Zero-waste, WTF

posted by Clarity Jones | April 22, 2009

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People are slowly coming round to zero-waste, and both community and individual initiatives are building, but the concept is still pioneering. I get this all the time: what do you mean you're zero-waste; what do you do with your garbage?
By me saying I'm zero-waste, I am actually saying there is no such thing as garbage. Let me pause while you pick your jaw off the floor.

It's all about perspective and attitude. It's about the relationship you have with the objects you bring into your life. Your stuff is not just the items in the package, it's the package too. Now, I'm not saying in 2009 zero-waste isn't still a challenge. Some objects, and there are increasingly less, still can not be composted, upcycled, recycled, reused or renovated enough for you to want to keep them in your company. So what do we do? We find solutions. We find ways to avoid waste and support initiatives to stop making it. Because necessity breeds invention, when you give up your garbage can, you find solutions.

I've started a group at Evolver.net, Zero-Waste Practitioners, to get the discussion rolling. It's place to share tips and resources for zero-waste living. There we can start to develop new relationships with our "stuff" by providing information and support for giving up the garbage habit.

Yes, there are a few who have called me crazy and others who have labeled me as just plain hardcore, and maybe I'll stay a lone voice in a garbage free wilderness. But there's a dream that keeps me going, one of hearing, Grandma, what's garbage? Maybe that's a good question to ask yourself today.

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Why Waste the Waste?

Cotec — Apr 22, 2009

Thanks for the articular. I completely agree with you about lowering our waste.

i live in seattle in a co-op that has been making grey water systems, rain barrels, and such to lower our waste. We do a lot of Dumpster diving as well. To put our wast in prospective.... I, and 8 of my friends, live almost completely from reclaimed foods. The food is perfectly good and my diet has improved to more produce. The sad thing is there is still plenty left, and more coming.

Thanks for putting this issue out there,
Isaac

Plastic

psychegram — Apr 23, 2009

A lot of the problem has to do with materials, specifically plastic. Wood and metal can be repaired, but plastic, once broken, is often broken for good, and it doesn't help that most of the consumer items in our society are built around planned obsolescence. Do you have a game-plan for that?

I applaud you

Amar Atma — Apr 23, 2009

But how does one live in the world and create zero waste? Or should we all live in remote places?

I recycle and try to minimize my waste products and I know that there is still much more that I can and should do.

It is like being a Jain. It is incapacitating to put others too high above oneself. There must be balance. If you were to take this point of view of conscious, individual responsibility into every area of life, you would fall outside of the system utterly and risk your survival, in unimaginable ways.

I applaud your objectives but there must be some balance to live in the world. If you aren't going to live in the world then your impact is small compared to what it could be.

Love is the law, love under will
AA

thanks for commenting

Clarity Jones — Apr 24, 2009

@psychegram yes lots of bad packaging out there and i am constantly having to examine what an item i buy comes with, and i still make mistakes, but less of them. i like how zero-waste narrows down my choices. like i needed to buy a computer mouse the other day and was overwhelmed with the choices, but saw only one company packaged their mouse in totally recyclable cardboard. so i picked that one. it was easy! maybe there was a "better" mouse but their packaging was inferior so i had to look at what i was buying as being a combination of both. i also am taking much better care of this mouse than my last because i have noticed it is abuse and neglect that often turns many things into garbage.

in general, i'm also looking at what things are composed of more closely and yes do sometimes have to take things apart to recycle all the materials correctly. i hope to use the Zero-waste Practitioners to share strategies.

@amar atma. you raise some good points. this is what i have learned from practicing ahimsa. success is not necessarily about the objective but the process. for example, i make a conscious decision not to kill things, yet i know that everyday i step on a thousand ants just walking from my door to my garden. i just can't see everyone of them, yet i still have to go to my garden and harvest food. but when i actually see an ant in front of me and am aware of it, i stop and walk around it or pause and let it cross and go on its way. now, it's worthy of a whole blog post how this change in attitude has changed my life (i will attest it is more challenging than zero-waste). but let's just say it has opened up a whole new awareness and appreciation of my physical universe.

by giving up killing i have gained a heightened awareness and appreciation of life

it is similar with zero-waste, it has completely changed how i look at things. the world has become another place where in i see things in a far more holistic manner. i no longer see it as here's the thing i'm interested in and then there's the garbage that surrounds it.

by understanding what things are composed i feel empowered about what i bring into my life

overall, i feel when we ignore things we actually cheat ourselves.

Join us at Zero-waste Practitioners and we can further the discussion

clarityjones.com

Perhaps we should all live in remote places...

Amar Atma — Apr 25, 2009

With the push by the Elite to dramatically reduce the population of the world by 80-90%, we have formidable challenges ahead. The US is on course for mass, forced vaccination or internment indefinitely.

We live in unreal times.

I am currently in a remote place but did not expect to stay here. Only time will tell...