- Hello everybody, this is Gittemary for LIVEKINDLY,
and today I'm going to share with you
20 different low-waste, sustainable living,
zero-waste beginner's tips, so let's just get started.
The first thing that is possibly
one of the most important things is
use what you already have.
Don't go out and buy tons of new stuff
because now you want to start living sustainably.
You can start by using a lot of the things
that you already have.
A really good idea when looking into sustainable living
is choosing reusable items over disposable items.
So look for stuff that you can use many, many times,
rather than things that you have to throw away
super, super quickly.
This goes for basically every aspect of your life,
and there are tons of cool zero-waste swaps
that you can make that you can use forever.
If you want to start living low-waste or zero-waste,
you can start by looking at the trash
that you already produce.
There are so many different tips out there,
so a really good idea when you want to get started
is taking a look at your own trash
after a day where you just live your normal life,
look at your trash before you throw it away,
and see if there are anything
that you could perhaps do better the next time,
and that way you can learn from your mistakes
rather than just taking everything in
and maybe using a lot of energy and time
on something that you might not even need to do.
Take it one step at a time.
It can be really, really overwhelming
when you start looking into sustainability
because you will be able to find flaws basically everywhere.
It can be really overwhelming.
Take it one step at a time, and also be kind to yourself.
For me, I found that what really, really helped
was taking one room at a time.
So for the first thing that I did, I looked at my kitchen.
And when I found that all of those habits were changing,
everything sort of felt normal,
I started looking into my bathroom.
That way, transitioning into a sustainable lifestyle
might be more sustainable in the long run
because you're able to do these things for a longer time
rather than burning out too fast.
Contact your local recycling facility.
What is recyclable might differ completely
from country to country,
from area to area, and region to region.
So what can be recycled for me
might not be possible for you.
Therefore it might be a really good idea
to contact your local recycling facility
and find out what you can recycle.
That way, you can favor some of those materials
and that kind of packaging
over packaging that is non-recyclable,
and thus will end up in landfill.
You can also find ways to reduce high-impact foods
and replace them with the lower-impact foods.
That can be stuff like reducing or refusing meat and dairy
whilst opting for more plant-based alternatives.
For instance, milk made from dairy
is a very high-impact food,
while milk made from oats is a very low-impact food.
There are so many of these swaps,
and if you use it, for instance, in cooking,
you might not even be able to tell the difference.
Waste is not waste until you waste it.
What I simply mean by this is that
there are tons of things that have been designed
that we just throw away once we've used it once,
while we might be able to use them more times.
You can do this with tons of different things.
You can also use napkins from restaurants,
bring them back home,
and then use them instead of paper towels.
There are so many reasons to reuse these products
over and over again and not let them go to waste.
Repair broken items.
This is super, super important,
and this goes for bigger things like electronics,
and it goes for smaller things like socks.
This is a great sustainable swap that's also very personal,
and about valuing the resources that we're using
rather than just disposing of them
and replacing them once they break.
A really good thing to start practicing right now
is how to refuse certain items when they're offered to you,
products that you might not use yourself
or would never buy yourself because of their high impact.
It can be when the tray of meat
is passed by you at a family dinner,
it can be many different things,
and sometimes it's very difficult
for us to say no to these things
because we don't wanna seem impolite.
So try looking at how you can say no,
or how you can come prepared,
how you can avoid these situations
so you don't have to feel impolite about it.
By the way, you're not impolite
because you're refusing certain things,
simply "No thank you, I'm good," can be all you really need.
For me, the way that I sort of avoided fast-fashion gifts,
for instance at Christmas and birthdays,
was by only wishing for cash, for instance.
Neato.
Implement good anti-food waste habits.
For instance, by organizing your fridge
or making sure that you use all your leftovers.
Food waste is a really big part of sustainability,
so find ways to make sure that you use your leftovers,
for instance, by using them in your lunches the next day,
and making sure that you organize your fridge
in a way so you can always see your leftovers
so they're not forgotten, you know,
in the far back of the fridge
where they'll sort of turn into this gray-brownish mush
that we are all kinda familiar with I feel like,
and then we'll never, ever use it.
Make sure that you're organizing your fridge
in a way where you can always see this stuff.
And this also goes for freezers.
Before buying something new,
see if you can find it second-hand.
For instance, every time I need new tights,
I just find them in thrift shops,
because they're always there,
and sometimes even in their original packaging.
I also look at Facebook Marketplace,
because that's a great resource,
I look at secondhand apps, and I look at specific companies
that resell second-hand electronics.
Refuse small, unnecessary products
like promotional goods, and samples,
and freebies, and flyers, and buttons, and pins,
all this stuff that you don't really need
that's just going to end up in a junk drawer.
You can also start researching
sustainable initiatives in your area.
Someone hosting a farmer's market,
cleanup events, clothes swap events.
Some of this you might not be able
to find out about in a natural way,
sort of like going down the street and then,
oh, looking into some door where there it was.
Sometimes it takes a little bit of research.
But it can be really good to get involved
in some of these initiatives.
Look both at the physical
and the invisible impact of a product.
It's so easy, specifically with lifestyles like zero-waste,
to hyper-focus on the physical trash,
because that's the things that we can see.
But there's so much impact going on behind the scenes,
there's so much stuff that we as consumers
will never get to see.
Which is why it's super important
to also look at the invisible impact of things.
That can be the invisible impact, aka the emissions,
of animal agriculture, of flying with airplanes.
There are so many different industries,
companies, and products and services
that we can start to refuse or reduce
because of their high impact.
And that's not only something
that goes for the physical trash,
but also something that goes for emissions.
Composting. I love composting.
It's such a cool project,
and even if it's not something you want to do
to sort of combat all the organic waste
that you accumulate or that you generate,
it can still be a really, really cool project to do.
You can compost even if you live in a small apartment,
and you can use composting if you have a big yard.
Basically everyone can compost,
it's just a matter of finding a good way that suits you.
So find a way to use your organic waste in a compost.
I use my compost now to fertilize all my plants,
and they're looking kinda neat.
I don't know why I'm so cheesy today, I'm sorry, guys.
When starting a sustainable lifestyle,
it can be a really good idea
to learn lots more about sustainability.
So sit down and watch documentaries, follow nature series.
If you want to change your priorities,
and thus change the way that you live
and try to live more sustainably,
it can be a really good idea
to follow people with similar views.
In terms of research,
find out which companies are the most polluting,
and then boycott them.
Sometimes it's not completely possible
to completely refuse products from certain brands,
but sometimes it's definitely possible
to reduce the amount of products you buy from this brand.
But it can be a really good idea
to limit your consumption of those products.
Big, big, big companies, they produce so much waste.
Another thing that I think is super important
is getting involved politically.
There's really no way
that we as consumers can change anything
without also making sure
that we change things on a higher level.
We need both the industry, consumers, and politicians
to be in favor of sustainability for this to work,
and that all starts with how we vote.
So make sure to, first of all, vote.
Then vote for people with green policies
and ambitious sustainability goals.
That's super, super important.
You can also create petitions,
which is also an amazing way to get involved.
Also, I think this is important to mention
as one of the last things,
but you don't need a trash jar to be zero-waste.
You don't even need to be perfectly zero-waste
to be zero-waste,
because no one is perfectly zero-waste.
And when you hear people say zero-waste,
what we often mean is the goal, and not the actual practice.
We want to limit our consumption of goods
and we want to limit the waste we generate
as much as possible, but that often means
that we are not always 100% successful,
and that is still okay.
So just be aware that you don't need to be perfect
to be zero-waste,
you just need to want it and to try the best you can.
And lastly, perhaps this is a little bit (groans)
It's a little bit difficult and out there, but hear me out.
Start looking at your products as resources
rather than basing their value on their monetary price.
It's so easy to discard things like socks
because they cost us basically nothing,
but socks are usually made out of cotton or polyester,
and those materials had an impact when they were produced.
So if we can fix them, or if we can use them
for a longer time rather than throwing them away,
that is a win, that is a win for sustainability.
That is it for me, thank you so much.
If you have any other suggestions
for sustainable, low-waste content
here on LIVEKINDLY's channel, please let me know,
and let's talk more down below,
I would love to hear what you have to say.
This was Gittemary for LIVEKINDLY,
have an amazing day, and I will see you guys soon.
Bye!