Living without waste - that's how you take the first step

Living without waste is more sustainable. But it can also be a challenging task. Do you want to live without waste? This way you take the first step towards a life without waste.

nyfrwm.org

Living without waste - the advantages and the disadvantages

The big advantage of living without waste is clear - you produce less pollution. And so your lifestyle is less damaging to the environment.

• That gives a nice feeling.
• It helps you move towards a future that makes you happy.
• It helps you inspire others to do the same.

But life without waste also has a big disadvantage: it is less easy.

Waste production is currently the path of least resistance.

You just flicker everything you no longer need in a gray box that you occasionally roll to the street. After which it all automatically disappears.

Living without waste requires a lot more effort. But - and it is an important one - it is not black and white.

You can live without waste and still retain as many benefits as possible. In this article I will show you how to take the first step.

A lot of people seem to be occupied with the (difficult) step that follows. But this first step is where you get the most profit for the world with the least effort for you.

The first step - decide to live without waste

Okay - let's start at the beginning. We are going to make a drastic decision. We are going to decide that from now on we will no longer produce waste.

And no worries - sometimes it will happen. But when it happens we look at ourselves in the mirror and say the following to ourselves: from now on we do not produce any more waste.

Because that is your intention. And that remains your intention - even if it goes wrong once.

Good. How are you going to do that? By starting at the beginning. We are going to stop residual waste.

What is residual waste and how do you stop it?
Residual waste is really waste. It is the only waste stream with virtually nothing to do with it, except for burial or burning.

letsrecycle.com

By stopping residual waste you reduce your negative impact drastically. You reduce the amount of gang that ends up in the air or groundwater.

What is left is a lot less harmful. Not perfect yet - but that is why this is the first step and not the last.

Why is everything but residual waste less harmful? Because all the other waste that you produce is technically no waste:

• It is downcycled. For example, plastic waste is melted and compressed into communal beds after which it can no
  longer be recycled.
• Sometimes it is recycled. A new glass jar is made from a glass jar. This can in principle continue indefinitely.
• Sometimes it is upcycled. Something is made of waste that has more value than the original. After which it can be
  reused again. Like metal.

How we live without residual waste
Once every 2-3 months we bring a gray garbage bag to the chute. This is our residual waste. The stuff that ends up there are things like styrofoam, crisp bags and other non-recyclable misery.

The reason we bring this bag so often is because we are sometimes lazy. Then we put recyclable products in them that have become dirty, for example. Like a pizza box or a plastic bowl with hummus that unfortunately has been open too long.

friendlyfolkscleaningservice.com

And sometimes pruning waste disappears. Because it is so far to the GFT tank and we are too lazy.

But the good news is - usually we are not lazy. And that is why we produce less and less residual waste.

How is it that we are getting better at this? Simple: in the kitchen we have bins for recycling.

We have to go outside for the residual waste. And because we are so lazy, we prefer to recycle because the container is closer.

• Throwing things into the gray box is harder and therefore more painful than separating the waste.

I found the inspiration for this blog on beterleven.nl
and other sources I used : http://nyfrwm.org and letsrecycle.com