Could you imagine living without a waste basket?
The flower vase that you see pictured above is actually the one and only garbage receptacle in our entire house.
While we still utilize our recycling receptacles, the amount of actual waste that our family creates is ridiculously low.
Why do we do it?
I find that by making a conscious decision to bring less waste into our home we inadvertently make healthier choices.
For example, instead of buying breadcrumbs, I now make my own.
I'm forced to seek out options that don't come in packaging, which as a result, tends to produce less processed foods or chemical filled products. Making it a healthier choice for our family.
Another reason is our love for the environment. As a family we enjoy spending time outdoors. Whether it be going to the beach, hiking a mountain or exploring through a forest, we love nature.
A recent tour of our local landfill was soul crushing. Seeing all of the waste that our city creates and knowing that it will be buried underground for decades. Just sitting there, most of it plastic with the inability to decompose. And that's just the stuff that makes it to the landfill. What about all the waste that makes its way into our forests or into our lakes and oceans?
How do we do it?
As the sole shopper for my household, I hold most of the responsibility.
The choices I make when I am shopping has a large impact on the amount of waste brought into our home. I reduce our waste by not putting produce in plastic produce bags, but rather straight into the shopping cart. Or by bringing my own cloth grocery bags or shopping at bulk food stores. I also use our own reusable containers at the deli to avoid the plastic bags. I buy bread products from the bulk bins in the bakery section at my grocery store and use a cloth bag designated as "the bread bag".
We also make a lot of our own products. Like laundry detergent, tooth powder, shampoo, lip balm, household all-purpose cleaner, ketchup, mustard, breadcrumbs, croutons, nut milks, sauerkraut and much more!
Instead of buying individually wrapped granola bars or fruit snacks for my son's lunches, I give him cucumber slices, fruit, or other unpackaged, whole foods. We don't buy grapes, strawberries, or other various fruit as they usually come in plastic packaging, but we do buy watermelons, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, apples, oranges, etc.
We also use beeswax wraps in place of cling film, metal straws, cloth snack bags, wooden dish scrubbers, natural loofahs (from the plant) and bamboo toothbrushes. We bring our own mugs to a cafe and have even been known to bring our own containers to restaurants for left-overs.
We try to buy products in glass instead of plastic, like maple syrup, hot sauce, and salad dressing. We buy our toilet paper in bulk from a supply store, and it comes wrapped in paper and housed in a box.
We compost our food scraps (if they aren't fed to our chickens) and oh ya!... We also have chickens.
We shop second hand to give items another life rather than going to the landfill. We fix items that are breaking instead of buying new ones.
If we had a baby in diapers, I would use cloth diapers. But, I don't. However, I do use flannel cloths for my #1's.
We also pick-up waste we find when out in nature.