The overall reactions have been amazing. I've been asked a lot "why?" "what do you do about xyz?" "that looks so complicated!" and my favorite, "what are you trying to prove?"
I'll address that last one first. I'm not trying to prove anything. MY family is transitioning because we feel it's what's best for US. I know this isn't for everyone, and probably not for most. We try to live as sustainable as we can and when we looked though our trash, it was obvious we weren't doing a great job.
Have you ever noticed exactly how much plastic you bring home from the grocery store? I'd be willing to bet you don't. I didn't. We eat organic, local, as in season as possible with two kids begging for strawberries in December but they all come wrapped in..plastic. I seriously beg you to look into it, as I could spend all day talking about it but that's not what this is about.
So, what is zero waste? It's a sustainable natural cycle, aimed in stopping materials from going into a landfill. It's more than "oh I recycle a lot too!" (Another comment I recieved) we aim to reduce any materials from going to a recycling center also. We're fortunate in that we compost, and have the ability to burn. All glass that cannot be reused and repurposed gets recycled and we're trying to stop any plastic from coming into the home.
So, as for some of the most common questions:
What do you do about storage?
mason jars are the easiest and most cost effective for us.
What do you buy?
Almost everything we bought before. We've always tried to limit processed foods, but sometimes life happens. Pregnancys, moves, renovations. We've made an effort to stop the convenience of Annie's Mac n cheese (sorry kids!). We don't buy anything with packaging, and if we need something packaged- glass. Luckily a drive into town provides us with two natural food stores that offer bulk goods. Flour, rice, coffee all our dry good needs. We bring our own jars to fill instead of buying pre-packaged or using their disposable bags. We supplement our garden with loose fruit and vegetables. We bring our own produce bags and the kids have a blast handing them out.
What about liquids?
So, we don't drink much of anything new that isn't water. We buy milk from a farm down the road that offers glass bottles. I make most anything we use condiment wise. Everything else I can put into my jars, the salad bar and olive bar are great places to look!
"I don't have time to do that"
I thought the same time. I don't have a lot of down time. I have animals, kids, more animals, a home, a life. The longest part is getting your jars weighted. It took us a whopping 2 minutes. I saved time putting things away because I didn't have anything to unwrap and repackage. Everything went in their respective places. I hope this answers some questions and by all means, feel free to ask any more. Hopefully we can encourage friends to make some changes in their own lives and make 'one time use' a thing of the past.
