How you can try zero waste too

If you are thinking about trying this challenge too, even if just for a week, I highly recommend it! I have a few tips for you too:

1. Start the challenge with an open mind. With a positive attitude, it won’t be as hard when you come across hardships because, on the inside, you know you truly want to do the challenge.

2. Know your personal “why” for the challenge. For me, I wanted to see if there were easy switches I could make to help the environment and community. On the side, I also thought it would be fun to try one of those lifestyle challenge YouTube videos. Once, you find your own “why” power, it will serve as your motivation to continue.

3. Do not dwell on any mistakes. I made the mistake on the first day of buying the foam egg carton and felt like I did not prepare enough. But unpredictable things will happen, and you will get better with time. Just plan to spend more time in the beginning researching your meal plan and exploring your local grocery stores.

4. Most importantly, share your experience and what you learn! Educating others about simple changes and the significance of reducing waste is essential. These individual acts will not make a substantial impact in a timely manner unless many of us come together and work to solve these issues.

It is important to remember that the individual actions while eating zero waste are only part of the solution to reducing food waste. Individual choices to compost, buy bulk foods, and buy only as much as needed merely addresses waste at the consumption level. However, food waste also occurs during the stages before, such as production, storage, processing, and distribution. For example, food waste occurs due to inefficient harvesting techniques resulting in overproduction and rejection of “ugly” foods being sold in stores. Identifying these areas of waste are key in taking steps to redistribute food to those who need it, especially of the foods that need to be distributed urgently. Furthermore, manufacturers need to minimize and/or eliminate the absurd amounts of unnecessary food packaging, while new materials researched by chemical companies to function the same with less will need to be implemented. Large scale changes like those will require governmental policies and regulations. Reducing food waste is a collective effort, but it begins with you and me.