Can you REALLY be zero waste anywhere in the world?
I say this a lot, I personally think you CAN be zero waste anywhere in the world! Now, perhaps we should use the term “low waste” instead cause there is still this mindset that if you use the label zero waste you have to be perfect. Learn more about what zero waste truly is in this post or this video.
But, I think you can live imperfectly zero waste no matter where you are in the world, and today, I’ll be giving you some proof. We’re going to dissect every place I’ve lived (4 US states and also an island in Japan) and talk about how some places are more eco than others but ultimately, I’ve found ways to reduce my waste no matter where I’ve lived! The important thing to remember is that climate change is not your fault and you can’t be perfect at living zero waste. What matters is that we all try our best to reduce some of our waste. We need everyone trying instead of just a couple of people doing it perfectly.
Anyway, let’s start where I started in rural Ohio…
I grew up in a cornfield. No, literally. My family is the largest farming family in my home country and I literally grew up on a farm. Not an animal farm, a corn and soybean farm. This is where my love of the outdoors and the planet began. Here’s how we lived low waste on the farm before the words “low waste” or “zero waste” even became normalized:
My sister and me at our pond
We grew a ton of our own food. We had massive gardens so the summers were full of sweet corn, greens, tomatoes, peppers, and more. I even learned how to make salsa, can green beans, and use things like zucchini in baking to prevent them from going to waste
We composted, most of our stuff at least. The upside to living in the country is having ample space to compost. The downside? Our compost pile was a good 100 yards away from the house so it was a little inconvenient to compost everything considering the walk to the pile. But, large amounts of food waste like melon skins and corn husks were composted. We even tried a worm bin!
Hand-me-downs were a must when you have 5 kids. That and secondhand shopping. We did this before it was cool, we did it to be practical but it saved so much money and so much waste. I always loved getting my older sister's clothes, too.
Using what we had was essential to save money and also time. We lived far away from the closest store so it just made sense to use what we already had lying around for food storage, baking, crafts, and more. We did lots of upcycling crafts growing up!
Here’s how we didn’t, or rather couldn’t, live low waste in rural Ohio in the early 2000s:
No access to recycling. Early on we didn’t even have access to PAID recycling let alone free recycling.
Living far away from town and from the closest city meant long commutes and big families meant not having the most fuel-efficient cars.
Our farm field, ft the iconic camwow filter from the early 2000s lol
Then, we moved into town
When I was in high school we moved into town into a smaller house. This move was eco-friendly cause now we don’t have to heat and light up a huge house, but a smaller, practical one. Here we also finally had access to recycling! I was super passionate about it and started getting educated on what to recycle and what not to recycle and let my family know. Being in town also meant I could bike to school, sports practice, friends’ houses, and even the store which was cool. Though, I mostly did this for exercise and just to get outside.
We even managed to put up a compost pile and a small garden on our small plot of land. I don’t think we even knew the environmental impacts of composting, we just did it so that our house didn’t constantly smell like old food.
Okay, but that was my childhood where I didn’t have much say in what was purchased or how we did things around the house. Let’s move on to my adult life and talk about some decisions I’ve made that guarantee I can live low waste no matter where I move!
Long distance with Dan, just graduated high school!
Let’s go to Texas!
I joined the Air Force right out of high school and lived in Texas for just shy of a year for my training. While I was an adult, I didn’t have much freedom as a trainee, but I did what I could:
I ate at the dining facility on reusable dishes instead of eating out (also cause it was free haha)
I used reusable bowls and cups in my dorm room instead of disposable ones
I started a recycling program! You can learn more about it in full here, but the short version is that I saw how much valuable material was being tossed on base and knew there could be something done about it. Unfortunately, I had to do 100% of the work from finding bins to printing the rules and doing all the. collection and sorting myself. It was kind of fun. I learned a lot and prevented so much waste from the landfill! I like this story cause it shows that even if you live somewhere that doesn’t even have the bare minimums of low waste life like recycling you can make it happen!
Even though the tap water was questionable, I still didn’t use bottled water. I used my trusty reusable water bottle and one of those giant 5-gallon dispensers.
It was rare for students to have cars, but I had one. The only one in my friend group in fact. That meant we carpooled a lot!
But, I wasn’t perfect, here are some wasteful things I did there…
My lunches consisted of protein bars. NOT zero waste.
I had to start from scratch so I had to buy everything new on day one getting to my training location from shampoo to school supplies and bathroom supplies.
A lot of my dorm snacks were in plastic since I had no means of cooking.
Living in the middle of nowhere Texas means driving far distances to go anywhere like the store and even for recreation.
Moving again, we’re going to Okinawa, Japan!
This is really where my zero-waste journey began. Before this, as you can see, I was very focused on recycling, which is great, we need to recycle correctly, but that is not THE solution to anything. Recycling is so imperfect, just a step above the landfill, that we need to think about it last, not first. This combined with the massive amounts of ocean garbage I was seeing wash up on the shores left me inspired to start reducing my waste to begin with! But, I didn’t have a bulk store, I didn’t have much of a yard, and there were few stores to buy zero waste swaps at, what can I do?
Use what I had! Need glass jars for storage? I used old pickles and jam jars.
I started making stuff homemade to reduce waste: veggie stock, peanut butter, tortillas, croutons, and more.
I bought stuff in “bulk” meaning I bought the largest ketchup, the largest container of cinnamon, and the largest bag of tortilla chips. It’s not perfect, but it does reduce waste over the long run.
Being on a subtropical island, the farmer's market game was strong! I’m talking fresh produce year-round. So, we supported local farmers which reduced emissions and it also taught us to eat seasonally! We tried so many new foods while we lived there too and I will never ever stop thinking about mangoes fresh from the tree.
We still recycled, but Japan does recycling right. Their recycling rates are much higher and I can probably guess why: consumers are better at it. The Japanese love their rules and love to follow them, too. So, they did and it led to better recycling. We did have to sort it in plastic bags, that was just the rules, so we did create some extra waste in that way.
I began to swap our wasteful products for eco ones but only when we ran out. Things like shampoo, body wash, laundry detergent, dish soap, and more!
We air-dried laundry as much as possible in this humid climate, mostly indoors
We even started a small compost! As I said, we didn’t really have a yard so it had to be a compost bin, but I made it from scratch with all repurposed materials!
I’m sure you can guess the pattern, we were far from perfect, though…
While recycling in Japan is very good, they’re also very obsessed with plastic for hygienic purposes. If we walked into a convenience store (let the record show I thought it was a “convenient” store, mostly because we never used English for it, we either called it the brand name (7-11, Lawson’s, Family Mart) or the Japanese word, Konbini), which we did all the time it’s a huge part of the culture, we couldn’t find a single plastic-free option. Literally not even an individual apple or banana
Living on an island meant lots of flying. We took ferries as much as possible but many islands, the mainland, and of course, the US were way too far for that. If we wanted to visit family or visit the mainland of Japan, it was a flight.
Off we go to Las Vegas!
We could not have been sent to a more different climate and culture. I think Las Vegas is so opposite of Japan we had so many reverse culture shocks coming back to the US. Once again, we had access to different things and therefore had to alter our zero-waste life. Here’s how we did it:
Yayyyy! Finally, a bulk store! In 2021, 3 years into my eco journey, I FINALLY had access to a bulk store so we began to use it all the time! Say goodbye to packaged rice, sugar, flour, nuts, raisins, and more. We reduced so much single-use packaging this way. Don’t know how to find bulk stores near you? Try the EcoRate app to find one!
Vegas was the PERFECT climate for line-drying clothes so we put up a clothesline instantly, without even asking our rental agency hahaha. We used our dryer probably twice during our entire two years there.
Since we had a small yard, we also started composting right away. Composting in Vegas was tricky since it was so dry, but we eventually figured it out.
Speaking of all of these items we purchased, we furnished our entire home second-hand! Literally everything: guest bed set, compost bins, washing machine, dressers, etc. We did have a lot of stuff we shipped from Japan, but anything we needed post-move was secondhand. We did this by shopping in person and using Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp.
We also got e-bikes while we lived here, thanks Aventon, so we biked quite a bit in the local area…but…
And here’s how we were not perfect about it…
Can you say urban sprawl? You can drive for an hour at 70mph and STILL be in Las Vegas. This city is HUGE. So, that means lots of driving. And, since Dan and I worked on different bases, we had to own and drive two cars. And, our commutes were quite far. The sprawl also meant it was a little difficult to bike everywhere.
Speaking of driving, if you wanted to do anything outside of the city (which was mostly everything since the city didn’t offer a whole lot) we had to drive sometimes several hours to get to where we wanted to go.
Heading North, onwards to Spokane!
Not only did we move locations, we also moved into an RV which brought it’s own set of challenges for living an eco life. But, we made do!
We still had access to a bulk store, though it was farther away. We just paired our bulk store trip with a dinner date or climbing day downtown.
Downtown was so small and connected that we would find free parking for the truck and bike around downtown! Even got our bike stolen once haha. We also lived close to the grocery store so we often biked there, too.
We couldn’t traditionally compost, so we started using the Lomi composter machine. It’s far from perfect but I’ll take it over landfilling our food waste and having a smelly RV
We continued to recycle but now instead of having curbside pickup, we had to sort it and transport it ourselves.
We started using a laundromat, no laundry in the RV, which prevents new washers and dryers from being created but this was also a downside, I missed line drying my clothes!
We became a one-car household! We worked together our 6 months in Spokane so this saved money and waste
We started our quest to support small and family-owned brands. Instead of buying GT kombucha, we bought it from a local brewer. Instead of buying Sabra hummus, we bought Cedar’s. And so on and so forth.
Of course, there was no way to be perfect…
Our one car was unfortunately a truck. It’s not the most gas-guzzling truck ever, but it sure isn’t a Prius.
Finally, back to Ohio!
We’re back in Ohio as I write this and film the video version but we will soon be moving again. Dan has applied to be a park ranger, now we just wait to see what park chooses him! But, we’re living in a more suburban area of Ohio so I have some different perspectives.
Continuing our quest to support small businesses, we do almost all of our shopping at Meijer, the only major grocery store chain in the Midwest that is still family-owned.
Once again going back to not having a bulk store, we buy stuff in the largest packaging we can to reduce overall packaging.
Living with my mom, we have access to true compost once again.
I started making sourdough! This has saved so much money and waste since the only thing I need to buy is flour in paper bags. I’ve also been using the discard to make other things that come in plastic like naan, rolls, and desserts.
And the cons…
Still remaining a one-car family, we’ve reduced some emissions but it’s also been potentially creating more. On days that Dan volunteers but I need the truck, I have to drop him off, pick him up, and go to my appointments. This might actually be less wasteful with 2 cars.
The suburban area is also quite annoying when it comes to things like going to restaurants, entertainment, and even groceries. Everything is quite far away.
Of course, this is just one experience. But, I’d say with my experience living all over the US from rural areas to big cities and even in another country, I think I have a good perspective on whether you can truly live zero waste anywhere or not. And, I think you can! I hope that you can see how you can live zero waste no matter where you live and that your zero-waste journey isn’t linear. I’ve changed my habits and routines to reflect what I have access to. Where do you live and how do you live zero waste?
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, I am always mindful of energy and water conservation, of using what I already have, of shopping secondhand, and so forth. I just didn’t want to be redundant.
Don’t know where to start living zero waste? Here are some resources you can check out.
How I live zero waste on a budget series
The best zero waste swaps from beginner to advanced
24 beginner zero waste swaps to try
Thanks for reading along, I hope this leaves you inspired to start living and keep living zero waste no matter where you are in the world. You don’t have to be perfect and your small actions matter. If the only thing you can do right now is save water and energy, that’s amazing! If you can do more, try it out!
I’ll see you in the next post, as always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
