The (Almost) Zero-Waste Guide

by Melanie Mannarino

  Wire rolling office carts

  Buy recycled everything—starting with toilet paper.

  Did you know that most commercial toilet paper is produced using old-growth trees from ancient forests? The NRDC launched a campaign urging Americans to “wipe right” and to sign a pledge to use sustainable and recycled toilet paper in order to preserve these and other forests used for TP.6 According to the NRDC, if every American replaced just one roll of toilet paper made from virgin forest fiber with a 100 percent recycled-content TP roll, we’d save more than one million trees.

  Check out this list of other popular household items that come in sustainable and/or recycled forms. (Here’s hoping that by the time you read this, the list is even longer!)

  Toilet paper

  Paper towels

  Napkins

  Tissues

  Writing paper

  Wrapping paper

  Notebooks

  Pens

  Pencils

  Plastic trash bags

  Plastic bottles

  Aluminum cans

  Paper shopping bags

  Woven blankets

  Area rugs

  Doormats

  Carpeting

  Floor tiles

  Wallpaper

  Yoga mats

  Furniture

  Clothing

  Shoes

  Jewelry

  Buy new things less often.

  A zero-waste consumer mind-set might go something like this: Do I need a new thing? Can I reuse or repurpose something I already own? Could I obtain the thing secondhand? Could I borrow it from someone else (preferably someone local)? The fewer new items you bring into your life, the less energy you’ll need to spend figuring out how to dispose of them at the end of their life cycle.

  Rethink your Internet shopping habit.

  If you really need that item within the next twenty-four hours, is there any possibility you can walk or ride a bike to buy it locally rather than having it shipped? You’ll be saving the fuel (and carbon emissions) required to fly or truck it from the warehouse to your doorstep, as well as the cardboard, plastic, and other packaging used to ship it. For those times when you do choose to shop online, here’s how you can reduce waste:

  Choose the “pick up at local store” option. This is like the best of all worlds: you can browse via endless scroll from the comfort of your couch/bus ride home/kitchen table, and then make a quick trip to pick up your purchase locally, thus saving shipping materials and the fuel it would have taken to deliver the item to your home.

  Don’t accept the order in multiple shipments. Be sure to click (or unclick, depending on the situation) the box on the checkout page that says “This order may come in multiple shipments.” Instead, opt to have everything packed and shipped at once. It may take slightly longer to get to you, but it will reduce the packaging and resources used to deliver it to you.

  Request “frustration-free” packaging. Amazon’s Certified Frustration-Free Packaging program7 is available for many products on its site. When you choose this option, your package is shipped in easy-to-open recyclable materials, with minimal waste. (In other words, you won’t get your palm-size item delivered in a boot-size box crammed with filler materials.) As this program becomes more popular with consumers, it’s likely that other online retailers will follow suit.

  Replace burned-out incandescent light bulbs with LED bulbs.

  As the old-school light bulbs in your home die, replace them with energy-efficient LED bulbs. LEDs last longer, use less energy, and don’t contain toxic mercury like CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) do. According to the Department of Energy, Energy Star–rated LEDs use just 20 to 25 percent of the energy of traditional light bulbs, and last fifteen to twenty-five times longer.8 That means less energy wasted, as well as fewer bulbs discarded over the course of a lifetime. LED light bulbs are available in a variety of colors and shades (both warm and cool), are often dimmable, and can be used indoors and outdoors. When your LED bulbs do eventually burn out, contact your local recycling center to dispose of them properly.

  Use the “off” switch more often.

  Turn off lights when you leave a room. Set your computer to sleep mode when you take a lunch break. Turn off the TV or radio when you leave the house. (Playing ’90s alternative music isn’t going to make your cat less lonely.9) The rules our parents enforced to save money on utility bills when we were kids still hold true—for your household budget and for the energy toll on our planet.

  Open the shades.

  Blackout shades are great for sleeping, but they’re not helpful when you’re putting on makeup in the morning. Heavy curtains may give a warm, cozy vibe to your living room, but they’re terrible for reading on the couch. Lessen your reliance on artificial lighting by letting natural light illuminate your home. If you’ve got energy-efficient windows, there’s no need to fear drafts, so open your shades, lift those blinds, pull back those curtains, and let the sun shine in.

  Upgrade household appliances and other items efficiently.

  Whenever you need to replace materials or appliances in your home—from old, drafty windows to the dishwasher—look for the least wasteful way to dispose of the unwanted materials, while also replacing them with the most sustainable and energy-efficient options. If you’re working with a contractor on window replacement, for example, tell them you’d like them to dismantle the existing windows rather than demolishing them, so that the glass, wood, metal, or other materials might be recycled or reused. Then choose to install energy-efficient windows, which keep your house cooler in hot weather and warmer in cold weather, thus reducing the amount of electricity or gas needed to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. Likewise, appliances with an Energy Star rating use less energy than other (or older) models, lessening your personal energy consumption and lightening the strain on these resources in general.

  Wash dishes the right way.

  To clarify, here’s the wrong way: letting the faucet blast hot water at full force while you individually wash each dish, pot, knife, and pan underneath the flow. You’re literally pouring water—one of the planet’s most precious natural resources—down the drain. Instead, fill the sink with warm, sudsy water, then turn off the faucet before washing a meal’s worth of pots, pans, and utensils. If you have a double sink, fill the other side with clean, warm water for rinsing. (No double sink? A roomy, shallow bucket will also work.) If you’d rather use the dishwasher, make sure it’s full before you run it; doing so makes the water used per item as minimal as possible. Energy-efficient dishwashers use about four gallons of water per load, and require a smaller amount of energy to heat the water and drive the water pump.

  Invest in a programmable thermostat.

  Look, you’re busy. Why put pressure on yourself to remember to raise your air-conditioner temperature from 78°F when you’re home10 to 85°F when you leave the house for the day? Wouldn’t it be more convenient (and, let’s be honest, more reliable) to let a programmable thermostat do the remembering for you, saving you time as well as energy? Come winter, you can program the thermostat to automatically drop from the recommended daytime heating temperature of 68°F down to an overnight level of 62 to 66°F, which is the suggested range for comfortable sleeping. Not only will you use fewer resources to heat and cool your home but you’ll also save money—approximately $180 a year,11 according to the EPA and Department of Energy’s Energy Star guidelines.

  Paint a room (or anything) in the most sustainable way possible.

  It’s always worth searching your area to scout out recycled paint. It’s also safe to mix different colors of latex paint together to create your own custom shade. If you’re buying new paint, minimize the possibility of inhaling harmful, often hormone-disrupting chemicals or sending them down your drain and into the water supply during post-painting cleanup by looking for nontoxic, all-natural paint. Depending on your project, you might want to try eco-friendly, natural linseed oil paint. Since
it can’t be applied with a paint roller, you’ll want to save it for smaller projects where you won’t mind using a paintbrush. No- or low-VOC paint is another environmentally friendlier paint, though the solvents and additives used can still be harmful.

  More Ways to Paint with Less Waste

  CALCULATE YOUR PAINT NEEDS: Determine the square footage of the area you’re painting, minus any doorways or windows, and then check the paint manufacturer’s website (or ask where you buy your paint) to calculate how many gallons you’ll need.

  SKIP THE PLASTIC DROP CLOTH: Protect your floors, furniture, and anything else you want to remain splatter-free with an old sheet, newspapers, or slit-open paper grocery bags.

  USE AN ECO-FRIENDLIER PAINT TRAY: Look for recycled-paper paint trays instead of the typical single-use plastic liners.

  GIVE YOURSELF ENOUGH TIME: Set aside as many hours as you need to get the job done in one shot. That way you won’t have to rinse out your brush, roller, or any other supplies more than once.

  Dispose of paint properly.

  If you’ve ever used a can of latex or oil paint to paint your home, then there’s probably a half-empty can still sitting somewhere in your home. Paint is notoriously hard to dispose of: you can’t throw it away with nonrecyclable trash, and you can’t pour it down the drain. Oil paint is considered hazardous waste, and even though latex paint is not, there are still strict rules governing the disposal of unused and partially used cans. Happily, the paint industry, certain nonprofits, and local and state governments are working to improve your options for getting rid of paint you no longer need. PaintCare, a nonprofit organization created by the paint industry, runs paint collection sites in Oregon, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.12 Habitat for Humanity ReStores will take latex paint in its original container, with its original label.13 You can also go the FreeCycle.com route, offer paint to neighbors in a local social media group, or see if other organizations in your community could use it (like a school theater group, a community center, or a place of worship).

  Don’t throw out your existing plastics.

  Before you toss all the plastics in your home into the recycling bin in an effort to make a zero-waste clean sweep, consider whether it’s better for the planet for you to keep using them, at least for a while longer. If that hard plastic flowerpot is uncracked and perfectly useful, there’s no need to transfer your zinnia to a terra-cotta pot. Likewise, if the plastic bin storing your out-of-season clothing is still functional, you don’t have to empty the contents now. Only 9 percent of all plastic ever produced has been recycled,14 and we know that the plastic on the planet today will be with us for many generations to come (an estimated 450 to 1,000 years), so the least wasteful thing we can do at this point is put them to use as long as they’re here.

  Give up clay kitty litter.

  Yes, it clumps neatly, making it easy to scoop. Yes, it masks the odor of pee and poop. But no, it’s not biodegradable, so it will just sit in a landfill forever (alongside plastic water bottles and old lipstick tubes). Instead, try biodegradable litter made from recycled newspapers, corn, wheat, coconut, or wood. Many of these litters can be composted—though for non-food gardening only. Cat waste is considered toxic because it can contain parasites (which is one more reason to keep the neighbors’ cats out of your vegetable garden). But if you have a separate compost heap for non-food fertilizing, it’s possible to compost your kitty litter and waste. If not, simply dispose of it in a biodegradable trash bag and send it to the landfill, knowing you’ve at least minimized waste to the maximum of your ability.

  Clean up after dogs responsibly.

  There’s an easy way to break your addiction to those little rolls of poop bags that conveniently snap onto your leash, ready anytime your dog pops a squat. Swap traditional plastic doggy bags for a compostable variety. Compostable bags will break down over months, if actually composted—but if you throw them in the trash, they’ll sit in the landfill for years, anaerobically decomposing at a far slower rate. As with cat waste, you should use compost that contains dog waste only on non-food areas of your garden.15 Another option? Pick up dog poop with newspaper, then drop it in the toilet and flush it once you’re home.

  Give up gas-powered lawn equipment.

  An hour of gas-powered lawn mowing produces as much air pollution as a typical car driven for forty-five miles, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.16 Swap out gas-guzzling leaf blowers and lawn mowers for electric types that use rechargeable battery packs—or, better yet, grab a rake or a push mower to burn only human energy.

  Plant something other than turf grass.

  Every year, the fifty million acres of turf grass lawns in the United States consume nearly three trillion gallons of water, two hundred million gallons of gas (for all that mowing), and seventy million pounds of pesticides, according to the NRDC.17 But there are a number of less wasteful ways to cover your front or back lawn. Perhaps the lowest-maintenance option is to let your grass grow naturally—no regular mowing, no extra watering; just high, wild, free grass. But if you can’t find the beauty in that look, or if your community has restrictions against it, there are other options:

  A wildflower lawn. Have you ever seen a gorgeous patch of wildflowers growing on the side of a highway and had the urge to go running through it? Now’s your chance to grow one of your very own.

  A rock lawn. These super-low-maintenance lawns are especially popular in shore towns, where second-homeowners aren’t around often enough to care for green grass. A pebbly lawn can be accented with native plants that thrive in your local climate.

  A rain garden. This is especially useful if you live in an area prone to light flooding. A rain garden is a low-lying area of your yard filled with deep-rooted native grasses and perennials. When it rains, the water naturally collects in this garden, and the plants soak it up, keeping it from flooding your basement, walkway, or other areas.

  Groundcover plants. The magic is in their name: these plants quickly spread to cover as much ground as you’re willing to give them. Depending on what part of the country you live in, you might choose Japanese sweet flag, Asian star jasmine, woodruff, lily of the valley, stonecrop succulents, or creeping herbs, such as thyme and oregano.18

  Ornamental grass. These grasses aren’t meant to be mowed—they fluff up in beautiful tufts, sometimes creating the look of a uniform lawn.

  Swap liquid soaps for bars and powders.

  Bar soap isn’t just for your bathroom. You can cut back on plastic by buying solid blocks of dishwashing soap, laundry detergent, and stain removers instead of their liquid counterparts. Taken individually, laundry and dishwasher pods are zero waste—they fully dissolve with use—but the cardboard or plastic packaging they typically come in is not.

  Stop automatically upgrading your mobile devices.

  Yes, shiny new things are irresistible—until you need to figure out what to do with the old ones. Americans get rid of millions of cell phones every year, according to the EPA,19 and a Gallup poll found that 44 percent of people upgrade their phones as often as their service providers allow, which is generally every two years.20 When you do get rid of your phone or tablet, don’t throw it out. Instead, consider giving it to someone else or donating it to charity (if it still works), sell it or trade it in for a new one, or recycle it at your local electronics recycling location (check with your town or city government to find out where it is).

  Get crafty with scraps.

  Whether you keep these scraps for your own creative pursuits or donate them to local schools to use in art class, save them from the trash bin and repurpose them as things of beauty.

  Cardboard paper towel and toilet paper rolls

  Buttons

  Crayon nubs (melt them down together for reuse)

  Scraps of cloth

  Broken dishes or pottery (for mosaic projects)

  Bottle caps

 
Toothpaste tube caps

  Felt marker caps

  Cardboard packaging inserts

  Egg cartons

  Gift wrap

  Magazines

  Maps

  Construction paper scraps

  Costume jewelry

  Learn where to recycle anything.

  Earth911.com offers a recycling search guide for more than 350 materials, from latex paint to cell phone accessories. Simply type in the item you’d like to recycle, enter your zip code, and you’ll get a list of locations near you that will accept the item for recycling.

  Offer your furniture to others.

  A whopping 9.69 million tons of furniture and furnishings went into landfills in 2015, according to the EPA.21 That’s a lot of outdated bar stools and dressers. But just because you’re tired of that bleached-oak armchair or don’t have the energy to reupholster your grandmother’s couch doesn’t mean someone else wouldn’t be interested. Next time you’ve got a piece to unload, try these options before sending it to the dump.

  Ask everyone in your family. It’s entirely possible that rather than see grandma’s couch leave the family, your cousin will take it off your hands.

  Offer it to college kids. When you’re furnishing your first off-campus apartment, you’re usually not that picky.