Tale #4: The good, the bad, and the ugly aspect of zero waste

                                                                                                                               Hello, Welcome Back.

    In high school, I was given the opportunity to take an environmental science class. I instantly fell in love with all of the aspects of caring for the biggest underdog, our planet. My only complaint about the class was that we were taught more about over-population, animal agriculture, and plastic water bottles. Although these were very interesting topics, I often found myself to be bored and want to know more about the many ways I can improve my carbon footprint. Eventually, I came across many different topics but the one that spoke to me the most was zero waste. The reason this topic became incredibly interesting to me was how there were so many opinions on this specific lifestyle.

Across the globe, there are many people taking the initiative to become more sustainable. There are various ways to create less waste that can fit your lifestyle. Take this new-yorker who keeps all her trash in a mason jar and chooses to create less waste in order to help the landfills.  There is a little girl who decided to teach her grandmother how to create less waste thus allowing her grandma to save money.  There is a woman named Shelbi who has dedicated her life to making zero waste videos. She makes different videos talking about different topics and how to make them more eco-realistic. 

However while doing more research, I found that there are many benefits to going zero waste but there are also many negative connotations of going zero waste. Being more sustainable can be very difficult since, not every place has a composting station and can be a very time-consuming lifestyle since there is not as much access to specific products such as safety razors, unpackaged foods, lotions, hair care products, and toilet paper/paper towels in most stores. Another problem with this lifestyle is that it may not be one hundred percent attainable. There are many companies that claim to be zero waste and simply are not, for example; there is a woman who uses a mason jar to collect trash. These specific methods like the mason jar method do not always work for everyone since not everyone is able to hold this specific lifestyle. 

One of the unattainable and what I consider to be the ugly part of zero waste would be the trash jar because you can choose what it is that you want to exclude from the jar. 

Waste Jar 

There is a woman who tried and failed at the waste jar.  You cannot only put blame on yourself, there is something called mainstream waste which is the trash that major corporations make. So for one jar, you have to consider putting seven. There are also "influencers" who portray themselves as being "perfect" at the zero waste lifestyle and make a profit off of lying to many people. For example, a woman named Lauren Singer is an environmental zero waste activist and although she is making an effort and is trying to show people the various ways to go green, she doesn't show her audience all of the negative and truthful sides to how wasteful her company Trash is for Tossers really is. 

 There are many documentaries now on Netflix that talk about minimalism which is almost exactly like being zero waste and they only show the positive side of the story and completely forget about all the negative aspects of it. I, in particular, have tried this lifestyle and although I like it and everything that it stands for it is simply too unattainable for me, because of all of the unavoidable things that happen in life that are in fact simply just too wasteful. Like having your dog eat your remote control or having pads and tampons that you need to use and many people do not feel comfortable using a Diva cup. (Link here for more information) There are also people who cannot use a safety razor as it can be triggering. This particular lifestyle is important to know and understand because people can either be really good at it or fail miserably. 

I hope you enjoyed reading all about the zero-waste lifestyle. Until next time, BYE!