The (Almost) Zero-Waste Guide

by Melanie Mannarino

  Every move you make to reduce the waste you generate helps bring down the overall amount. But when you come together with your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers—or all of them, all at once—you can accomplish bigger change, and watch it spread from community to community.

  Does that mean you have to steer every break-room conversation toward your new bar shampoo or the delicious bulk raw walnuts you discovered? Nope—nor do you have to volunteer details on your worm-rich compost heap at the next dinner party you attend. But it does mean that when a book-club pal asks you about your fantastic vintage jacket, you can let them know it wasn’t just the retro style that caught your eye but also the fact that you were saving it from the landfill. That might even spark interest in a group trip to your favorite vintage clothing source, or lead to a seasonal clothing swap after the next book discussion.

  If you’re so inclined, you could also be an active voice against waste in your community—spearheading group cleanups and swaps, pushing for policy change, and spreading the message of reducing waste any way you can. What follows are ideas to bring the zero-waste mentality into your community in small ways, large ways, and any way that suits your personality, time, and interest.

  Contribute to a community garden.

  Some community gardens grow food collectively for local food kitchens, while others give each member a spot to grow their own food and eat or share it as they see fit. Either way, growing more food close to home means less reliance on food flown or trucked in from out of town (fuel savings: check!), not to mention the opportunities for community composting—the larger the overall garden plot, the greater the need for soil-nourishing food scraps from everyone in town. A vibrant, flourishing community garden is also a great way to publicly promote the idea of growing your own food: often, these gardens are in public locations like empty lots, library lawns, or schoolyards, visible to all who pass by. When people stop to ask about your involvement, share a bit about what motivates you and how they can get started themselves.

  Eight Benefits of Participating in a Community Garden1

  Access to fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

  Socialization with fellow community members of all ages.

  Stress relief.

  Neighborhood beautification.

  Physical activity.

  More time spent in nature.

  Collaboration and cooperation.

  Healthier eating habits.

  Learn your town’s recycling rules.

  We all think we know how to recycle, right? If only it were as simple as separating paper, plastic, and glass from your landfill-bound trash. Did you know that a grease-stained cardboard pizza box isn’t recyclable? Or that a plastic supermarket bag needs to be recycled through special means, rather than mixed in with plastic water bottles and milk jugs? A quick search of your town or city’s recycling rules will give you all the guidance you need to properly recycle. The details are important, because when a batch of recycling gets contaminated by a dirty item or one that simply doesn’t belong (looking at you, flimsy plastic bag),2 the entire load can be rejected—and sent straight to the landfill.

  Pick up after others.

  One way to work to change other people’s behavior is to lead by example. When you spot a discarded water bottle on the ground, pick it up and take it to the nearest recycling bin. Notice a stray sandwich wrapper on the beach? Bring it to the trash bin. Yes, you’re going out of your way to save the planet from being overrun by other people’s waste, but you’re also modeling good behavior for everyone in sight—and hopefully your sense of responsibility will be catching. There are thousands of people around the world picking up random litter every day, and even documenting it with photos and tags on sites like Litterati.org. Use that sense of community to motivate and challenge you, while inspiring others to follow in your footsteps.

  Organize a larger community cleanup.

  Once you identify a spot in town that’s strewn with refuse—the local ball field, public park, or even the corner lot at the end of your street—head to your town council or city hall and find out how to organize a community cleanup. If you get the town behind it, you might be able to publicize your cleanup on the municipal Facebook page, official website, or even through the schools. Here’s a list of other things to consider when planning:

  Date and time. (Plus rain date and time.)

  How will trash and recycling be collected—and where will it go at the end of the day?

  Can all ages get involved?

  Does the town require permits?

  How will you spread the word?

  Will you provide (recycled-material) trash bags or ask individuals to bring their own?

  Start a donation drive.

  Inspiration might come from your own excess (too many coats! unused toiletries!) or from a need in your community. Either way, if you’re rounding up your own items to donate, go the extra step and ask community members to do the same. You can make your drive as large or small as you want: include only a close circle of friends or the whole darn town. Just make sure to reach out to the charity first in order to see what sort of guidelines they have for large-scale donations. Dress for Success, for example, offers a “clothing drive kit” you can access on their website, with tips on remembering to designate storage space for items, sample language for recruiting donors, and more.

  Use the library.

  Visiting your local library can give you access to so much more than what’s contained in the building itself. Libraries in the same counties or consortiums often share resources, increasing your options and allowing you to borrow content from a vast network across the region. What’s more, your library likely also has a digital collection, meaning you can access an e-library filled with digital books, audiobooks, and electronic-hold options that alert you when your chosen book is ready for loan. Beyond books, your library might also offer a digital entertainment lending app that will give you access to movies, television series, and more. With fewer hard-copy forms of entertainment coming into your home, you’ll have less to get rid of once your bookshelves are packed or the technology has changed. (Just ask anyone who invested in a huge CD collection in the 1990s.)

  Ask your city about curbside organic pickup.

  As more of these programs pop up in cities around the country, more food waste and soiled paper (those greasy pizza boxes included) are being composted instead of sent to the landfill to create the greenhouse gas methane as it decomposes. The specifics vary from city to city—in some locations participation is mandatory, and in other areas households must sign up to join3—but the gist is the same: you collect your food waste and certain soiled paper products and then put them out at the curb for pickup along with recyclable materials.

  Start a Little Free Library.

  Got books to spare? Share them with the community—and encourage others to do the same—by setting up a Little Free Library in your town. The idea is simple: you store and display books for borrowing in a wooden structure that’s easily accessible to the public, so that they can browse, borrow, donate, and return books at their leisure. Details, tips, and even pre-built models can be found on LittleFreeLibrary.org—along with an interactive map that lets you find the closest LFL to you.

  Donate unwanted materials to animal shelters.

  All those furry four-legs waiting to be adopted need supplies to keep them fed, warm, and comfortable—and your discarded fleece blankets, towels, and even socks (which can be used as newborn kitten hats or stuffed with uncooked rice to make bed warmers) might do the trick for a local shelter. Many shelters list acceptable items for donation on their websites, but if you don’t see the information on yours, call them directly. Some supplies on the Humane Society’s list of donation items include newspaper, long-shredded office paper, and clean plastic shopping bags.

  Offer to host a zero-waste program at the library.

  Library directors are always looking for interesting programs to present to the c
ommunity, and if you have an area of expertise (even a fledgling one!), consider sharing your knowledge with others. If you’ve mastered composting, teach everyone else. If you now make all your own baby food from scratch, invite parents to a how-to event. A program on how to shop secondhand stores for gorgeous wardrobe finds would be popular, as would an image- and tip-driven account of your zero-waste home renovation. Share your passion, spread the word, and be part of a chain reaction of increasing responsibility to our environment and ourselves.

  You’re Already an (Almost) Zero-Waste Hero

  You read them—all 118 tips. Some you’re probably doing already, some you might try today, and others tomorrow. But while this book is meant to be comprehensive in helping you reduce waste across all parts of your life, it’s by no means complete. Every day, people are finding new and innovative ways to consume more consciously, reuse more creatively, and lend and borrow things we might not have done a generation—or even a decade!—ago. (Car sharing. Amazing.)

  Take these ideas and make them your own, then tell curious friends, family, and strangers exactly how they can make these changes in their own lives. And don’t forget the why—the more we share the statistics and facts about waste and how it’s impacting our planet, the more we’ll all recognize the importance of making changes for the better.

  It’s possible that in a year’s time, all the waste you’ve generated over the year will fit neatly into one Mason jar. (You’ve read the blogs—you know it can happen.) But it’s also possible that you won’t be able to quantify the ways you’ve improved your eco-footprint. Don’t sweat it; just feel good knowing that your recycling bin isn’t as full because you’re buying and using less packaging. Know that you haven’t tossed leftovers in months, and that you keep a stainless steel fork and knife at your desk for lunch. Know that those shoes you couldn’t walk half a block in have been donated to someone who might find them more comfortable. Let your successes inspire you to take on more zero-waste habits and behaviors. It all matters. It all makes a difference.

  Everything you do is saving the planet and everyone on it. Keep up the great work.

  (And if you feel like hashtagging, I’d love to see what you’re up to—and to try your tips and strategies! #almostzerowaste)

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to all the hard-core zero wasters who inspire the rest of us. Thanks to everyone who picked up this book with the intention of doing a little more to reduce their waste than they were doing yesterday. Thanks to Darby Hoover of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who answered all my crazy hypotheticals and gave us all permission to do the best we can without feeling guilty about what we aren’t doing. Thanks to my husband, who blurted out zero-waste ideas at the dinner table, and to my friends and family, who shared their best tips. Thanks to my editor, Lauren Hummel, who pushed me to come up with the best, most actionable yet realistic ways to live almost zero waste, and also to Theresa DiMasi, whose confidence propelled me through this book from start to finish.

  And a huge thanks to our planet. Having written this book, I can never again take anything we have here on Earth for granted. I clean up other people’s litter at the beach, I fish unwashed plastics out of the recycling can to rinse them out, and I seek out the best places to donate unwanted clothing and household items so that they will truly be put to use. (And I also keep an empty Mason jar on my office shelf as a reminder that there’s always a little more I can do.)

  More from the Author

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  About the Author

  Award-winning journalist MELANIE MANNARINO has written and created content for magazines including Real Simple, Cosmopolitan, and Seventeen, and has worked as deputy executive editor for Redbook and news editor for Marie Claire. The author of The Best Gender-Neutral Baby Name Book and Epic Baby Names for Girls, Melanie scours antique shops for vintage clothes, walks to mass transit, and repurposes leftovers like a pro. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, son, and two cats (who use biodegradable litter and love it).

  SimonandSchuster.com

  www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Melanie-Mannarino

  @simonandschuster @simonandschuster

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  Notes

  Introduction

  1. “Global Waste to Grow by 70 Percent by 2050 Unless Urgent Action Is Taken: World Bank Report,” press release, September 20, 2018, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/09/20/global-waste-to-grow-by-70-percent-by-2050-unless-urgent-action-is-taken-world-bank-report.

  2. Carly Cassella, “Nearly 25% of the World’s Population Faces a Water Crisis, And We Can’t Ignore It,” August 7, 2019, https://www.sciencealert.com/17-countries-are-facing-extreme-water-stress-and-they-hold-a-quarter-of-the-world-s-population.

  3. Shannyn Snyder, “Water Scarcity—The US Connection,” https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/water_scarcity_in_us.

  Chapter One: Eat and Cook (Almost) Zero Waste

  1. Dana Gunders, “Wasted: How America Is Losing up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill,” NRDC Issue Paper, August 2012, https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf.

  2. Eco-Cycle, “Be Straw Free Campaign: Frequently Asked Questions,” http://www.ecocycle.org/bestrawfree/faqs.

  3. For a Strawless Ocean, “Understanding Plastic Pollution,” https://www.strawlessocean.org/faq.

  4. American Society of Agronomy, “Landfill Cover Soil Methane Oxidation Underestimated,” ScienceDaily, May 1, 2009, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090427121637.htm.

  5. Mandy Oaklander, “92% of Restaurant Meals Have Too Many Calories: Study,” Time, January 20, 2016, https://time.com/4187120/restaurant-meals-fast-food-calories/.

  6. Lisa Jennings, “What Restaurants Can Do to Reduce Food Waste,” Restaurant Hospitality, February 8, 2018, https://www.restaurant-hospitality.com/operations/what-restaurants-can-do-reduce-food-waste.

  7. Taylor Orci, “Are Tea Bags Turning Us into Plastic?” Atlantic, April 8, 2013, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/are-tea-bags-turning-us-into-plastic/274482/.

  8. Valentina Bisinella, Paola Federica Albizzati, Thomas Fruergaard Astrup, and Anders Damgaard, eds., “Life Cycle Assessment of Grocery Carrier Bags,” Danish Environmental Protection Agency, February 2018, https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf.

  9. Zoë Schlanger, “Your Cotton Tote Is Pretty Much the Worst Replacement for a Plastic Bag,” Quartz, April 1, 2019, https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotton-totes-might-be-worse-than-plastic/.

  10. Charles P. Gerba, David Williams, and Ryan G. Sinclair, “Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags,” Loma Linda University School of Public Health, October 17, 2013, https://publichealth.llu.edu/about/blog/dr-ryan-sinclair-reusable-shopping-bag-study.

  11. Catherine Boeckmann, “10 Easy Vegetables to Grow from Seed,” Old Farmer’s Almanac, January 18, 2019, https://www.almanac.com/content/10-easy-vegetables-grow-seed.

  12. “Meatless Monday History,” Monday Campaigns, https://www.meatlessmonday.com/about-us/history/.

  13. J. Poore and T. Nemecek, “Reducing Food’s Environmental Impacts through Producers and Consumers,” Science 360, no. 6392 (June 1, 2018): 987–92, https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987.

  14. “Composting at Home,” Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/recycle/composting-home.

&nbs
p; 15. Pamela M. Geisel and Donna C. Seaver, “Composting Is Good for Your Garden and the Environment,” University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8367.pdf.

  16. “Confused by Date Labels on Packaged Foods?” Food & Drug Administration, https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/confused-date-labels-packaged-foods.

  Chapter Two: Create an (Almost) Zero-Waste Home

  1. “National Overview: Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes, and Recycling,” Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials.

  2. “Sustainable Agriculture: Cotton: Overview,” World Wildlife Fund, https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/cotton.

  3. “State Rainwater Harvesting Laws and Legislation,” National Conference of State Legislatures, February 2, 2018, http://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/rainwater-harvesting.aspx.

  4. M. Haberland, M. Bakacs, and S. Yergeau, “An Investigation of the Water Quality of Rainwater Harvesting Systems,” Journal of the NACAA 6, no. 1 (May 2013), https://www.nacaa.com/journal/index.php?jid=205.