My Waste Philosophy

My Waste Philosophy

This blog is for Waste Reduction Week, so I thought it deserved something extra special. I was racking my brain for the best single waste-reduction tip I could give – one simple thing that everyone could do to that would make a big difference. The truth is, there is no one thing I can suggest to you that will solve the world’s waste problems. Or is there?

While all of the fabulous tips I share can help you reduce your waste, they are really just the tip of the iceberg. I still have a list a mile long to write about, and I keep coming up with more. When I really think about it, what they all have in common is an underlying philosophy. And that philosophy is something everyone can adopt – and it would make a big difference to the way that waste is made or avoided in our society.

The difference between our household of four, which takes a year to fill up our roll-out garbage bin, and our neighbour, who takes two weeks, is this: waste-reduction sits pretty high up on my values list. It is a critical part of how I make my day-to-day decisions. In short, I follow a Zero Waste philosophy.

Zero waste is not a new phenomenon, yet I often feel pretty alone in using it. This got me to wondering – why don’t more people follow it too? I think in large part it is because they are worried that if they put waste-reduction first, then they will have to sacrifice other values, like convenience, or cost, or social status. And while that’s not entirely untrue, it doesn’t have to be that way. Waste reduction works pretty well with several of the other values that I hold:

Waste Reduction and caring for the environment: I judge my actions and purchases based on how much garbage I am leaving as my legacy – and it helps me to make decisions that I feel good about. Most of us know that our North American lifestyles are completely unsustainable in the long term. We are borrowing from our children’s resources with our rampant consumption and leaving them toxic time capsules with our landfills. Now that I have two kids of my own it is hitting home even more.

Waste Reduction and thrift: I am a thrifty creature by nature, so I really hate paying good money for things that I’m just going to have to throw away. Its one of the many reasons I dislike the economic model we are forced to swallow – that of an ever-growing economy. People are suckered into thinking they need disposable items, when the only reason they are made disposable in the first place is so that companies can sell them to us over and over again for their own profit. Some day I’ll tally up all the disposables I DON’T use, and figure out how much money I’m saving!

Waste Reduction and health: I am a health-conscious person. In my opinion, food packaged in lots of garbage is usually garbage itself (at least nutritionally speaking). In contrast, locally grown, fresh, healthy food is usually about as low-waste as it gets. I will agree that it is often more expensive than the over packaged foods, but here is how my thrifty side reconciles with that: with all the money I save not buying disposable items, I find our overall household budget doesn't suffer (and our health thanks us for it).

It is not always easy to stick to living zero waste, but I certainly find that it is worth it. It is how I look at the world, and because of that I find that every week is Waste Reduction Week for me. Living by a zero waste philosophy is what keeps me finding simple ways to reduce my garbage. It is where all my green living tips come from. So it is also my single most valuable tip in itself. This Waste Reduction Week make it your goal to move 'living zero waste’ up on your values list.

As an incentive, imagine a world where we let it slide down to the lowest priority. If you need a visual just watch the movie WALL-E: it is not a pretty picture. Now, imagine the opposite: imagine what we could achieve if everyone refused to accept garbage as normal or OK. Try it on for size, and watch how the way that you view the world shifts and your life transforms. We can all leave a legacy that has no footprint, if it is what we value most.