if you're still wondering what it is). 

All I'm trying to say is that even the smallest step matters. As you can see, there are so many easy actions to take for a good cause. You will say it is a drop in the ocean. I will say these drops will add up and create ocean. Someday. 


Remember, there is no Planet B.
*draata