zero waste/minimalist challenge | 01

My cousin posted an article on Facebook on how to make your own toothpaste. That article led me to Bea Johnson's blog, zerowastehome.com, and I was inspired on a whole new level.

I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Analysis and Design. I had the intention of working for an environmental agency and my young self thought I could single-handedly save the world. Once I stepped into the real world, I was exposed to the fun and more exciting life of fashion, music and entertainment. I thought I was cool enough to be a part of that world. Being a pescatarian (eating seafood but no meat) for 9 years was my "environmental duty" and fashion became my world.

When I found out I was pregnant something in my mind switched. I didn't care what was on trend anymore and after working in fashion related companies, it just became jaded. When I became a mother and I realized we were going to raise a family with one income, reality set in. Instead of having a goal to get that super cool, latest and greatest "It" bag, my goals shifted. Now I have to figure out how we're going to stay on budget and how to minimize all the "stuff" we buy. With the help from Bea Johnson's Zero Waste Home book (I bought the Nook version) and doing countless hours of research on the internet, I decided to take on the challenge of living minimally and ideally zero waste. Not only will it help reduce the unnecessary "stuff" in our lives but financially, it will help us spend less in the long run. The ultimate goal is to be debt-free, living a minimalist lifestyle so we can enjoy a more meaningful life. We would love to travel more and explore the beautiful world we live in.

Towards the end of last year, I started the slow transition. Buying from bulk bins, reducing the use of plastic containers and replacing with glass or stainless steel. I started making my own floor cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, hand soap, toothpaste and buying compostable toothbrushes from Brush with Bamboo. I go to my local farmers market to buy eggs, fruits and vegetables. I can bring the egg cartons back for reuse and there are no stickers on the produce. I bring my own bags and produce bags to minimize the use of plastic bags and containers. This year, I started making my own laundry detergent and bought microfiber towels for cleaning around the house and microfiber sponges for washing dishes. I grew up washing dishes by hand and never liked how the dishwasher cleaned dishes. The dish washer in our current home isn't that great either.

In the beauty department, I use grapeseed oil as my night time moisturizer, coconut oil as my makeup remover and tea tree oil as an on-the-spot acne treatment. The tea tree oil can also be used in your hand soap, all-purpose cleaner, and to treat bug bites. It's a lot of trial and error but I feel like once I get the recipes down, I won't need to make many trips to the store to buy bottles and plastic containers of hand soap, laundry detergent, and floor cleaner. I'll have a small amount of ingredients I can use to make everything.

Here are few of my current hit and misses:

Misses

1) Composting

• The city I live in provides free composting bins. I decided to pick one up and start composting. This hasn't been easy to implement into my daily routine. I would add food scrapes in my small bin in the kitchen but I would have to dump it out every 2 to 3 days because it would start to mold. Often times I would forget and the food scrapes would sit for a week. Yuck! I also see more bugs in the composting container than actual rich soil. I think worm composting would be best, but I will have to do more research to get all the proper materials I need. I'm in need of some hands-on tips on composting 101, a topic that was surprisingly not discussed when I was in college.

2) Dish washing soap

• I haven't found a good recipe that works. Since I hand wash our dishes, the recipes that use the ingredients I already have don't clean properly. They leave water marks on my dishes and my glasses are cloudy. I believe it's mainly because we have hard water. We are currently renting our home so this issue won't change until we buy our own home. Currently I use Seventh Generation free & clear. It's safe to use based on the rating on EWG.org and I can recycle the container. It's not the ideal situation, but it will work for now. 

3) Items I can't buy in bulk bins

• There are a lot of snacks and items that are not available in bulk in my area; such as pasta, Dr. Bronner's liquid castile soap, organic snacks, non-GMO items, tea, Wallaby organic yogurt, vinegar, shampoo and honey. I need to do more research on this. 

4) Cereal in bulk bins

• Jathan loves Captain Crunch cereal. No matter how many times I tell him how bad it is for him, I know that I can't deprive him completely from food he loves. We can live life a little, right? We're noticing that our daughter is starting to develop his taste buds. She loves cereal, especially since she sees him eat big bowls of it, but I hate giving her cereal from all the major brands (GMO products is a whole other issue I have). I know sometimes its unavoidable but I do my best to give her cereal with no GMO ingredients, like EnviroKidz Organic Gorilla Munch Cereal. Since they love their cereal, I still buy boxes of cereal which aren't available in bulk bins at my local grocery store. 

5) Beauty department

• I haven't really tackled this department. I still use the make-up I have. The shampoo I use is in a plastic bottle but it is safe to use based on EWG.org's rating. I would like to finish using all the items I do have before switching over. I started using a Dr. Bronner's unscented baby-mild bar soap as a face wash and so far I have no complaints. 

6) Toilet paper

• We still use Charmin. We've tried toilet paper made from recyclable material that were individually wrapped in recyclable packaging (instead of plastic) but it was too thin and we were not fans. 

7) Diapers and wipes

• Since we have baby #2 on the way, I thought about using cloth diapers and cloth wipes. I had a pair of cloth diapers for Brookie and we used them periodically while using disposable diapers. They weren't a hassle at all and would love to use them for baby #2 but due to our finances and friends and family gifting us with disposable diapers, it's cheaper to use the free diapers we've received instead of buying 20 to 30 reusable diapers. Maybe later on, I can invest in a few more cloth diapers. As for wipes, we use baby wipes a lot. I could use reusable but then it's a battle between going green versus convenience so I still need to rethink this. 

8) We still eat out at restaurants every once in awhile. Again, it comes down to what's easier for me.

Hits

1) Making my own jarred jalapeños

• Jathan loves anything spicy and making my own jarred jalapeños is so much easier than I thought. 

2) Making my own pizza dough

• I can't find yeast in bulk bins but making my own pizza dough is really easy and make it often for dinner

3) What I can buy in bulk bins

• Spices, rice, flour, raisins, granola, chia seeds, sugar, nuts, oats, candy

4) Klean Kanteen

• I bring my Klean Kanteen insulated bottle everywhere I go. I don't like drinking from plastic water bottles. It's not necessary when the filtered water from your tap at home requires more regulation on cleanliness than bottled water (one thing I learned from one of my environmental courses). I mostly fill up my Klean Kanteen with ice cold water but I can use it for hot drinks too. We do have big jugs of bottled water in our laundry room in case of an emergency. 

5) Love my glass jars, mason jars, reusable produce bags and stainless steel straws

6) Always using reusable bags

• I keep a bag of reusable bags in my car so that I always have them on hand

7) Making my own toothpaste

• This one became a hit for me but a miss for Jathan. Actually he's never tried it but I know he won't like it. It took a while for me to get used to it and the coconut oil would leave residue on the sink, which eventually collected more dirt. So I played with a few recipes and found one that worked best for me. I noticed that Brush with Bamboo toothbrushes work best because the bristles on plastic toothbrushes harden from the baking soda, plus I didn't want to use plastic toothbrushes anymore. Both Jathan and I use the bamboo toothbrushes.

8) Microfiber towels

• We still have paper towels but when I started using microfiber towels, I reduced my use of paper towels greatly. I don't need to buy a big bag of paper towels from Costco anymore. I use the microfiber towels for cleaning the house, as a hand towels in the kitchen and drying off washed fruits and vegetables.

9) Microfiber sponges

• So far no complaints with these sponges. They're bigger than the average rectangular sponges, they're actually the shape of a circle. It was a little weird to use at first but they're much better than the disposable sponges and don't produce excess waste. I simply throw them in the washing machine with the microfiber towels when they need a good clean. 

10) Rubbermaid Microfiber Spray mop system for cleaning the floors

• It is made of plastic but it's a much better option than the Swiffer Sweeper floor mops. I can make my own floor cleaner and add it to container. I simply throw the microfiber pad in the washing machine with the microfiber towels when it gets dirty. *Note: to keep the longevity of microfiber materials, you shouldn't wash them with your towels. 

Going completely zero waste hasn't been easy. Mainly for cost reasons. The initial investment can get expensive. I still have plastic in my home and excessive stuff that I don't want or need. Although I am in the slow process of decluttering everything. I still use wrapping paper, buy greeting cards, mail Thank You cards, use disposable plates during parties and buy new clothes for our daughter. I hope to change all this soon.

Also, I can't always make it to the farmer's market on the weekends and sometimes I have to run to the store where they have organic strawberries and organic grapes in plastic containers. I recycle the containers but not all plastic is recyclable so eventually I would like to avoid plastic completely. Whatever we can recycle, we do. But it comes down to me planning better. It's a slow process but I'm making some progress. When it comes to waste, Canada has a much better waste program. I wish the United States would keep up with Canada and the rest of the world. We're really behind when it comes to improving the environment and providing healthier food choices.

CNN's Morgan Spurlock did an episode on where our garbage goes and features Bea Johnson, I recommend watching that episode if you're interested in learning more about this zero waste topic. He shows you exactly where our waste goes and why we should be aware of what we throw away. Here's a brief video on Bea Johnson's zero waste home, ideally I would love my kitchen to look similar to hers... clean, without excess "stuff":



I will continue to update you on my journey towards a zero waste/minimalist lifestyle. I don't think our family can completely become a zero waste family like Bea Johnson's family, but I hope we can come close to it by achieving a minimalist lifestyle.