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You're not alone (in producing rubbish)

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 08:31:40 +0000

You're not alone (in producing rubbish)

As much as I enjoy researching Zero Waste and making adjustments around the household in order to live a more environmental-friendly life, I can't ignore the fact that I share a flat with my Permanent Boyfriend (calling him husband makes me feel old). So I decided to ask him how he feels about it. Here's the verdict.

  1. How much did you know about the Zero Waste movement before I started looking into it and sharing it with you? Not much. In the past I had spent some time thinking of how much energy we waste but not so much about household waste.

  2. Do you feel like I force you to make an effort and reduce waste/do you think I push it too much? Sometimes I do feel it is an effort, but I do recognise that it’s one worth making. See below my answer on does it make sense to aim for 100%.

  3. How does it make you feel to know that you’re doing your part in reducing waste and the impact you have on the planet’s wellbeing? It makes me feel good but I must confess that it’s difficult to be doing it when so few other people are. Basically we’re doing something that would become amazing if everyone did it, and that by itself makes it worth doing I guess.

  4. How much of a pain is it for you to think about recycling/not buying packaged goods etc? A bit of a pain, but I don’t like the idea of just lazily strolling along in life, I am happy you are helping me be more aware of my impact on the environment.

  5. To what extent do you think we should stretch being Zero Waste? Do you think aiming at 100% Zero Waste is realistic? How much compromise would you allow? 100% seems unrealistic at the moment and I’m not sure that’s what we should be aiming for. Perhaps the time spent in trying to push the concept further and further could be best spent trying to convince other people to do a bit more than they currently do. Surely the overall result will be better if, instead of a few people managing to do 100%, we had a lot more people doing say 70%.

  6. What’s the most important thing you think we can do to help save our planet? Recognise that we have an impact on it and not be lazy about it. Also, we should get governments to help out and do things like impose limits on packaging in supermarkets, revise best before dates etc. That would make the whole effort much more effective.

  7. Would you like to add anything? Thank you bye. You're a pain in the butt.

Answer number 3 got me thinking because it is true that it's a bit frustrating to put all this effort in something that only a minority of people are doing. It feels a little bit like voting: you might think that you're just one person and your vote is not going to make a difference, but if you combine your vote with everybody else's, it is going to make a difference. And that's what this blog is about: spreading the word. The more people get to know about Zero Waste, the more they are likely to take a step in the right direction. In my dream world food comes unpackaged, there are regulations on rubbish disposal, and everybody is vegan. WELL.

As for the rest, I agree with pretty much everything Giac said (also the last point). I'd particularly like to make a point regarding answer number 5, on whether 100% Zero Waste is realistic or not. I don't think it's healthy to be extreme in anything you do, and I also think not producing any waste is just not possible. As much as it makes me feel good and proud to see how little waste I'm accumulating, I also don't want to ruin my life by not eating what I want because it involves packaging, or stop travelling because fuel contributes to air pollution. I'm more than happy to try to find alternatives and reduce packaging and pollution, but up to a certain point. When my happiness, well being and mental balance start to get affected, that's where I draw the line.

I think I'm doing a pretty good job anyway, surely there's still room for improvement but I've come a long way so far and I'm very proud of it.

Stay tuned for more posts on my Zero Waste journey and how I've improved my impact on the planet so far. As always thanks for stopping by and I will talk to you soon!

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