6 Ways Going Zero-Waste Changed My life
And can as well change yours
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I decided to give up plastic on September 2017. It was a thoughtful decision that came after spending a nice summer in the Mediterranean coast and discovering a bag of chips buried in the sand, with an expiry date that blew up my mind: 1992, the year I was born.
Going zero-waste changes you.
You end up not only being mindful about the amount of trash you produce per week, but it opens you a whole new path towards consciousness, mindfulness, compassion and respect. I can even affirm that it made me a better person.
Here are 6 ways that I observed a zero-waste lifestyle can impact your life:
- Becoming a conscious consumer
The path of reducing your trash intrinsically leads you to be aware of what you buy, where you buy it from and where it comes from. The process of buying a t-shirt stops being an act of picking up the first colorful peace of cloth in a fast-fashion retailer, but a mindful decision that weights fabric origin, worker rights and an investigation of the sustainability standards of the brand. It may also bring you to prefer second-hand clothing ¿Don´t you think there are already have too many garments available in this world?
The act of buying a mango, keeps you thinking of the amount of CO2 used to bring the fruit to the shelf and the quantity of water wasted to grow it, as well as the packaging used. Maybe it’s easier to opt for a seasonal fruit grown next to you, without any kind of packaging that you take home in a reusable bag.
As consumers, we have the right and obligation to select the products that align with our values, and we are the ones that have the power to ask from corporations how we want them (safe, natural, plastic-free…). We have to stop being just consumers and become conscious consumers, this is the only way companies can change for good.
2. Eat good feel good
One of the first objectives when removing plastic from life, is removing it from your food. That´s the category that creates the biggest amount of waste in our homes. I´m sure if you go and check your trash right now, you will find a fair amount of plastic packaging that could have been easily…
