When I Should Be Studying

One of the first products that I switched from waste to zero waste in my bathroom was my deodorant. At the time this was an easy switch to make. I started using zero waste deodorants over three years ago. Since then more and more types and options for zero waste deodorant have become available. I have tried out three different types and used each product up completely so I think I can fairly rank each one. I have ordered the products with the first one being the first kind I tried, then the second, and lastly the third. Why Zero Waste? I personally chose to live a lifestyle that is low waste and on the way to zero waste as a way to decrease the amount of waste or trash that I produce. When I think of waste I think of it in two parts. There is the waste that is truly waste that has to be sent to the landfill because I do not have access or the means to dispose of it properly. And then there is the waste that can be recycled or composted. Some people consider recycling and composting to ...

My Not So Perfect, But Work In Progress Zero Waste/Low Waste Bathroom Routine The reason for the title of this post is because the bathroom is one area of my life that I have struggled the most to reduce my waste in. There are a few reasons for this, but I will get to those later. As I have shared before, I am currently a junior in college. I am majoring in environmental studies with a minor in education. Living a zero waste lifestyle is not only a passion of mine, but has also became a teaching tool for me. By incorporating these different lifestyle changes into my life I have been able to educate and inform those around me and those who follow my blog on how they can do the same. Why Zero Waste? I personally chose to live a lifestyle that is low waste and on the way to zero waste as a way to decrease the amount of waste or trash that I produce. When I think of waste I think of it in two parts. There is the waste that is truly waste that has to be sent to the landfill because...

Why I Am Low Waste/Zero Waste I identify as an environmentalist who believes that everyone should work to make lifestyles changes that help to reduce the amount of waste they produce to overall decrease the effect us humans have on the environment. Currently I am not 100% zero waste, but I would consider my lifestyle to be low waste. Why You Should Be Zero Waste or Low Waste We are living in a society dominated by consumerism. More specifically we live in a throw-away society. This can be explained by thinking of an item as only having a short life span and then throwing it away once we are done with it, don't want it anymore because something better has come along or because it is poorly made and breaks easily.You should consider making zero waste or low waste lifestyle changes as a way to personally help to combat this societal problem and to reduce the amount of waste that is overflowing our landfills by seeing items as having a longer and more useful lifespan. Zero was...

I posted the initial blog post on this topic ( 12 Tips For Living Sustainably in College Dormitories ) back in April of 2018. At the time I had almost finished my 9 months of living in the dormitories. Since finishing my time living in a college dormitory and living in an apartment for almost a year, I have reflected on some more tips and ways that can help you to also live as sustainably as possible in a college dormitory. In August of 2019 I will be starting my junior year of college as an environmental studies major with an education minor. Most of these tips and items that I will be suggesting to you are from personally lifestyle changes that I have made as someone who feels that it is a personal need to lessen my waste and live life in a sustainably conscious way. I would like to preface this blog post by saying that going zero waste, low waste or living a sustainable life is a work in progress and takes time. With that being said I would not recommend making all of these ...

Now that 6 months of 2019 are over I feel as though I should post an update on my zero waste goals for this year. I recommend that before you continue reading this blog post that you read the original which will be linked here . In this blog post I shared my initial ideas for each goal and how I planned on achieving it. Roommates There have not been any significant changes regarding my efforts to reduce the amount of waste that my roommates produce. We are still recycling all items accepted by our city. I would like to further encourage my roommates to not use single use plastic when buying produce and other items from the grocery store. They have reduced the amount they use by not using a plastic bag at all for produce or just for large items or things that only come in plastic like grapes.  Sustain As mentioned in the initial blog post, Sustain is the environmental/sustainable club that I am a member of. The campaign that I focused most on while in school was to elim...

In December of 2018 I made a whole blog post dedicated to my Zero Waste Goals for 2019. I will be sharing a half-way update on all of the goals soon, but thought that one specific goal, composting, deserved its own blog post. As mentioned in the previous blog post, I was really interested and motivated to start composting. Well, sadly it took until the beginning of May or the start of my summer for me to actually start doing it.  Why Did it Take So Long For Me to Start? At the time of writing that initial blog post, I did not have access to a company who would pick up my compost for me. That is one obstacle that was in my way. I do not have a car nor do I really drive, so asking my roommates to start taking me to a composting drop off site in addition to them taking me to the recycling drop off was just too much for me to ask for.  I am an active member of the sustainability club at my university and during one of our weekly meetings in February it was announced ...

If you follow my blog at all then you will know that I am an environmental studies student who is very passionate about lessening the amount of waste I produce and providing education to those who want to do the same. In this blog post I will share some of my favorite zero waste and eco-friendly kitchen products. Bamboo Kitchen Utensil Set The first product that I recommend for making your kitchen zero waste or more eco-friendly is to purchase a bamboo kitchen utensil set. When I say this I don't mean that you have to go out and buy it now, but when the utensils you have break or no longer work then you can purchase bamboo utensils instead of plastic. I purchased mine from Nordstrom Rack and it was wrapped in plastic. The only thing I would make sure before you purchase a set is to ask or read to find out if the product is wrapped in plastic for shipping purposes and try to avoid that as much as possible. Bamboo Cutting Board Similar to the bamboo utensils buying a bam...

On my blog I have shared my 2019 Zero Waste Goals . One thing I have strayed away from talking about is the areas in my life that I struggle with and why these areas are a struggle for me. In this blog post I am going to share the different parts of going zero waste that I am stilling working on and how I plan to change these habits. If you are new to my blog you may not know that I am in my second year of getting my Environmental Studies major and Environmental Education minor. Okay, let get into my zero waste struggles. Frozen Food The area in which I struggle that most to reduce single use plastics is in food packaging. I can't be too hard on myself because I have switched to buying somethings not in plastic, but there are still some food items that I continue to purchase that are in plastic packaging. The freezer items in my weekly grocery haul that come in plastic are deli ham, frozen chicken tenderloins, vegetables, pepperoni, and pizza crusts. For some of these items ...