I have become dependent on online shopping recently. Especially with all three kids home. I’m not about to drive them all to a store and wrangle them through the aisles as I try to cross everything off my list - - BUT that leaves me with trash piled up in my entryway every week. And it makes me feel so gross and wasteful.
by: Lauren Ellman-Zebresky
www.mybrandofhappy.com
I don’t know about you, but my neighborhood only offers one tiny measly recycling bin and it only gets picked up once a week. Compared to the two larger trash bins that are picked up twice a week. And I wish we had a composting option, but we do not. This only goes to show that most of us are throwing away twice as much garbage, twice as often. And I see recyclable items in those green bins all the time. I know I’ve been guilty of doing that 🙋🏼♀️Mount trashmore gets too big, the blue bin is already full, so I throw the recycling in the trash just to get it out of my life. Well, it’s not out of my life. It goes to the landfills and oceans where it’ll live forever contaminating our earth and killing our wild animals.
To tell you the truth, the current season of life I am in doesn’t afford me the time and space to do a total reboot and go zero waste. I’m not going to put that type of pressure on myself. And I don’t think you should either. But small changes make a BIG difference.
Ditch the single use plastic whenever you can.
That’s what #plasticfreejuly is all about. You can read more about it, here. Keep some reusable items on hand. Like stainless steel straws and bottles, bamboo cutlery, mesh produce bags, tote bags. And if you have plastic that you’re going to throw away, think of ways to reuse it. Like old Tupperware can be used as storage containers.
Shop LESS.
If something breaks, try to fix it. If you don’t want it anymore, try to sell it or donate it instead of throwing it away. If you need to buy something, try to get it second hand. There are SO many good options for this. Local thrift stores, online thrift stores, Facebook marketplace, eBay.
Start the conversation about living with less waste.
Talk to your family and friends. Bring it to their attention (like I’m trying to do now). Raising awareness is a super important part of the solution. The more people who get behind it the more demand there will be from the public and big companies will have no choice but to listen and adapt.
You’re not a criminal for using plastic and throwing away recyclable items. You aren’t single handedly killing all the fish. You aren’t chopping down the trees and killing the Amazon - - but you CAN help make a difference. We only have ONE planet. And she ain’t doing well. Think of what we’re passing on to our kids. That should be reason enough to want to at least try to make a difference.
A lot of people making small changes will lead to some people making big changes. Policy changes.
HEY, I AM LAUREN!
I’ve decided to take a trial & error approach to motherhood. So far I’ve learned that leggings are pants, if you can’t laugh you’ll cry, and no one really knows what the hell they’re doing…least of all, me. I’m a mom, stepmom, furmom and wife. When I’m not momming, I’m writing.
Thanks for being here.