Welcome refill friends to Holiday 2020! I am challenging myself by starting this seasonal blog, adding to Null Refillery's mission by encouraging community and sharing knowledge to start a refill habit! Who knows, with increased confidence and your encouragement maybe I will continue to blog into 2021.
Let me start with two words, "zero waste". That sounds so overwhelming to me. I don't know about you, but I feel that Portland has an uber (really spelled über in German) tendency. Uber meaning, over, excessive, extreme. Im exhausted just typing those words. Doesn't Low waste sound much more accessible? Like self care for your household practices.
zero waste sounds so overwhelming to me
A mantra for me around low waste is, "do just one thing." That sounds doable right? I use it for housework too...when I'm procrastinating, which is pretty much everyday. Doing just one thing could really be anything, It could be doing a different low waste action every day or enact a change in habit. Whether little or big, doing just one thing is an accessible way to begin low waste living. Chances are you are already practice low waste, you bring your own grocery bags most of the time, right? Anne Marie Bonneu, author of The Zero Waste Chef said "We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly, we need millions of people doing it imperfectly." I can definitely do imperfect!
Here are a few suggestions to "do just one
thing." At our home we switched from body wash in plastic containers to bar soap. Simple right? Well except that I find I need to scrub the shower more but that's ok. Our favorite peanut butter comes in plastic so we found a brand in glass and have gotten used to it, plus I can reuse the jars for food storage. Choose a pantry staple that you can buy in bulk like oatmeal, sugar, or flour and store in you reused peanut butter jars. My pantry looks a little funky, but I like the variety. A low waste action coming from another low waste action, from another low waste action; it's like they are reproducing! You can even reuse that plastic bread bag as your bulk bags, wash and dry in-between. I have plastic bags hanging all over the house.
For those of you already dabbling in low waste practices, I have a couple of pearls for you too! Refilling of course is my personal favorite. Household cleaners and body supplies rarely come with out a single use plastic container, yet we need and even love some of those products; I LOVE my Nivea lotion, it reminds me of my summers in Germany as a child, when my Oma would slather it on me every chance she could get. I have however practiced a double low waste maneuver by refusing-yes another "R", Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Rot and Recycle-to buy it because of the plastic and refilling instead, even from another refill co in PDX as I don't carry lotion quite yet. As refilling habits grow, I will be able to carry more products in order to offer a more well-rounded home and body selection. Refilling doesn't have to follow the zero waste craze of amber glass containers, coco brushes and metal straws either. No need to buy anything new, use what you have, and reuse it, reuse it, reuse it. Another tip is to keep a container in the freezer and fill it with veggie scraps that you might normally put in the compost. Peels, tops, ends, stems and "almost on the way out", just nothing moldy, slimy or super leafy like lettuce. That will just turn to slime. After a two weeks, toss all those frozen scraps into a pot and cover with water, add any herbs and spices you want, simmer for a few hours and you have homemade veggie stock.
So hopefully I have helped ease the stress of zero waste living, because hello, it's really not possible. Low waste however, and conscious consuming IS possible. Start imperfectly, grow imperfectly, but most importantly continue imperfectly.