Minimal waste challenge – six month update

Up to last week I thought I had nothing to share with you in this update. In the past three months reducing waste hasn’t been on the top of my mind, and as a result I thought nothing much happened. Until I made a short round around our house, and came to the conclusion that we made a couple more changes towards a minimal waste lifestyle. What a pleasant surprise.

1. When I used up my last plastic razor, I switched to a safety razor. Plastic-free shaving is a fact.
2. I bought extra kitchen rags, so we can use less paper towels.
3. We swapped tissues for handkerchiefs.
4. We replaced our plastic dishwashing brushes with wooden ones.
5. Instead of scourers we use a wooden brush and rags for cleaning.

In addition to these swaps, we reduced even more waste. We are at a point now that I think we need to switch to smaller bins because the odours emerging from our thrash cans are pretty foul. But if you now me even a little bit, I have quite an expensive taste. Not because I enjoy spending a lot of money on things like trash cans, but because I prefer to have beautiful things over ugly ones. And with zero waste in mind, I want to buy a craddle to craddle certified bin. They do exist. But I have to save up a little and sell our current trash cans before I can buy that one.

I would like to close this update with a couple of considerations regarding some items I cannot buy without plastic. The first is meat. It simply isn’t possible to buy this plastic-free. So I decided that quality and my health are more important than avoiding the plastic packaging on this one. So I order it from a source I trust to be honest about the welfare of their animals. The second is coconut yogurt. This item passes through our house in rather large quantities. And in plastic tubs. I researched making my own coconut yogurt, but that would take two cans of coconut milk, some expensive probiotics, and it requires 24 hours in the oven. And with a short shelf life of just a couple of days I would have to make this at least once a week. I’m not convinced that this is a better solution for the environment than buying coconut yogurt in a plastic tub.

As always, I would love to hear your zero waste solutions.

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