1/2/2024 0 Comments Trash and better trash![]() “Going zero waste has been great,” she says. Felous was surprised and delighted with the impact it’s had on her life. “And any step to reduce waste is a step in the right direction.”Ĭincinnati’s Rachel Felous took more than a few steps in January 2017 and cut her waste to one bag for the year. “Many such solutions to waste are insanely simple,” she says. The restaurant was even happy to put the tortillas in Kellogg’s container because it saves them money. Eventually, she hit on the solution: buy a bunch of fresh-made ones from her local Mexican restaurant. But as part of her zero-waste quest, she didn’t want to buy packaged ones at the grocery. As one example, she mentions that she loves tortillas but hates making them. Going zero-waste means questioning what’s normal and thinking outside the box, Kellogg says. These, and similar old-school solutions, produce no waste and are cheaper in the long run. Think cloth napkins and handkerchiefs, vinegar and water for cleaning, glass or stainless-steel containers for left-overs, cloth grocery bags. Many of the solutions to cutting waste use practices that were commonplace before the era of plastics and disposable products. ![]() “But it’s not a radical act to clean up a kitchen spill with a cloth towel instead of a paper towel.” “There’s a fear of being rejected when you try to do things differently,” Kellogg says. There’s an active zero-waste community online sharing ideas, challenges, and support for those struggling with unhelpful friends and family who think it’s weird to worry about trash. She has two stores dedicated to making trash-free living easier for everyone. Singer started reducing her waste footprint as an environmental studies student in 2012 and has turned zero-waste into a career as a speaker, consultant, and retailer. Like her own readers, Kellogg learned from others, including New York City’s Lauren Singer, who has the very popular Trash is for Tossers blog. She found alternatives and started making her own products. “Just do the best you can and buy less.” A Thriving CommunityĪ breast cancer scare in college led Kellogg to start reading labels on personal-care products and finding ways to limit her exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. Zero-waste is really about trying to minimize your trash and making better choices in your life, she says. However, she doesn’t want people to fixate on trying to stuff all their trash into a jar. “I think many people are ready to cut their waste,” says Kellogg. In three years, she has gained 300,000 monthly readers on her blog and on Instagram. ![]() Kellogg is one of several zero-waste bloggers who share online the details of their efforts, along with practical tips and encouragement, for others looking to embrace a zero-waste lifestyle. “We also saved about $5,000 a year by purchasing fresh food instead of packaged, buying in bulk, and making our own products like cleaners and deodorant,” says Kellogg, who lives with her husband in a small house in Vallejo, California. (Learn more about Kellogg in the recent plastic issue of National Geographic magazine.) ![]() Meanwhile, the average American produces 1,500 pounds of trash a year. Kathryn Kellogg is one of those young millennials who has downsized her trash pile-anything that hasn’t been composted or recycled-so two years' worth literally fits inside one 16-ounce jar. They say it saves them money and time and enriches their lives. These are not wannabe hippies, but people embracing a modern minimalist lifestyle. Their yearly trash output can be small enough to fit inside an eight-ounce mason jar. is the king of trash, producing a world-leading 250 million tons a year-roughly 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day.Īnd yet there are a growing number of people-often young millennial women-who are part of a zero-waste movement. The world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste a day, 10 times the amount a century ago, according to World Bank researchers. That’s how much land-based plastic trash ended up in the world’s oceans in just one year. Imagine 15 grocery bags filled with plastic trash piled up on every single yard of shoreline in the world. Join a conversation with Kathryn Kellogg on zero waste on Reddit at 2 pm ET May 18. Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge. This story is part of Planet or Plastic?-our multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic waste crisis.
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