Have you been living zero waste for a few years and you’re not sure how to advance? Well, here are 15 ways to live zero waste in an advanced way. From making your own food to going car-free to getting involved in politics, this is the ultimate list of zero waste swaps for advanced zero wasters.

To be clear, if you’re a beginner, feel free to try these, too! But, this is aimed at folks who have already found all of their perfect zero waste swaps and have mastered basic zero waste habits like water conservation and preventing food waste. This list takes it a little above and beyond. This may require more time, more money, or more effort on your part.

Let’s get into it!

Preserve food

Food preservation takes time and skill to master over time but it’s so worth it! But, an easy way to preserve food right now without any knowledge or equipment is freezing it. The freezer is so underrated when it comes to preventing food waste. Simply chop your fruits or veggies, add them to a plastic bag (better yet, a reusable bag from Stasher), and throw them in the freezer for later use. I recently froze some potatoes, carrots, pepper, and onion before going out of town to stop them from going bad and it was perfect for a quick chili once we got back home.

This will save you money and keep that food waste out of the landfill which is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gases.

Or, take it a step further and try some other means to food preservation such as…

Dehydrating: this can be done in an oven, some advanced air fryers, or a classic dehydrator. I found a dehydrator secondhand in Vegas and used it so much!
Freeze drying: probably the most expensive but there’s a lot of hype around this right now to prevent food waste and also make meals at home.
Canning: a very old method of preservation that can be done with just a jew jars and a canning pot. You can go further than that, but with some practice, this should be easy. Though, this probably takes up the most space so it’s not friendly to all sizes of homes.

Make sourdough

This is for sure a low waste swap that I think beginners and intermediate zero wasters can do, too, but it does take practice, time, and a lot of trial and error. Here is my tried and true lazy sourdough method. My sourdough is ugly, but it’s practical. You can go all out and buy a whole bunch of supplies and measure precisely and do science and math, or you can just wing it. Sourdough is very forgiving and the goal here is to prevent waste. Since all you need is flour and salt which you can easily find plastic-free or even package-free at a refill store, it’s extremely low waste. AND you can use the discard to make so many other recipes.

My advice here is to just go for it. I put it off for years cause I was worried. Worst case scenario, you waste a little bit of flour, it’s not the end of the world. Best case scenario, you have a new habit and hobby! If you do want some equipment, I only use a Dutch Oven that I got secondhand (you don’t need anything expensive or fancy) and a silicone bread mat. I like the one from King Arthur (I also LOVE their flour).

I think the hardest part is the timing. The actual making of the dough takes less than 5 minutes, but with the waiting and the stretch and folds, it can feel like an all-day activity and you have to find the right gap in your schedule. Or, you use my friend Maria’s lazy recipe which is a set it and forget it recipe.

Happy baking!

Switch to green energy

An easy way to do this is by shopping for energy providers in your area if you have multiple options. If so, compare prices and find one that you are willing to go with. You might be surprised to find it cheaper than using fossil fuels! You may have access to a hydro grid, a solar grid, or a wind grid depending on where you live.

Or, a super advanced thing to do here is to get your own solar panels. Why? Maybe there are no green energy providers near you. This is one way to get around that. Other benefits include no more monthly energy payments and your county/city might even buy surplus energy from you which would result in a profit. Many states also subsidize green energy and will give you a stipend to cover the cost of installation. And, if you have an at-home business, this is a tax write-off!

Give up your car

Want to go all in? Give up your car 100% of the time. But, that’s not always feasible. For example, my new community is very walkable. I walk just about everywhere. But, we live very far from everything else. So, I have to drive sometimes hours to go to medical appointments. We’re mostly car-free but we keep it around for longer trips.

This also depends on where you live. If you live in a rural area, yeah, this is likely not possible. But, there are ways to ditch the car as much as possible such as:

Carpooling with friends, coworkers, classmates into town
Taking public transportation
Walking or biking
Working from home or going to school online

No matter how you achieve it, this is a very great way to reduce emissions and save some money in a more advanced way.

Try a bidet and reusable toilet paper

A bidet was one of my first zero waste swaps but I know that I am not the norm here. Many people put off trying a bidet. It can be seen as weird in western society. But, it’s more hygienic and can cut toilet paper usage! To make it even more advanced, pair it with reusable toilet paper (I like mine from Boaty). When using a bidet, you really only need to dry off. Why dry off with something disposable when you can use reusable instead?

While these are very easy swaps, it can take a while to get into the mindset of using them and may even take longer to convince the rest of your household to get on board. So, start small. Start with a bidet (my favorite is from Whisper, but Tushy is great, too). No one is forced to use it and they’ll use it as they see a need. Then, implement reusable toilet paper but keep the disposable toilet paper on hand (try an eco brand like Who Gives a Crap). Again, no one will feel forced to use the reusable but they will likely try in their own time when they see it’s not weird.

Catch rainwater and/or gray-water

The easy way to do this is by simply using buckets. It doesn’t require plumbing knowledge or the demolition of your plumbing system. We caught gray water in buckets when we lived in Vegas to conserve water and we also used those buckets during rainfall. This cut our water usage in half and we found all of our buckets in the trash.

But, a more advanced, aesthetic, and less gross way of doing this is through your plumbing. You can rework your plumbing to recycle the gray water within your own home to reduce water usage. You can also get fancy rain barrels to attach to your gutters. Both will take some money and some time to install, but it’s not impossible!

Start a garden

Have a yard? Plant a garden! Why spend all that time manicuring a lawn when you could use that time to tend to a garden and now you have the reward of food! This will save money, reduce packaging, and likely be tastier, too. You could even sell surplus and also get into composting, too (learn more about composting here).

You don’t even need a whole lot of materials. You can plant directly in the ground or upcycle materials like totes and old wood into garden beds to save money and resources. Make your garden organic to further reduce pollution!

If you don’t have time for a full-blown garden (hey, this is an advanced list, after all), try simply planting some native plants in your yard which we will talk more about next…

Eco-fy your lawn

Having a traditional lawn is one of the worst things we do for biodiversity. Learn more about why they are just so wasteful in this video. So, if you can, make your lawn a biodiversity haven! I know what it’s like to live in an HOA and be a renter, so do what you can if this is your goal for the year. Here are a few ideas:

Stop mowing or keep the grass longer, don’t trim it so short. Longer grass will attract more bugs and animals and also help in flood prevention
If you live in the desert, consider replacing your waster-intensive grass with rocks and native plants
But also everyone should be planting native plants no matter where you live! This is great for soil health, flood control, and providing local food and shelter to wildlife
Set up a bird bath and clean it! Not cleaning your bird bath and lead to the spread of disease among birds
The same goes for bird feeders, clean them! Make sure you’re also filling it with seeds that are healthy for the birds and won’t grow invasive species
Plant pollinator-friendly plants to keep them fed and attract them. This is a huge bonus if you have a garden, more pollinators for your plants!
Also, give the pollinators watering stations. It can be hard for bees, butterflies, moths, and other bugs to drink out of deep bird baths, so give them something shallower to drink out of
Build a bat box to help local bat populations! Many scientists believe bats are keystone species and they are very important night pollinators and pest controllers
Leave the leaves in the fall! If you have too many, compost them. Don’t even mulch them if you can help it. Leaves offer nutrients for the grass and soil and also provide a habitat for hibernating critters and bugs

Attend town halls to green-ify your city

It’s time to take action! Now that your home is eco-fied, it’s time to eco-fy your city!

First, attend some town hall meetings. Many of them host in person and on zoom. Call your city hall to see when your meetings are. These meetings cover many things from politics to schools to eco initiatives. They usually host time for comments which can be your time to pitch ideas. Perhaps you’d like to see city-wide compost services implemented, pitch that! Maybe you want to start a volunteer crew to pick up litter, pitch that! Take what makes you passionate and see if you can get help from the city on it.

If anything, this can still be a great way to learn about what your city is doing, even if you don’t pitch anything yourself. It can be a way to make friends, build community, and find people who are passionate about the same things as you.

Write, email, or call elected officials daily

We’re going bigger, it’s time to demand action from our national leaders! Of course, write to your mayors and governors, too, but take some time to write, email, or call your elected officials in your nation’s capitol every day or every week. Maybe some piece of climate legislation is going to be voted on soon. Call/write them and tell them that you support those climate initiatives.

Better yet, get your friends involved! Yes, it matters that you write or call, but if you can get 10 or even 20 people to join in with you, that makes more noise and may make more action. But, every call and email matters. Give it a try! Learn more about bills that are being voted on and find your elected officials at Congress.gov.

Join or start an eco club to get community involved

As I’ve already hinted at, it’s great to do things like write your leaders and attend town halls on your own, but we have power in numbers. So, let’s get some numbers! First, I suggest looking around to see if any eco clubs or groups already exist in your area. Perhaps it’s a climate cafe or an eco club at the college campus. Maybe it’s a mutual aid group or something zero waste specific (I have a group called Zero Waste Humboldt here). Search around and see what you find.

If you find nothing, that’s your cue to take charge! Someone has to start the group, why not you? You could start a Facebook page with events or a website and start getting traction via other Facebook groups. For example, if I didn’t have Zero Waste Humboldt and wanted to start something like that, I would create a Facebook Group and then pitch it on other Facebook Groups I’m in such as Buy Nothing Humboldt and Residents of Humboldt. Surely some folks in there are eco-minded and would want to join my new group.

Then, it’s time to have events! Maybe you host clothing swaps or trash clean-ups or host a talk at the community center about recycling. Pick your passion and run with it!

Try a no/low buy year

One of the best ways to save money, boycott capitalism, and reduce waste all at the same time is by buying strictly what you need and nothing more. It’s hard, don’t get me wrong! But the rewards for your wallet and the planet cannot be ignored. Of course, during these challenges, you buy what you need: medication, food, rent, bills, etc. The goal here is to reflect on your spending habits and to not impulse purchase or buy things you don’t really need.

You can do it for a month, but big results come from doing it for a year and, hopefully, the habits will stick for life. You will learn to make do with what you have, learn to repair, learn to shop secondhand, learn to trade, learn to borrow, and so much more. It’s a great way to reflect on our spending habits and take care of the earth all at once.

Shop at the farmer’s market and bulk store

Cut your grocery waste a lot by shopping at the farmers market and the bulk store. Both of these weekly actions alone has greatly reduced our plastic usage and overall packaging usage this year. Yes, it may be more expensive. That’s why it’s in the advanced category. It also depends on where you live! I’ve had access to farmers markets just about everywhere I’ve lived but some of them are just not good enough to supplement our weekly needs. Even here in the winter, it’s hard to find everything at the farmer’s market. In Japan, we could find just about everything but it still came in plastic so it kind of defeated the purpose of reducing waste.

So, do what you can. But, the refill store will likely help you reduce a LOT of plastic waste from packaged nuts and rice and pasta and peanut butter just to name a few. Even things like tea, spices, and snacks can be found in bulk bins! Take your jars and make sure you head to the front counter first to check their rules since every store might be a little bit different from one another.

Shop only at small businesses

Not everyone can go to farmer’s markets and bulk stores, but everyone does have the chance to shop small. But, this one, too, may cost a bit more than you’re used to which is why I consider it advanced. It also takes some research! Yes, shop at small boutiques and independent bookstores and locally owned craft stores and thrift shops, but also shop for small brands within the large chain stores. What I mean is, if you only have access to Kroger you can still shop small within Kroger. Instead of buying Sabra hummus, opt for a family-owned hummus brand. Instead of buying Kroger-brand beans, shop for Bush’s since they are family-owned. There are still ways to avoid mega corporations and shop small to show the demand for these brands within these large stores. Learn more about why shopping small is better for the planet in this video.

Get a degree and get a job in the climate sector

Probably the most advanced of them all, go to school and begin work in a climate field! Passionate about water conservation or climate change or ocean life? Take your eco passion, get a degree, and start making a change in the work force. We need people working these jobs to ensure a safe and clean future. It’s never too late to switch careers either if you’re an older person watching this.

Or, if you can’t afford it or don’t want the hassle of fully switching careers, you can still make a difference here by volunteering. While volunteering isn’t quite as advanced, it still makes a huge difference. You can still pick up trash and plant springs and get involved with water pollution and so many more topics depending on your interest. But, that is my biggest piece of advice: volunteer in an area that you’re passionate about.

I hope that this list is helpful to your advanced zero wasters out there! Let us now how you live low waste in an advanced way and perhaps I can make a part two!

As always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)

Emma

Advanced Ways to Live Zero Waste