30 Tips to Start Going Zero Waste
Ways to Reduce Waste - Beginners Guide
1. Starting slowly is fine!
Our advice is to choose one thing and do it until it becomes habit rather than jumping in! Don’t think that if your waste doesn’t fit into a mason jar at the end of month one (or even month 12) that you’ve failed. These goals belong on instagram and don’t need to be your reality in order for you to be successful in your journey to reducing your waste.
2. Start with Simple Swaps
Choose just one thing to start until it becomes habit. For example, getting a reusable water bottle, coffee cup or bringing your own bag to the supermarket.
3. Understand Your Local Recycling Rules.
They are almost always needlessly complex and vary from area to area, do your research and make sure your recycling efforts aren't in vain.
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4. Use What You Have!
This one might seem obvious, but before you begin your plastic purge or throwing out your perfectly useable items in a bid to replace with more ethical choices, use what you have first.
This is often the most frustrating part for most people on a zero waste journey, waiting for that last bit of shampoo to empty from the bottle before embarking on that solid shampoo mission can feel miles away when you have a cupboard full of spares.
5. Consume less
Fundamentally the less you buy, the less you have to throw away. When you are about to purchase something new, think about why you want it, is it useful? how long will it last? how long will you use it for? do you need it?
If its something you'll only use once, a novelty or an unnecessary purchase then leave it on the shelf.
6. Ditch the single use make up pads
Single-use cotton pads, whether its for make up removal, nail polish removal or applying toner, create so much unnecessary waste. If you used 4 a day, to remove make up for example, that's 1460 pads either flushed or in landfill each year.
Switching to a reusable, zero-waste make up or nail polish remover pads is one of the easiest swaps you can make. At Tabitha Eve, we offer plastic-free, zero-waste, biodegradable make up remover rounds and nail polish remover wipes to help you have a less wasteful beauty routine.
SHOP Reusable Make Up Remover Pads>>
SHOP Reusable Nail Polish Remover Wipes>>
7. Choose reusables
Single-use plastic is a plague on our environment, with over 1 million single-use plastic bottles sold globally every minute. Reusables are the way forward, so whether its a water bottle, coffee cup, food packaging or shopping bags, make sure you always choose to reuse!
8. Buy loose and bulk
Zero-waste, loose, refill shopping is a game changer when it comes to reducing plastic packaging in your home. Products such as spices, teas, coffees, pastas, grains and pulses are perfect for buying in bulk. When heading to the supermarket, opt for loose veg and bring your own produce bags (just in case the supermarket still offers plastic bags for them!)
Interested in knowing more about loose, refill shopping? Read our blog post here>>
9. Compost
Composting is beneficial to the environment on both a global scale and also on a much smaller scale - your own garden! When you put your organic waste in your general waste, it goes to landfill which might not seem to bad, right? It'll decompose in the landfill? Well, a huge build up of organic waste, paired with toxic cocktail of landfill chemicals and gases, produces huge amounts of methane. Composting is also a fabulous way to tun food-waste into nutrient rich, plant-loving compost for your garden!
10. Bring your own
Bring your own - Going out for coffee? Bring your own cup. Popping to the shops? Bring your own bag. Whenever there's an opportunity to bring your own reusable product to reduce waste, do it!
11. Take your bags with you
It takes 1000 years for one plastic bag to break down. That means that the first ever plastic bag made in 1959 will still be breaking down now! When plastic bags end up in the ocean they can be mistaken for foods such as jellyfish, they can cause suffocation or entrapment. Remember, when you chose a single-use plastic bag the real cost is a lot higher than just a few pence!
SHOP Reusable Cotton Market Bag>>
12. Ditch the paper towels
Did you know that most of us wrongly believe kitchen paper towels to be recyclable? Once a paper towel has been used, it is no longer recyclable. Opting for a reusable, plasic-free, fabric kitchen towel not only eliminates waste but can save you money in the long run too!
SHOP Unpaper Reusable Kitchen Towels>>
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13. Find a repair cafe
So many things end up in landfill because they've broken and either we don't know how to repair them or we don't have the time. A repair cafe is somewhere you can go to get help with items that need repairing - you get together with other people, hang out and repair your broken times, saving them from landfill. Whether its electrical devices, computers, clothing, toys and even bicycles - you can take them with you to a repair cafe.
14. Meal Plan
Zero-waste isn't just about plastic waste, its about waste in general. According to WRAP: 'The 4.5 million tonnes of food and drink wasted annually in the UK could easily fill 30 Royal Albert Halls.'
A great way to tackle food waste in planning your meals, cooking in bulk and freezing left overs.
15. Bring your lunch to work
We're all guilty of picking up on-the-go lunches (hey, sometimes its inevitable!) but part of meal planning means you can cook in batches, portion them up and take them to work. Not only will this drastically reduce your plastic waste, but you'll have lovely home cooked lunches at work. It's a win-win!
16. Ditch the dryer sheets for reusable dryer balls
Dryer balls are reusable alternatives to dryer sheets and fabric softeners. How do they work? They help to circulate the laundry around your dryer which means faster drying times and less energy usage. They also absorb heat from the dryer, distributing it around the laundry. As they move around in the dryer they soften fabric too, so no need to use fabric softeners!
17. Stop using plastic kitchen sponges
In the UK, 400 million plastic sponges are thrown away every year. Switch to reusable, eco-friendly kitchen sponge to reduce waste in your kitchen! Our Kitchen None Sponges are zero-waste, biodegradable, eco-friendly, plastic-free, reusable and will last for years!
SHOP Reusable Kitchen None Sponge>>
18. Donate unused items
We've all ended up with bags or boxes of things we just don't use or need anymore and the temptation to simply throw them away and just get them gone is real! But don't just bin then, something you don't need might be just what someone else is searching for. Donating your unwanted items prolongs their life and keeps them out of landfill, not to mentions helps support charities too!
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19. Use soap bars
Buying bottle after bottle of soaps, shower gels and haircare products accumulates a huge amount of single-use plastic packaging. These bottles seldom end up recycled correctly as they're either not cleaned out properly or are made from a mixture of plastics. Fundamentally, even though plastic bottles are recyclable on paper, they are not always recycled in practice to its best to just avoid them wherever possible!
Soap bars are often free from plastic-packaging, much cheaper and can last a lot longer! If you're thinking of switching to soap bars, have a look at our cotton soap saver pouch to make the most of them.
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20. Get a library card
About 320 million books are thrown away each year rather than recycled or reused. As lovely as books are, they can take up a lot of space and once we've read them, often we don't ever pick them up again. Get yourself a library card, borrow books to your hearts content and then return them, meaning books live longer, get enjoyed by more people and stay out of landfill.
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21. Buy second-hand
Whether its fashion, furniture, cars or phones, second-hand is one of the most sustainable ways to shop. So many items end up in landfill whilst still in perfect working order so shopping second-hand means they avoid landfill for just that little bit longer. Also shopping second-hand eliminates the energy used to create something new, whether that's a t-shirt or telephone. Not to mention, second-hand will often save you money too!.
22. Go paperless for all your bills
In just a few clicks you can drastically reduce the amount of paper waste that comes through your letterbox. Now that so many of our utilities have now moved online, there is very little reason to have paper bills.
23. Swap out your plastic toothbrush
Switch from single-use, plastic toothbrushes to a plant-based, biodegradable, bamboo alternative! Toothbrushes with bamboo handles create substantially less plastic waste than plastic brushes. Many bamboo toothbrushes still have nylon bristles but the waste of a few plastic bristles as opposed to a whole toothbrush is still a massive improvement.
24. Swap tea bags for loose leaf tea in a reusable strainer
Did you know that a lot of teabags contain plastic? And even if they don't, they'll come in plastic bags, in boxes. That's a lot of packaging for one cup of tea! Buying loose leaf teas and using a reusable strainer or reusable teabag can eliminate singe-use waste from your teas completely.
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25. Use a safety razor
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): 2 billion single-use, plastic razors are thrown away each year. Reusable safety razors are made to last; the handle will last for years and only the razor blades need replacing. These razor blades are recyclable, just make sure you dispose of them safely!
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26. Choose natural
Natural generally means no synthetic materials, toxic chemicals or harmful ingredients have been used to make a product. Natural products will be made from materials and substances that won't cause harm to our eco-systems, the environment and are often better for ourselves too!
When a product is made using synthetic materials, toxic chemicals or harmful ingredients, these ingredients can end up in the waste products during the production process. You can guarantee these waste products will end up causing damage to our soil, water and health.
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27. Invest in high quality
When it comes to reducing waste, its a good idea to choose higher quality, well-made products where you can. If something is made to last, it's less likely to break and less likely to get thrown away.
28. Purge Your Inbox
According to Digital Cleanup Day: The carbon footprint of the internet and the systems supporting it account to about 3.7% of global greenhouse emissions, which is similar to the amount produced globally by the airline industry. Some studies estimate that in a decade the internet network will produce 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. By deleting the thousands of dormant emails in your inboxes, you are actually reducing the amount of energy used as a part of your digital carbon footprint!
Read more about how to reduce your digital footprint here>>
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29. Stop using clingfilm
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30. Shop local
When we shop local we're not just supporting small businesses and local economies, we're also reducing energy consumption - whether that's for choosing to walk to a shop nearby rather than driving somewhere, or saving on the energy used to ship and deliver our online orders.
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31. Say no to trends
Trends are designed to make us feel pressure to buy things that we don't need. Once we've bought trendy items, as soon as the trend is over, that item is no longer valuable, obsolete or we just simply no longer want it because it isn't 'cool'. Avoiding trends not only is a more sustainable choice but it also allows you to explore and develop your own unique personal tastes and style!
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Now, this is a big list! But we're not saying you have to do them all (if you can then go for it!) It's about introducing as many sustainable, zero-waste swaps into our lives as we can to make a difference. The pressure for eco-friendly perfection is palpable, but just focus on your own choices and remember: