How I started producing Zero Waste

Before I begin, I would like to apologize for an excruciating long delay in posting any new post.

As a kid, I was always fascinated by animals, plants etc. I would often be found observing butterflies or lost in the natural wonders of birds. My parents had a very tough time trying to keep me away from snakes. For me I wanted a life where I could be with animals and plants all day long.

Back then I was unaware that there was a career with animals. Being in wilderness was all I wanted. Gradually it dawned on me that I can be a wildlife researcher and conservationist and that way I can be in wilderness all my life!

My field site in peninsular India

                                  Black-shouldered kite

Here I am a PhD Candidate, studying birds in shrub forests, trying to see how birds see a forest and what they prefer in the forest. I get to walk in forest all day long! Climb mountains! Feel the rush of wind on my face! Run through grass in rain! 

Life seemed beautiful! 

However there was something that was haunting me!

I started to notice a pattern in my habits and the effect of these habits! 

These actions seemed very harmless or least to say innocent. However, I could see that several of my actions were causing too much stress to plants and animals to the extent that some of them were becoming extinct. A few examples of these actions can be the careless use of plastic or unnecessary consumerism or improper disposal of waste etc.

I would literally have nightmares!

I was harming the very thing I loved and I was unaware of it.

A couple of years ago I started on a personal quest to minimize and if possible reduce my carbon footprint. Before I could reduce my carbon footprint, I had to understand what all of my actions were causing damage and how much. To quickly summarize the list of various actions causing damage:

ALL of them!

What do I do now? I felt lost! Well I had to break it down for myself to simple steps.

• I am producing a lot of trash

Well now how do I reduce trash that I am producing? 

I started making a note of all that becomes trash. I saw that majority of trash can be avoided and most of the remaining can be reused/recycled within house itself and the insignificant amount of actual trash can be sent for recycling.

Now with insight I had to break it down further for myself to be able to achieve what I have been trying. 

• Majority of trash that can be avoided

We are all victims of consumerism. Often I would end up buying stuff that I would not need and what was worrisome was that I would convince myself that I will need those things in future, Funny things future never arrived. 

I started cutting out on things to buy. I started living by the mantra "I am not buying stuff because I cannot afford it but because I do not need it." I would often try and reuse or repair rather than buying new stuff. It's not about being cheap it is about being effective consumer. Good thing I learnt how to repair most of the stuff I have.

ü  For example, I had a Samsung S3 smartphone and after 2 years the phone gave up on me. It was behaving erratically. It would discharge while I am charging or would continue to charge itself even when it was not plugged. Battery life anywhere between 20 min to 4 hours. I was tempted to buy myself a new phone but I took it for repairs and then it started working just fine for a couple of months. It did need to be repaired a couple of times. Financially, it was much cheaper getting it repaired than buying a new phone. Ethically, I delayed the phone being a trash by one year. More quickly I go through phones or anything for that matter, more I must throw away and that ends up in ever growing landfills or polluting oceans. 

ü  I know there is hardly any benefit in preaching to anyone so I started to practice. Whenever I would go to a shop I would not take polythene bags from shopkeeper. I would carry a cloth bag with me. That way I was reducing the number of polythene bags that I was using and discarding. These polythene bags end up in oceans and most of the time end up choking or simply killing marine life. In a small town, the effect was such that many shopkeepers started appreciating what I was doing simply by noticing and later helped me in whatever way they could. Also, I noticed that I did not go and tell anyone not to use polythene bags but I saw many of my friends and neighbors were now avoiding use of polythene. 

The feeling of having inspired anyone is amazing. Trust me :)

It seemed inconvenient in the beginning but later it just became a part of me. Involuntarily every time I left home I would carry a bag with me.

ü  Similarly, I avoided buying anything that is wrapped or packaged in plastic or polythene. I understand you saying that's not feasible! In rural India, it was much simpler but here in US it seems to be a challenge. Now, when I head over to Harps or Walmart for grocery, I put onions and tomatoes etc. directly in cloth bag and people at checkout counter seem to understand my point in fact some of them are very supportive too!

ü  Paper towels, tissue papers were very easy to avoid. In fact, I hardly noticed their absence! Old clothes came in handy as counter top cleaning cloth. Handkerchief replaced the tissue papers and small towels from a local supermarket replaced the use of paper towels.  

ü  I do not buy soaps and lip balm etc. In fact, I am very lucky to have friends who help me out there. Brian and Heather Becker, they make amazing soaps and lip balms at home. They share their homemade soap and lip balms with me. It is not only very healthy but are the most amazing soaps ever. I do not have dry skin any more since I started using homemade soaps.

ü  Believe it or not “ash” is a good cleaning product especially for cleaning vessels.

• Reuse/ Recycle within home

As I have come to understand zero trash does not mean increasing the amount one sends for recycling instead it means reducing trash produced and an effective way is to recycle/ reuse within home and produce as less as possible to be sent for recycling.

Recycling within my own house not only saved me the guilt of generating lot of trash it saved me bunch of money too!!! 

ü  I would cut my old shampoo bottles in a way to carve them out to be soap case or holder for holder for toothbrushes.

ü  Old toothbrushes come in real handy for cleaning purposes especially in tight spots. It saves a lot of money spent in buying those scrubbers.

ü  I have used egg trays for sprouting peppers and other similar plants.

ü  Old clothes come in real handy for being used as cleaning cloth.

• Recycling 

For everything that I could not think of any use I would either donate or send it for recycling. 

Old shoes, clothes, electronics such as phone, camera, computers etc. basically anything that can be re-used, I would donate it to Goodwill/ Salvation army etc. In US, there are outlets for donation and in rural India I would simply ask people in the village if anyone needed anything. 

Cardboard boxes, old paper, polythene etc. were sent for recycling.

Producing zero waste has had some unexpected and some expected benefits:

ü  I started living a much healthy life

ü  I was happier than usual

ü  I was saving ton of money