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Channel / Source:
TEDx Talks
Published: 2015-05-27
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF72px2R3Hg
this is all of the trash that I produced in the past three years when I say that people think that I'm crazy or that I'm lying or they'll ask me questions like so how do you wipe your butt I live eight zero waste lifestyle and I have for the past three years now it's zero waste that's a pretty big idea right so let me define it
for you to me it living zero waste means that I don't make any trash so no sending anything to landfill know sending anything in a garbage can and no spitting gum on the ground and walking away rate no trash this is a big concept and this all started when I was an environmental study student at NYU my senior year I was taking a course called the
environmental studies capstone course which is essentially the culminating course that all environmental study students need to take in order to go out into the world and make it a more sustainable place well there was a girl in this class and every clash you would have this big plastic bag with the plastic clamshell full of food a plastic fork and knife a plastic water bottle the plastic
bag of chips and she would eat all of this and then class after class we just throw it in the trash now this is really frustrating because here we were these environmental study students trying to make the world a better place and there she was throwing all this stuff into the garbage one day after class feeling still particularly upset about watching her throw everything away I
went home to make dinner and I open my fridge and noticed something that I had never seen before every single thing in my fridge was in one way or another packaged in plastic and I couldn't believe it you know I was getting so mad at this girl from making so much plastic trash and it turns out that I was just as bad I was that girl
and so I made a decision in that moment I was going to stop using plastic well putting plastic yeah not so easy a buffet Harriet when you think about your everyday life you wake up in the morning you going to the bathroom and you brush your teeth what is your toothbrush made out of plastic what is your toothpaste probably packaged and your face wash your moisturizer
contact solution so many things that are in our everyday lives come packaged in plastic and so I realized that if I was going to move away from plastic the only way that I was going to be able to do that was to learn how to make my products myself well I don't know about you but I certainly didn't know how to make deodorant didn't have the
recipe just come hang out my back pocket and so I realize that I had to do some research and while I was doing research online I came across a blog called the zero waste home started by a woman named Faye ed Johnson who is a wife and mother of two kids out in mill valley California and the four of them live a completely zero waste like
if when I learned about bay and her family's my mind was completely blown I thought that I was doing the best thing that I could for the planet by not using any plastic but the idea that I didn't have to produce any trash was it so empowering and so inspiring and it made perfect sense rate because I was environmental studies student I cared about the environment
studied sustainability talked about sustainability protested for sustainability but I realized but I wasn't actually implementing any of those values into my day to day life and so I made the decision to go zero waste so let me break it down for you and tell you about some of the things I did in order to make this transition a little easier the first thing that I did
was I stopped buying packaged foods so instead of going into the store and buying things packaged in paper and glass and plastic I started bringing my own jars and back to the store to fill with ball or package free items I also started buying my fruit and vegetables from the farmer's market so package for it but the second thing that I started doing was I started
making all of my own products before I started living this lifestyle my boyfriend at the time used to brush his teeth using baking soda and I thought he was probably the closest person in the entire world right there's no way that you could possibly get your teeth cleaned using something like baking soda it's gross well fast forward and it turns out that the first product that
I made was to paste made with baking soda so over time I started making all of my own products when I would run out of something instead of going to the store and buying a new one I would learn how to make it myself so when I would run out of lotion I learned how to make it myself front of deodorant learn how to make it
myself over time all of the things I'd previously purchased were now ones that I made myself the third thing that I started doing was shopping second hand so instead of buying new clothing and putting new waste into the way cycle I would buy things that were totally recycle second hand so not making any new trash the fourth thing that I did was I downsized so I
focused on having only the things that were truly necessary and that I really needed well this was really really hard because I'm the kind of person disbelief sentimental and I can tell you as to why a toothpick needs to be in my life but after I really got through that process and I completely downsized I realize that I had so many fewer things in my life
my home was less cluttered and everything was easier to clean and when you have fewer things you realize that you take better care of them right so when you take better care hear things you don't have this mentality like well if I don't want this anymore I just throw it out and get a new thing later no I only had a few things and so I
took care of them and wasn't sending anything to landfill all this must sound pretty difficult I assure you it's not that hard I'm just an average lazy person and I wouldn't live this lifestyle if it was difficult in fact the benefits of living this lifestyle far outweigh any of the negatives that you could imagine the first benefit is that I save money so I save money
when I buy my food and the products and when I make my own products because I'm not paying for the embedded cost a packaging so things are cheaper I'm also saving money by shopping completely second hand because secondhand clothing is usually less expensive for new clothing I'm also saving money because I've downsized and so I don't go shopping all the time now and you know just
buy things on impulse I only have what I really need a second benefit is that I eat better when I go shopping now I don't have the option to buy processed food products package free and so now my diet consist of things like fresh fruit and vegetables for Falk you know greens and knocks that I buy with my jars my bags and so when you get
better you feel better I've noticed that over these past few years my weight has stabilized I have more energy I need less sleep and when you're eating better and you feel better and you save money you're happier but besides those things and happier because for the first time in my life I'm living in direct alignment with my values and why is this important rape waste well
waste is a really big problem in fact the average American person produces approximately four point four pounds of trash per person per day for over the course of the year that's like taking eaten half of your best friends and throwing them in the trash don't do that it's not nice so if you care about your friends and you don't throw them away and you think that
it's possible for you to possibly reduce how much cash you're producing I have three simple steps for you the first step is to actually look at your trash and understand what it is because you can't solve the problem of having a lot of waste until you notice so when I did this exercise I realize that I had three main sources of trash the first was food
packaging and so I learned how to shop in bulk or package free the second was product packaging and so I learned how to make all of my own products and the third was organic food waste and so I learned how to compost and just by identifying those three sources of waste eliminating that I have reduced my trash by about ninety percent the second thing that I
like to suggest is picking out the low hanging fruit so doing little things one time changes in your everyday life that have a large scale and long term positive impact this includes things like using a reusable bag instead of a plastic or paper bag or using a stainless steel or glass water bottle instead of buying water bottles over the course of you know however long you
realize that these little changes actually add up make a big difference the third thing that I like to suggest is the D. I. Y. or actually learning how to make your products yourself now I absolutely love doing this because when you go to a store and you have to buy products you kind of have to settle and accept them as they are rape if you don't
like the way they smell too bad if you don't like the way they feel sorry if you don't like what they're packaged and you don't have a choice but for me since I make all my own products if I don't like the way they smell I changed the scent if I don't like the ingredients in the I change it if I don't like the packaging it's
my choice and so by making my own products I have complete control over what I'm putting in my body now I started living this lifestyle while I was still in college and when I graduated I had a real job real person job in sustainability which is exactly what you think I'd want to be doing right well at the same time I was still running my blog
trashes for tosser is and I noticed that I was getting recurring question and it was something like this dear Lauren I absolutely love the products that you're making and I too want truly natural products but because of life family friends while the little black I just don't have time to make them myself do you have any products that I can go out and buy that our
Cleveland thinks your health lots of love person excising so I would just stores and I started looking at products and while I found that they were beauty products that were reminiscent of the ones that I was making myself I didn't notice the same trend for cleaning products when I looked at the ingredients of cleaning products even that natural cleaning products contain ingredients that were really harmful
things that were carcinogenic and endocrine destructive you know when I looked into it further I learned that cleaning product manufacturers aren't even legally required to disclose the ingredients of their products on the product packaging and so many when we go and buy a product read the complete mercy of the company hoping that they have our best interest in mind I feel that we as consumers have
a right to products that are transparent and that aren't bad for and so I started thinking about my own products the ones that I've been making for years that are safe and effective and having gradients that I used to do things like brush my teeth or make salad dressing and I realize that I had the opportunity and so I quit my job and started a company
because I feel like we as human beings have a right to products that are safe for our homes and our bodies and the environment I get comments all the time that I'm doing this for attention but I live this lifestyle for myself I would never tell anyone how to live or how much trash that they should produce I just want to provide tools through my blog
and my business for people who like me want to reduce how much trash they're producing I live eight zero waste lifestyle because to me it's the best way I know how to live the life that aligns with everything but I believe it and what's the point break I'm just one person what difference can I make the point is simple I want to be remembered for the
