My friend was visiting me the other day and as she sat in my living room she noticed my plastic hairbrush on the table.
"Why do you have a plastic hairbrush I thought you care about nature and you try to avoid plastic!"
Why? Because I can still use it. I have had this brush for cca 12 years. It is not broken. It's fine. And I will have it for as long as it works and then buy a good alternative. We don't throw away things that work perfectly fine just to prove to other people, that we care. We use the things we have FIRST!
There is no need for buying a stainless steel lunch box if you can still use an old plastic one. It's fine.
USE WHAT YOU HAVE FIRST and when it no longer works like it should, dispose of it responsibly and then get a good alternative. You don't have to prove anything to anyone.
Being vegan and zero waste makes it VERY challenging to find an advent calendar. The traditional ones are cardboard on the outside and have a big plastic holder in the middle. And they're single use!
This wall hanging calendar came from Canadian Tire and I will reuse it every year now! Every day there is a pocket with one chocolate covered coffee bean for me and a chocolate covered almond for my partner (both vegan).
I am sure there are lots of tutorials out there with patters to even make your own! The thrift shops would have lots of fabrics for a project like this.
It has been quite a while since I have posted here. I wanted to add a quick update before getting back into posting zero waste stuff.
I definitely feel like I have fallen off my zero waste track since March (when the pandemic started). Bulk barn stopped their “bring your own jar” program which is how I did a lot of my zero waste grocery shopping. Also, I moved across Canada to the east coast (NOVA SCOTIA!!) in May, aka the height of the pandemic.
It was very difficult to shop sustainably with thrift stores being closed at the time and being nervous about buying on Marketplace or Kijiji because I didn’t want to interact with people I didn’t know.
All in all I wanted to reiterate that this blog is called AVERAGE Zero Waster. We all have moments where we try our best and it’s just not good enough. Or we are stressed with life and forget our sustainable values. I wanted to let you know that that is ok and as a community we are all here for each other no matter what!
Anyways, glad to be back on track and hoping to make lots of new posts in the coming months, starting today :)
Low waste living. Clarissa Pinkola Estés says that, “You must become an activist if you are going to live the natural life.” One day I will live in a rural, quiet place with a garden of my own and away from the synthetic nature of the urban city but I felt Mother Earth calling to me for stewardship here and now. To love Earth deeply as my kindred and it’s people so tenderly across each continent, a calling to observe so many different tribes up-close with humility and grace. To open my eyes to the wastefulness that seeps into our Western hearts, and say no more. I rise to feel Gaia’s afflictions and creative desire of a return of the wisdom of the old ways. I shed myself of labels concerning politics and man-made things. How free it is to just be. I cleanse my home away from synthetic materials (plastic, expressionless, of no spirit) and into embodiments of natural practical magic. What a sacred journey it is to do my own small part while here and alive.
People are realising ‘we cannot keep looking away from these things’, says climate activist
Greta Thunberg has said the Black Lives Matter protests show society has reached a tipping point where injustice can no longer be ignored, but that she believes a “green recovery plan” from the coronavirus pandemic will not be enough to solve the climate crisis.
Reflecting on the protests that have swept the globe in recent weeks, the Swedish climate activist told the BBC: “It feels like we have passed some kind of social tipping point where people are starting to realise that we cannot keep looking away from these things. We cannot keep sweeping these things under the carpet, these injustices.
“People are starting to find their voice, to sort of understand that they can actually have an impact.”
The coronavirus pandemic had given her hope by showing those in power are able to act when faced with an emergency, but the climate crisis needed to be treated with the same urgency, she said.
“It shows that in a crisis, you act, and you act with necessary force,” she said. “Suddenly people in power are saying they will do whatever it takes since you cannot put a price on human life.
“The main message that underlines everything we [as climate activists] do is, ‘Listen to the science, listen to the experts’, and all of a sudden you hear everyone everywhere is saying that. It feels like the corona crisis has changed the role of science in our society.”
The 17-year-old has been using her time in lockdown to study, despite taking a sabbatical year from school to travel and campaign on the climate crisis. She sailed across the Atlantic last year to attend UN climate summits, eventually ending up in Madrid to address talks originally to have been hosted in Chile.
“I thought I’m just home anyway, so I might as well just jump in the class … in my free time, as a bonus. It doesn’t really count, but I love studying so much,” she said. “I’m really the last one to complain because I haven’t been that affected by this.”
She has also used her time to produce a radio programme, Humanity has not yet failed, reflecting on some of her experiences and meetings over the last year and looking at some of the challenges the world faces in tackling the environmental crisis.
“The climate and ecological crisis cannot be solved within today’s political and economic systems,” she said. “That isn’t an opinion. That’s a fact.”
Sustainable Online Canadian Furniture / Home Decor Sites
Looking for suggestions for online sites to buy sustainable furniture and home decor in Canada. My partner and I are moving from Ontario to Halifax next month and with Covid-19 we have to self isolate for 14 days. As well, thrift stores and many other stores are closed, forcing us to buy more things online sadly. Looking for suggestions on sustainable options!
Hey there! Hope you are keeping safe in this crazy time. I am just wondering how you are coping with the no keep cup rule for take away coffee/ tea/juice etc. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you in advanced!
Hi! If I am being honest, I am having a very hard time as a zero waster during this crazy Covid time.
In regards to not being able to use reusable cups, I never go into coffee shops, I always make my tea at home in an insulated bottle to avoid the single use cups. I know this isn’t an option for everyone if you are working long hours or cant keep a reusable bottle with you for contamination reasons. I think the best thing we can do is try our best to reduce our waste but also be forgiving to ourselves in these stressful circumstances.
A hard thing for me right now is that grocery stores wont even let you use your own reusable bags, you have to use plastic ones. So what I have been doing is loading everything back to my cart not in a plastic bag and then when I get to my car I load it all into my reusable bags.
Day 2226 - Today we went out to grab some groceries that we were low on, but we specifically made a point NOT to hoard resources. While we wanted to make sure we could easily stay isolated at home for a bit if we were sick, without stockpiling and leaving the rest of our community in a lurch.
