Here are a few of my faves: stand in a wash bin while showering and use the water to flush the toilet, don’t turn on the light unless necessary (you can pee in low light, etc.), save used paper to make new paper yourself, use fabric scraps to do fun projects with kids (doll clothes, earrings, little stuffed animals, etc.), use pill bottles for office supplies and travel-size bottles, grow plants from food scraps to grow new plants (pineapple, onions, green onions, beets, etc), reuse plastic bags until they’re absolutely shredded (I literally have a freezer bag that’s at least 18 years old that I still hold craft supplies in), make new jewelry out of old jewelry, use old charger chords and earbud wires for clotheslines. Always stare at something before you throw it away trying to think of something it could be used for! 💚
another thing i love doing is taking the old toilet paper rolls (bamboo paper ofc) and use it to make mini pots for seeds!! they can go straight into the ground or removed and added to the compost🤗
My husband saves plastic food containers w lids to put screws/bolts/nails whatever comes off something he is taking apart into so he can keep them all together & label it. Makes putting it back together much easier
That's a great idea. I have a bunch of small plastic bags that I label and heat seal but over time those bags deteriorate and things start falling out. Containers are a way better option.
Ya know what Emma is absolutely right about the library:) "having fun isn't hard when you got a library card!" 😄 I love to read and even if they don't have a book they can order it from another library for free! It's the best thing ever. Quiet study spaces in a climate controlled environment. No need waste energy in my house when I can just study there :) and free internet too. If I didn't have pets, plants and my S/O I'd probably never go home. Lol 😄
I use socks with holes as dusters, upcycle birthday/holiday cards, am an active part of my local Buy Nothing Facebook group, make my own seitan and bread… many more but all that comes to mind at the moment!
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist Thought of a couple more! I make paintings using scrap wood and old nail polish, make extract from citrus peels, mint, and vanilla (bourbon vanilla extract is amazing!), regrow produce (celery and basil currently), use our cats as makeshift dumbbells, make my own flavored simple syrups for coffee and adult beverages, bulk buy shipped items to order as few times as possible, never use bags in our garbage with the exception of our kitchen one that gets particularly gross sometimes, and steep my tea as many times as possible! Gosh I could go on for days 😂
I got a tour at a really cool recycling center for my job. I was able to speak with the CEO of the business. This is a bit unrelated, but he told me in huge composting facilities you will see little white spots throughout the compost piles. Those are from the stickers on the produce, please remember to always peel those stickers off and dispose of them properly. I compost at home and usually pick them out after but I can’t imagine millions of stickers. They have trouble reselling the compost because it’s filled with those stickers :( food for thought for experienced zerowasters (pun intended) :)
Great video Emma. One thing I do is to freeze home-made bread in thick packaging bags of oatmeal. I have never buy Ziploc bags, the packing bags without the zipper work as fine as it can be. There is no freezer burn or anything on the bread.
Hey, I reuse those, too! A while ago I ran of freezer bags, and didn't want to buy something so single -use & throw away. So I was thinking what can I use instead..and suddenly had an epiphany! I've been saving those (especially the zipper-top ones) ever since. They wash beautifully in the dishwasher BTW, that way you can reuse them over and over again. I now have an endless and free supply of zipper bags! I use them for all sorts of things, including Leftover rice etc Fresh fruit when produce is ripe & cheap in season (strawberry/bananas are great to make frozen yogurt later!) Leftover coconut milk Baby food Etc. :) Love the idea 💡
For farmers - 1 look at local edible invasive plants to collect and eat. 2 - Plant mint. Mint naturally discourages insects besides fees. If planted at the edge of your property it'll also spread well and give a yummy distraction to rabbits and you can then collect it and dry it for teas if not eaten by rabbits.
Pro tip for a zero waster is to live somewhere you can't buy as many things ready-made! :D Where I live, we don't have even self-raising flour in regular grocery shops. Growing up here has forced me to learn a bunch of basic baking and cooking skills. Last christmas was the first in my life when I baked gingerbread from store-bought dough! It was good, but I think there's immense value in making things yourself. The saved money and eco-friendliness is just a bonus
Thanks Emma! We recently learned that we can get a big load of free bark chips delivered to our driveway from tree removal companies. In fact, my next door neighbor had to have a tree taken down yesterday so we asked the tree company if we could have the bark chips and they dropped off a load later the same day. Great for our garden!
Hi Emma, not sure if you’ve really covered off on it, but mindful gardening around your house can help lower your temperature inside - I live somewhere hot, so my plantings keep my home a few degrees lower (without having plants against the house - keep good drainage around the actual house!)
yes!! I will do that video this summer! I am actually taking a class in May to become a certified Leave No Trace educator so that will help me sturcture that video :)
Yeah this subject doesn't get talked about much, but it would be nice to know the best and environmental method of disposal. I think it kinda depends on how long you intend on being in the woods. 🤔 when I used to go camping as a teenager the camp instructors always told us to bag all our waste and carry it out so as not to attract animals.....but sometimes I wonder if it would be better to bury it because less plastic used. 🤔 it's a good question.
@@justachonkyspider nope it all depends on environment! Glaciers, along rivers, and rocky deserts have to be carried out while other environments can be in a hole. Granted, it's always truly the best to carry it out but is not always possible.
Excellent tips, I really need to clean my hiking shoes before going on a hike 👍😁. We reuse bread bags for our cat litter and when the cat food bag is empty we reuse it for the cat litter as well. I love my cat 💗, but there is a lot of waste associated with him 🤦🙄.
i forget sometimes too! many trailheads have little feet brushes for you to use so look out for those! I have a "zero waste with pets" video on the channel already :)
Both for your no-till tip and your grass clippings tip: many small more rural cities have municipal limb and leaf drop off locations. Our small town does. So they take grass clippings (in paper bags), as well as fall leaves, tree limbs, and they compost them. Then the compost and wood chip piles are available to the community every spring for free! You can even come scavenge for grass clippings all year if you don’t have a big yard and need more nitrogen sources for your compost! If you don’t have a limb and lead drop off site, you most likely do have municipal (free to the public) wood chip piles. Call your local Parks and Rec or City board for locations! 💚
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist no problem! Our town is 15,000, so people might be surprised what resources like this that their small town has. It took 3 years living here to hear about it, and another year to finally find it! 😅 But I can see many smaller places not having this resource at all. Probably depends on how well the city is funded and what public services they prioritize. It’s just worth investigating and asking about. Additionally, some of the nearest municipal wood chip piles are actually at state parks, and not associated with towns at all.
I recently found out that our library has a lending program for a lot of things besides books. Right now I'm borrowing a VR virtual reality headset so that I can try one out. You can borrow things like metal detectors, sewing machines, tools, board games, looms and so much more. It's such a great resource and a great way to try something out before buying something you don't know if you will use in the long run or borrowing something you know you only need once or twice. Check your local libraries to see what else they lend.
I liked this video and am going to go watch the others in the series. I would like to hear about more zero waste tips for outdoors. I recently started hiking and foraging.
Knowing signs of greenwashing is a must. If people find out later that the business green washed. Some just start buying from anywhere again and give up. And some never fined out. Forever giving their money to the business lying to their faces. Well, for many many months anyway before jumping ship
I save junk mail for craft projects. Sale papers are for dirty cat litter. We use the corn cob litter. I only buy underwear and shoes new. My limit is 5 new items per year. People give me clothes or I buy them at rummage sales or thrift shops. I am 72. Tina, Al's wife
For old socks or gloves: Wash, then stitch up any holes, but worn spots are okay. If there's a lot of worn spots, put one sock inside another Fill the sock(s) with rice and stick in the freezer. Pull out and use. When it starts losing its cool edge, just play with it for a minute, squeeze it, shake it, and the cooler rice on the inside will replace the warmer rice on the outside. These cold packs were a lifesaver while pregnant, and have saved me a TON on bandages. The kids go get a rice pack if they have a booboo (no skin breakage) instead of asking for a bandage. Cold is really good for easing non dermatitis itchy skin (like what comes with pregnancy or cholestasis), and placing one on the back of the neck while having gastric issues (either end) can be comforting. Without frost-burning the skin. Don't eat the rice. This'll be good for years, well beyond the edible lifespan, and will be around possible food contaminants. You can replace or add a second sock when it starts to wear out. Just remember to stick it back in the freezer when you're done to prevent any pathogens from growing.
While I have candied orange peels before and they were delicious, I just wanted to point out that it is important to only do it with organic produce. I would not want to eat the pesticides that the peels of non-organic fruit have absorbed.
Great video Emma. I try to be as zero waste as possible. I re use plastic and glass jars to keep my wash pods, clothes pegs and fabric softener in. I am currently using the drops cleaning products which come with the reusable bottles, so you just refill them when they're done. I also use the tubs grapes come in to store my wash cloths and sponges. Not very aesthetically pleasing but at least I'm saving it from landfill
What are your thoughts on individuals (aka not big cooperations) hunting/fishing? I feel like it is often very controversial topic and some people have a very negative bias towards it, because it is seen as a "rich white dude hobby", but in my opinion it is like the most clean (as in no potentially harmful chemicals ect involved) and eco-friendly way of getting practically free food (aka very much a free way to live zero-waste). I also come from Finland, and from a family that hunts, so i might be biased as well, so i would like to hear your opinion on it and it's eco-friendlyness. And more on the note of non-controversial zero-waste tips for those who live in suitable areas: go pick your berries/mushrooms from the forest. You avoid all the plastic you might consume if you bought them from the store along the years, just store them in some containers and freeze them and you are good to go even in times when there are no berries/mushrooms available. Besides, berries are expensive, but the ones in the forest are complitely free, and you get some bonding time with the nature while you pick them
My husband also enjoys hunting and fishing. We like to forage as a family, especially for mushrooms and berries. I remember about 3 years ago my daughter and I found huge bushes of blackberries in a park outside of London and we just started eating them, we got some looks at first, but once I told people what we were eating other people started eating them too😁. They were ripe and delicious 😋
It's very nuanced. I think it is better than animal agriculture for sure but there is also the potential to over hunt or over fish populations, even when it's just individuals. It is better for the planet that is for sure but even if you provess them at home, you have to use a lot of plastic to properly store the meat so plastic regardless.
I think that's awesome! You get to bond with nature and you know exactly where your food is coming from. You can use more of the animal that way rather than buying peices of it. You can keep the horns and hide for yourself. I live in a city in the desert so there's not much to hunt around here. (Usually i only find birds.) I'm very poor so sometimes I can't afford to buy meat from the store. So I don't think of it as a rich person's sport. It's a great way to provide for your family :) I know being vegan is probably the best way to help the environment but hey at least the animals had a good life in the wild and we're not over-farming the land.
@@TheSimpleEnvironmentalist what about when it comes to animals that are not native/could be harmful with overpopulation? For example my dad hunts a lot of moose that are like the most dangerous animal in Finland due to all the car crashes they cause, and that is why the population is also controlled by hunting them. Or some smaller animals like racoondogs that are not native, so they don't have natural preditors and they are harmful to the native nature, because they eat birds eggs and multiply fast?
To clean my mirrors and windows, I use a solution of half water and half vinegar! With a microfiber towel it dries leaving no streaks and works great and it’s so much cheaper than the marketed glass cleaners. Absolutely love your videos and once you mentioned vinegar as a cleaner I just thought I’d share 😁
I also wanted to comment on the farming aspect of the video since I am in the agriculture industry. Although I’m a giant advocate for cover crops and stopping monoculture farming, for a lot of growers this option is not financially feasible. For the most part the cover crops provide no actual monetary gain and it’s a very slow crawl to start to see the benefits within one’s soil (I’m talking well over several years, assuming the soil has been tilled for many growing seasons). But I definitely think the big companies/corporations within the food and agriculture industry should invest in this idea since they can most definitely afford it!
Hi Emma, I love your videos. They are really helpful. Can you please make a video on how to organise your fridge (zero waste and with no use of plastic)?
as you can see in the video, i don't have a plasti free fridge. I upcycle many plsatic items and cannot avoid plastic in my gorcery routine so i cannot do this unfortunately
We recycle our lawn debris and waste in paper large bags and put them out for the yard waste pickup by our township, so they get recycled and used and don't go in the landfill
