Sometimes you have to evaluate your zero waste life and see what’s working for you and what’s not working. It’s okay that all of our zero waste lives don’t look the same! There is no one size fits all to living zero waste.

But, for me, these are some zero waste habits I’m leaving in the past…let’s get into it!

being fully plastic-free

I was literally obsessed with being perfectly plastic-free circa 2020. I gave up supplements because they came in plastic. I didn’t attend cookouts or potlucks because of the paper and plastic waste involved. I didn’t buy any treats. I carted around my bamboo utensils with me everywhere and if I forgot my reusable take-out container, I would gorge myself on food to prevent food waste and physical waste.

It was unhealthy.

Of course, today, I still aim to be as plastic-free as possible but without sacrificing my mental and physical health. Now, I shop at the refill store but on the same trip, I may buy a little chocolate truffle for sale at the register. Now, I make my our sourdough but top it with store-bought hummus. I’m more focused on balance for two main reasons:

I was about to give up zero waste in 2021 because of how strict I was. I missed my “old life.” At that time, I thought I could either give up zero waste completely or just dial it back from 100% to 90%. I liked option two better. It still allowed me to care for the planet but took some pressure off of me because…
I finally understood that climate change and the waste crisis are not my fault and I am not single-handedly causing them. Again, I could talk in circles about this all day long, our small actions matter. But my choice to treat myself to a croissant from a small bakery in a plastic-lined paper bag is not the reason for climate change.

making everything from scratch

In an effort to be totally plastic-free (heck, all single-use-free) in 2020, I made so much from scratch: peanut butter, milk, hummus, butter, cleaners, toothpaste, you name it. This not only took up just about every one of my waking moments, but I also despised most of it. I would either force myself to eat hummus I didn’t like (which is unhealthy) or throw it away, creating food waste. Same with the milk, I despise homemade plant milk!

While I still make plenty of stuff from scratch, I realized that I should not only be enjoying what I eat but that food waste is far worse for the planet than one plastic container. So, I opt for recyclable packaging or find ways to reuse it first. Where I can, I get stuff like peanut butter at the refill store, use cleaning tablets that I can add to existing bottles at home, and support small brands in recyclable materials.

It’s not perfect, but striving for perfection made me miserable and I STILL wasn’t perfect. Forcing myself to drink gross milk did not save the planet after all.

eco toothpaste

This should go without saying, but I do not want advice here. I have tried just about every brand in the book and I am not going back. Here’s why:

I had 10 cavities filled in January 2023. TEN! I do not recommend. Now, how did I get 10 cavities? First, we can blame the Air Force for not telling me about them and they progressed so far that I still have pain over a year later. But, I think we may also be able to point some blame at fluoride-free toothpaste…and not flossing lol. I won’t ever fully blame eco toothpaste, but, I was a religious brusher during this time. Sure, I could have flossed more, but I also never drink soda and candy is a rarity as well. The common denominator was that I was using fluoride-free toothpaste for 3+ years.

Not to mention, toothpaste tabs disgust me. Even though there are many more options now with fluoride, I cannot stand the texture and that is okay! You don’t have to try to convince me to like them. They’re not for everyone.

Now, I use prescription-strength toothpaste. If you’ve never had a cavity filled, let alone 10, you simply don’t understand why I would make this choice. Plus, your teeth health impacts the rest of your life. It impacts how you breathe and eat and may also lead to infection throughout the body if it gets that far out of hand. So, back to traditional toothpaste for me!

Composting

That’s right…the one zero waste habit I recommend everyone do, I don’t even do it myself! Well, sorta. I’ve been using the Lomi full-time to “compost” for nearly 2 years now. But, this isn’t truly composting. It’s more of a dehydrator that DOES reduce your methane emissions. But, it’s not perfect: it requires energy (not a whole lot, but still some) and I have to throw away the remains. Again, it’s not the worst, but it could be better.

And, I’m going to keep using it even though we live in an apartment now. Our complex doesn’t have curbside composting. Plus, I already have the Lomi…I might as well use it til it dies instead of recycling it early. It was truly the only way we could manage to “compost” while in an RV and it seems to remain that way in our tiny town.

I would love to get back into traditional composting one day, but that day is still not in my future quite yet. If you want to learn how to start composting, check out this video!

Carbon offsetting

Bringing it back to 2020 yet again, I was the guiltiest person on the face of the planet it seems. The internet had me feeling extremely guilty for taking just a few short flights per year…even though I lived on an island and that was my only means to leave the island. So, to justify the happiness that travel brought me, I carbon offset my emissions! This is good, right?

Well, it’s kind of a scam…

The full breakdown is in this video, but in short, think about how long it takes a tree to grow. Decades. Sure, that tree will EVENTUALLY offset the emissions from my flight, but the damage as already been done. Plus, if I fly from California to Ohio but my tree is planted in some other country in some other hemisphere, is that really making a difference? I’m making an impact here, locally.

Instead, I simply acknowledge my impact and take other means to reduce my waste such as choosing a flight that produces fewer emissions, packing as light as possible, reducing the number of flights I take per year, and things of that nature. It’s okay to still travel while being an environmentalist without feeling guilty about it.

Decluttering

I don’t declutter anymore! Rather, I don’t bring clutter into my life to begin with. We truly thought we were minimalists before but the RV taught us so much about minimalist living. We have learned to make do with so much less. For example, I don’t need a blender AND a stand mixer AND a hand mixer AND an immersion blender, I can just use one of these appliances that covers all of the bases. I don’t need to buy every single book that interests me, I can borrow it from the library instead.

You get the idea. The limited space in the RV really had us evaluating wants versus needs. And even evaluating how much we truly needed something! So far, two months in, we’re still applying this to our apartment. I love having fewer things to clean, care for, store, and eventually dispose of. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders to simply own just what we need (and a few wants) and no more.

While I do love the act of decluttering, it can be time-consuming! Yet another perk to not have to do it. And if I do declutter, I declutter something immediately. If I notice something in my home that I haven’t used in months and probably won’t ever use again, it’s gone instantly instead of waiting until later when all the clutter piles up.

If you want to declutter, here are some of my tips as someone who has moved 8 times in 6 years.

Hoarding every little thing to maybe use one day

Similarly, I quit hoarding stuff again, thanks to the RV. Back in Japan and Vegas I used to hang onto every little piece of would-be trash: ribbons, twist ties, plastic bags, etc. Of course, the intentions were good, I wanted to keep as much out of the landfill as possible, but it usually ended up there anyway in a few years. I rarely used this trash that I held onto.

Being in the RV, we did not have the luxury of extra space so I got very okay with throwing things away unless I had an immediate plan for it. I’m fine holding onto trash if I’m actually going to use it. When we first moved into the apartment, I held on to a lot of boxes because I had a plan: I turned them into a handmade cat scratcher and some Christmas decorations.

I am going to continue this into the future as well. If there is a plan, I will keep it. But if there is no plan, I will properly dispose of it or get rid of it on my Buy Nothing Group. It was creating clutter in my life, stressing me out that I couldn’t use it, and the same thing happened to most of it in the end: it got thrown away or recycled.

Eco-bricking

Catching the theme here? Many of these I gave up due to moving into the RV and eco-bricking is no exception. It was fun while it lasted in Vegas and Ohio, but with limited space, it was not something I could continue in the RV. Not to mention, we really don’t use all that much thin plastic anyway nor did I even have a use for the bricks anyway. I was hoarding these bottles that took ages to fill up and then what? I hold onto them in the hopes that someone in my area might use them? I ship them to someone who will use them in another state? There really wasn’t a game plan and it was starting to feel like a waste of time and space.

Instead, I focus on reducing that plastic to begin with. We shop a lot in the bulk bins now which has greatly reduced our reliance on thin plastics. I also do more evaluating in the grocery store if I can find the item I’m looking for in another material. Of course, eco-bricking is no excuse to consume MORE plastic, it’s a last resort before the landfill.

Learn more about eco-bricking here!

Catching gray water

Did I move away from catching gray water because…

I moved into the RV
I moved away from Las Vegas, a drought-stricken area
Because it was disgusting

If you guessed all of the above, you would be correct!

Moving into the RV was the biggest immediate factor for quitting this habit. We did not have the room to house buckets in the RV. But, RVs are designed for water conservation: low flush toilets, shower heads with buttons on them to temporarily stop the water, and so forth. So, we still conserved plenty of water in the RV, but not in a gross way.

Of course, water conservation is important no matter where you live. But, in Vegas, it was literally the law. While I still save as much as I can, as I moved from Washington to Ohio to Minnesota and now Northern California, I don’t stress it quite as much since we now have plenty of it.

But, a last reason for stopping this habit is that it was literally disgusting…probably the grossest thing I’ve done for the planet. We had buckets that we found in curbside trash, so it was eco and secondhand, that we placed in our kitchen and bathroom. We caught ALL water: soapy water, bloody water from washing period underwear, and crusty kitchen water full of food bits. This wouldn’t have been so bad if I immediately dumped it all on our outside plants (we lived in an HOA so we had to keep them alive)…but I did not do this. We placed them on our back patio and waited until all of them were full before we dumped them. They would fester in the heat and get gross.

Do I regret doing it? No, it literally cut our water usage in half in the desert which is extremely important…but I am glad that we don’t do it anymore!

Hyper-focusing on individual action

As I personally started to move away from individual actions myself in 2021, I did not give this same grace to others I saw online. I don’t have to be perfect, but how dare so-in-so use a plastic bag! How dare that other creator take a flight! How hypocritical.

But, it was a learning curve. I had spent the last 3 or so years putting this goal of perfection on myself because that is what the zero waste movement was all about in the late 2010s. Not only did I have to unlearn this in my own life but also in how I consumed content. And I think we all need to do this.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: our small actions matter and I’ll never discount that. But, you’re not killing the planet and neither am I…unless Elon Musk is reading this.

The movement needs a broader and faster shift to corporate and government action. We’re moving there, but we need more people to hop on! I get so much hate about my blue hair or my tattoos or something else small but wasteful that I do. Sure, I’m not perfect, but I am also not to blame and neither are you. Let’s shift the blame where it truly belongs. Let’s advocate for change where it will matter significantly more. At the end of the day, using a reusable water bottle matters but it hasn’t saved the planet yet and it won’t ever save the planet on its own. We need more!

That’s all for today but there is more where this came from! Leave the zero waste swaps and habits you’ve ditched and what you’ll be implementing this year instead.

Thanks for reading along, as always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)

Emma

The Zero Waste Habits I Quit After 7 Years of Eco Living