1) Buy in BULK.
An aisle of BulkBarn, a chain bulk-shopping supermarket, where you can bring your own containers and purchase products by weight.
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Recently, plenty of bulk stores, including Costco and Sam's club, have been popping up across the cities of North America. Buying in bulk eliminates the paper and plastic that would've been used had the products been individually packaged and purchased.
If you live overseas, it might be harder for you to find these stores, but there are still better options! Buying produce from local farmers markets not only reduces the amount of plastic used for packaging, but it also supports local farmers, and the food is often fresher too! Here are some resources to get you started on the path to waste-free shopping: |
2) Start a COMPOST bin.
Composting can seem daunting for someone who's never done it before, but it's actually a lot simpler than it seems. Composting can significantly reduce a household's waste output and is good for the environment. Even if you don't garden, you can always give it to a friend or donate it to a local farm or community garden.
"Compost is the single most important supplement you can give your garden." Click here for the ultimate guide to composting: |
3) Order FEWER things online.
It's easy to fall into the habit of ordering online. A few taps on your phone, and anything you need can show up at your door in a moment's notice. Whether it be takeout from UberEats or a new set of clothes from Amazon, we should all make an effort to purchase less things online. In addition to the ridiculous amounts of packaging that's needed to ship and deliver the goods, transporting these goods also produces a significant amount of carbon emission and exhausts our supply of fossil fuels.
"In 2016, transportation overtook power plants as the top producer of carbon dioxide emissions in the US for the first time since 1979. Nearly a quarter of the transportation footprint comes from medium- and heavy-duty trucks." |
4) BRING your own...
...reusable water bottle to school. Or cloth bag to the supermarket. Or metal utensils to lunch. The point is: we throw away a lot of single-use plastic products that can easily be replaced with a number of substitutes.
Also...learn to say no! When you order takeout, you can ask the restaurant to include single-use utensils by writing it in the "notes" section. When you're buying a drink at Starbucks, you can ask the Starbucks barista to fill up your own bottle or mug instead of giving you a plastic cup. If you live in a foreign country, it's especially important to learn the translation for these phrases! Learn more about single-use plastics and the harmful effects they have on the environment here: |
"The Bring Your Own Bag Program is available at over 75% of the top 100 Grocery, Pharmacy, and Retail banners across North America." |
5) REDUCE food waste.
It's no surprise that the majority of our waste comes from our kitchen. Reducing our food waste can be accomplished through several of the methods above: composting, ordering less takeout, and buying in bulk. However, there are even more ways to reduce the amount of food waste you produce:
Here are some great resources to clean up your kitchen: |