Zero Waste Tips Bundle

Going zero waste is a journey, and a lot of times there’s more than one thing you can change to help towards going zero waste. Reducing your consumption is the most important thing you can do to weigh all of your options and be a conscious consumer.

This bundle is great for inspiring your social media followers to go zero waste – encourage them to pick a couple of tips and give them a try. You have to start somewhere and all the little things add up to a massive impact!

Inside The Bundle

The Zero Waste Tips Bundle includes 20 beautiful pieces of visual content:

Image Content

1. Start a Food Scrap Garden
   Before you resort to the compost, some food scraps you think cannot be reused actually can be reused with the help of a food scrap garden. Depending on what food scrap veggies you have, many can be regrown just from cut pieces of the produce itself. Add water, and voilà! Pretty soon you’ll have yourself a mini, indoor garden grown entirely from the food you would have otherwise thrown away or composted.
2. Compost When You Can
   In the event that you do have leftover food scraps, they can always be composted. You can compost food scraps like veggie and fruit scraps (cores, peels, and pits), nuts and nutshells, seeds, grains, beans, tofu, and tempeh, bread, pasta, baked goods, snack foods, eggshells, and coffee grounds.
3. Buy in Bulk From Stores
   Whenever you can at the grocery store or co-op, try buying food (and other items) in bulk. Bring your own mason jar or reusable storage container, fill it up, and be sure to record the tare weight.
4. Make What You Can, Instead of Buying
   Having a vegetable garden can help make your cooking process more zero waste. Things like nut butter and nut/seed/oat-based milk can be made at home in very few steps. Other items you can make sustainably at home include sustainable dog treats, deodorant, sustainable makeup, and more.
5. Take a Look At Your Trash & Improve
   Being mindful of what you’re throwing away can help improve sustainability at home. Look at your trash before you throw it away and see if there’s anything that you can perhaps do better the next time. That way you can learn from your mistakes rather than just taking everything in.
6. Choose Reusable Items Over Disposables
   An easy way to go zero waste is to purchase more products that you can use many times rather than things that you will have to throw away. This goes for basically every aspect of your life. There are tons of zero waste swaps that you can make that you can use forever.
7. Freeze Leftover Scraps
   Speaking of the freezer, consider freezing what you do not need to eat or drink immediately. The freezer significantly increases a food item’s shelf life and is best for items bought or made in bulk so that you have them for a long period of time.
8. Shop Second-Hand
   An estimated 10.46 million tons of clothes go to landfills every year with the excess we donate to charities. Practice your vintage store finds and hunt for clothes swap meets in your city to embrace zero waste.
9. Research Local and Sustainable Food Systems Near You
   Learn more about sustainability by watching documentaries or 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.
10. Choose Cloth Diapers
    Diapers have the same waste disposal issues as tampons and pads where 20 billion diapers are added to landfills annually. Cloth diapers can be laundered and last longer but if you’re squeamish about washing them, choose bamboo diapers.
11. Brush Your Teeth With Bamboo
    Bamboo is a fast-growing plant with anti-microbial properties and is ideal for oral care. Certain cultures still practice oral care with natural wood or “chewing stick” with fewer instances of oral diseases. Bamboo toothbrushes are compostable, unlike plastic, but check whether bristles are compostable. Nylon-4 bristles biodegrade under certain conditions but Nylon-6 bristles are non-biodegradable. Know before you buy.
12. Ditch Packaged Soap
    Check local stores for a locally-made, package-free bar soap. Sustainable brands sell package-free soaps, shampoo bars and bath bombs for a green cosmetic conversion.
13. Switch to a Safety Razor
    You will prevent discarded plastic razors from going to landfills and ending up in the soil and the ocean.
14. When Products Run Out, Buy Sustainable Replacements
    When it comes to items you buy less frequently, such as cosmetics, personal hygiene products, and cleaning products, use up what you have, and once they are nearly empty, buy zero-waste sustainable replacements. For example, when you run out of paper towels, switch to reusable hand towels, and when you run out of makeup remover wipes, switch to reusable facial pads.
15. Be Prepared On The Go
    When it comes to producing zero waste on the go, always being prepared is key. Consider putting together a DIY zero-waste kit that you can keep in your backpack or car when you are out for the day — we recommend always keeping a reusable tote bag, water bottle, cloth napkin, cutlery, and food container on hand, as well as a reusable cup and straw if you’re a coffee drinker. That way, you’ll easily be able to prevent yourself from accumulating disposable products throughout the day.
16. Eat More Whole Plant Foods
    Most items we use have produced a lot of invisible waste, pollution, and emissions before they arrive in our hands. A great example of this is animal products like meat, dairy, and eggs. The process of breeding, raising, and slaughtering cows, chickens, fish, and pigs uses far more water, land, and animal feed and produces much more emissions than plant-based foods. A landmark 2018 University of Oxford study found that ditching meat and dairy is actually the most impactful thing people can do to reduce their environmental impact
17. Carry Your Own Containers for Takeout
    Carry your own set of reusable containers for eating on the go. You can bring them to work empty to fill with a takeout lunch or fill yourself at home with delicious and nutritious foods. When you get home, pop them in the dishwasher or the sink, clean them, and bring them again the following day.
18. Streamline What You Bring Into Your Home
    If we bring less through the door, our homes will be easier to manage and we’ll have less waste overall. This goes for the food we buy, the clothing we wear, the toys we permit our children to play with, and everything else in between.
19. Refuse Unnecessary Products & Promotional Items
    Saying “no” can be challenging in a culture where we’re taught to be polite and take whatever’s handed to us. But the reality is that most promotional items are poorly constructed or made from cheap materials that won’t last long before breaking—ending up in the landfill before the year’s out. Most people will understand if you explain, without judgment, why you don’t need the item.
20. Use Reusable Produce Bags
    Use reusable cotton mesh bags when shopping for fruit and vegetables, instead of store supplied plastic bags. You can even make your own! A single person shopping for a week’s worth of groceries generally use around three to five produce bags, whereas a family of four will use five to seven produce bags weekly!