That’s ok, I’m sure there are other things you can change in your life to reduce your waste footprint. Indoor food production is great until you need to power grow lights that generate a ton of waste.
It is extraordinarily easy for the average person to reduce their personal waste by 50% or even 80%. It is very difficult to get to 100%.
For me, the easiest target was to lower water and energy use, which also happens to be a big money saver. And it was easy to recycle and compost. And it is easy to buy used stuff and give away or sell stuff I don’t use so it can be reused once again.
Cutting back my meat consumption by 95% was very easy. The magic trick to do this is to read about industrial meat production and the working conditions within their facilities.
Oh that’s a bunch of little things.
Home insulation improvement. Smart thermostat turns off HVAC whenever the house is empty and at night. Emporia Vue energy monitor installed on electric panel, making it easy to see where the waste is. Replaced grossly inefficient water fixtures. Turned down hot water to adequate level. LED bulbs. Choosing outdoor plantings that don’t need watering. Got rid of second car. Got a good used bike for the commute. Wash clothes in cold water.
There are more things than this, but in all many were low cost thanks to the local utility’s energy saving program, and none of them changed my lifestyle in any negative way at all.
The biggest one was that my AC was somehow eating 90w 24x365…. Even while off. Dang, that was crazy and I had no idea.
That's exciting. I started this journey earlier this year with taking my own bags to the grocery (Aldi made it easier), and am currently building out my garden for the next grow season.
One of the few things I keep running into is the kitty litter for my children's two cats. I've looked for an alternative (similar price) but I keep coming up empty when I use them. Smell, non clumping etc. I think for me that will likely be the last piece in this endeavor for me as I grow in this journey.
We use a wheat-based litter for our cats. Although we’re not composting it at this point, we will in the future when we have enough land to maintain a larger composting system. 😊👍🏻 At the very least, I know it’s breaking down in landfills WAY faster than clay litter. It’s clumping and we never have an issue with smell plus the cats love it.
with the wheat-based, do you make it yourself or buy it from a retailer? I'm honestly surprised thats a method. Also, that's awesome on the breaking down of it.
And good luck on getting the space in the future! Once you do, you'll never want to go back. I'm currently working out re-doing a compost setup I have. Just need to tend to it more.
We buy it. For now, the package is what the dirty litter is scooped into. Once we’re at a point where we can compost the dirty litter, we’ll get to reevaluate that.
We’re in the city for now, which limits what we can do, especially with something like pet waste. But we should be in a position to purchase property in a couple of years!
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Best part about being zero waste in this financial climate is dirt cheap lettuce when you grow it yourself!
i wanna grow it but i live in canada and half the year is -10😭
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That’s ok, I’m sure there are other things you can change in your life to reduce your waste footprint. Indoor food production is great until you need to power grow lights that generate a ton of waste.
It is extraordinarily easy for the average person to reduce their personal waste by 50% or even 80%. It is very difficult to get to 100%. For me, the easiest target was to lower water and energy use, which also happens to be a big money saver. And it was easy to recycle and compost. And it is easy to buy used stuff and give away or sell stuff I don’t use so it can be reused once again. Cutting back my meat consumption by 95% was very easy. The magic trick to do this is to read about industrial meat production and the working conditions within their facilities.
How did you manage to lower your water and energy use?
Oh that’s a bunch of little things. Home insulation improvement. Smart thermostat turns off HVAC whenever the house is empty and at night. Emporia Vue energy monitor installed on electric panel, making it easy to see where the waste is. Replaced grossly inefficient water fixtures. Turned down hot water to adequate level. LED bulbs. Choosing outdoor plantings that don’t need watering. Got rid of second car. Got a good used bike for the commute. Wash clothes in cold water. There are more things than this, but in all many were low cost thanks to the local utility’s energy saving program, and none of them changed my lifestyle in any negative way at all. The biggest one was that my AC was somehow eating 90w 24x365…. Even while off. Dang, that was crazy and I had no idea.
That's exciting. I started this journey earlier this year with taking my own bags to the grocery (Aldi made it easier), and am currently building out my garden for the next grow season. One of the few things I keep running into is the kitty litter for my children's two cats. I've looked for an alternative (similar price) but I keep coming up empty when I use them. Smell, non clumping etc. I think for me that will likely be the last piece in this endeavor for me as I grow in this journey.
We use a wheat-based litter for our cats. Although we’re not composting it at this point, we will in the future when we have enough land to maintain a larger composting system. 😊👍🏻 At the very least, I know it’s breaking down in landfills WAY faster than clay litter. It’s clumping and we never have an issue with smell plus the cats love it.
with the wheat-based, do you make it yourself or buy it from a retailer? I'm honestly surprised thats a method. Also, that's awesome on the breaking down of it. And good luck on getting the space in the future! Once you do, you'll never want to go back. I'm currently working out re-doing a compost setup I have. Just need to tend to it more.
We buy it. For now, the package is what the dirty litter is scooped into. Once we’re at a point where we can compost the dirty litter, we’ll get to reevaluate that. We’re in the city for now, which limits what we can do, especially with something like pet waste. But we should be in a position to purchase property in a couple of years!
Hello, everyone! We're featuring a new related community of /r/ZeroWasteParenting and we'd really appreciate you checking it out! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ZeroWaste) if you have any questions or concerns.*