1. prolong the life of already existing plastics

2. Reusing and refilling is key!

As you start your sustainable lifestyle journey, this first habit is one of the most essential ones. Prolonging the life of plastic might sound counter intuitive, but it only means keeping already existing plastic in your household out of landfills, such as those Q-tips in your bathroom or the zip-locks in your kitchen. It is best to use up the plastic first, for as long as you can, rather than just throwing it all out, because resources (i.e. OIL) went into producing it. By taking this step, you will reduce plastic waste in the long run.

Further explained: Imagine if a bunch of babies were born at the same time, the population rate would spike; however, if the babies were added to the population at a slow enough rate, the population might stay constant or even decrease. The same goes for plastic: use it up at as slow a rate as possible, and afterwards replace it with a product that is more sustainably made and has a longer lifecycle.

Example: Fill up the trash bag completely - You will be increasing plastic waste by not filling up the trash, because you will need more trash bags for many smaller amounts than for a few big amounts.

Helpful Tip: Put food scraps and other items that would start to make your trash smell in the freezer until the trash bag is full and ready to be removed. This way the trash doesn’t need to be removed until it’s entirely full.

3. Recycle religiously

Recycling is purposefully the last of the three R’s, reduce, reuse, recycle, because it should be your last resort. Most products are still produced with entirely virgin plastic, creating an unimaginable amount of waste and unused material. Until bigger corporate companies realize they can make money off of recycled plastic, the rest of us will have to cut down plastic usage and recycle what we have. Yes, it is a pain in the a** to have to wash out all that gross old milk and peanut butter, but the fact of the matter is that dirty food containers are rarely recycled. Wash out the milk jug along with the rest of your plastic food containers; we’ll cover glass and metal further down. It's really not that bad to wash out your recyclables before the food is all dried up inside the container. If you are unsure if something can be recycled, it’s easy to look up your local guidelines! For any rigid plastic, look for the recycling triangle and then check with your municipal recycling facility to see which numbers they accept. In most cities in the US, you don't even have to sort the recycling (yet) so JUST DO IT! Don't let your laziness impact the environment. :-)

Helpful tips for recycling:

• For containers that can be closed fully—instead of just running a recyclable piece of plastic under the spout for two minutes, remove food scraps and residue by putting a bit of hot water in, closing the container, and shaking it around. This will save a lot of water in the long run!

• If you have a fireplace, collect all those dirty cardboard pieces that can’t be recycled, such as pizza boxes, and use them later for a great fire starter.

• Be that person in your friend group that collects the corks after a wine night and ships them all together to recork.com (see website for more information). Avoid sending small amounts at a time, instead take those to local collection spots (USA & CANADA).

• If you can’t find a recycling bin, keep your recyclable item with you until you’re home or you locate a bin. It should be empty already if you’re planning to recycle, so probably won’t weigh much anyways.

• In most curbside recycling systems in the US soft plastic is not accepted, only rigid plastics with the recycling symbols on them. However if you have a piece of soft plastic with a recycling symbol on it, such as those thin supermarket bags, there are many drop-off locations all over the US that are conveniently located for most people. Click here to find your local plastic film drop-off location.

NOTE: If you life in an area/state/country where the recycling system isn’t efficient, opt for biodegradable materials to compost and reuse non-compostable containers. See tip #6.

6. make your own compost

If you live in an area or country where the disposal system is not quite functional, then a compost is a necessity. Composting will take care of all plant based food waste, as well as shredded paper that can’t be recycled. This will also provide you with free garden soil. See how to make a simple compost here, or a worm compost here.

If you do live in an area where recycling is properly handled and residual waste is made into Biogas, such as Denmark, then it is better to support the infrastructure with a more sustainable energy source until more sustainable solutions are found.

7. Learn how to sew and knit

Learning to knit is not only a fun and relaxing activity, but also a sustainable solution to buying clothing (or at least once you get good at it). Knitting is "Completely without discharge from production and pollution from packaging and transport, and the lifetime of beautiful clothing produced by yourself is very long" (sustainable by heart, Önling). To top that off, that means you will be able to repair your favorite sweaters, or use the yarn from them for other projects:)

Learning to sew will help prolong the lifetime of your clothes. Stitching up that little hole in your underwear or sewing a new button on a shirt properly will help your clothing function and look as good as new for longer. Hopefully mending clothing will make you less susceptible to buying new items, saving you from spending money.

The statistics of textiles: 6.3% of all waste in the US comes from discarded textiles, and only 15% of that ends up recycled (epa.gov, 2015). Globally, 87% of all textiles made into clothing gets thrown into a landfill or incinerated. An additional 2% of textiles as clothing products never even make it to the market (Ellen McArthur Foundation, 2015, page 20, 36 & 37). See tip #8 to learn how to help keep your textiles and clothing in the loop.

9. non-packaged foods

In all reality, many foods have their natural protection around them and are supposed to until you eat them. Nowadays, you can buy peeled and sliced zucchini and clementines in supermarkets so that all you have to do is rip open the plastic film, eat the food and then throw out the garbage. That was not nature’s intention. Nature gave us the natural protection for a reason. It makes foods last longer and distributes nutrients. Clearly with veggies it’s a problem that people are just plain lazy, but with meat the situation becomes a lot more complicated since most of us don’t live on farms where ham and beef can be sliced the same hour it should be eaten.

So what do we do? Well firstly, we can try to cut down the meat we eat in order to reduce packaging and recycling needs. Secondly, we should try to only buy meats that come in recyclable packages, or from a deli where you can get it paper wrapped for the trip home to your own container/reusable ziplock.

The problem with most modern waste is that it isn’t biodegradable. Valuable resources are wasted every day on single-use products that could have been used to make reusable products. You should opt for anything that can be reused and has a long lifecycle. REUSING AND REFILLING SAVES ENERGY AND CO2 EMISSIONS!

Reducing single use plastic water bottles is one of the easiest ways to reduce plastic pollution. Nearly 80% of single-use plastic water bottles end up in our landfills and oceans, and carrying a reusable water bottle is all it takes to prevent this. Most coffeeshops, restaurants and fast-food joints are more than happy to fill up your water bottle if you ask nicely. Find your nearest refill with the mobile app called Tap. (stats sourced from their website)

Although there is quite a lot of debate around which grocery bags are the most sustainable, anything that can be reused is better than single-use. This doesn’t just go for grocery shopping but ANY type of shopping, so just keep the bags visible and close to your front door or in the car. Doing the latter will ensure that even if you forget to bring them into the store they can be fetched from close by.

Your judgement: It’s possible that the disposal system in your area is dysfunctional, and the thin plastic produce bags provided at the grocery store for vegetables and fruit have no part in the recycling system. It is always a good idea to bring reusable bags, and if your local system doesn’t recycle, PEASY recommends that you make your own produce bags out of old cloth or invest in organic cotton produce bags. A tip from Sabrina Auclair, who owns unpackedliving.com, is to use your old pillow cases for your produce. Click here if you want to see how heavily challenged your local recycling system is (USA).

Disclaimer: One study done by DTU (Danish Technical University) claims that plastic bags are better than cotton ones; however, it has been questioned by other scientists and the writers of the article have had to admit that the conclusion was a bit too forward as well as misleading. There’s also a lot of variety in organic cotton companies’ claims about water usage and CO2 emission. Read more here about the assumptions and here to read the research paper. There is nothing wrong with using plastic as you’re transitioning into a sustainable lifestyle, as long as it can be recycled. The majority of plastic does not get recycled, so be mindful and focus on reducing and reusing before relying on recycling. Any type of recycling uses energy and emits greenhouse gasses, but plastic does have a lower energy requirement to be recycled and transported. IT IS A HUMAN ISSUE, NOT A PLASTIC ISSUE!

examples of plastic products that can be reused:

• straws (option: collapsible)

• ziplock bags

• cups/mugs (option: collapsible)

• containers

• makeup wipes

• coffee filters/K-cups

• tea strainers

• grocery bags, produce bags and shopping bags

• sushi sticks

4. don’t eat takeout

Some people don’t always consider all the single-use materials that come with eating takeout. Takeout uses plastic bags, containers, individually packaged salt and pepper, packaged condiments, paper bags etc. In addition, you usually get wayyyyy more than you need for just one meal. In order to avoid resorting to takeout, try to plan the week's meals ahead of time and grocery shop accordingly. It is a good idea to always have prepared meals in the freezer for days where you don't have time to cook! (or just eat out instead of ordering take out - get it (-; )

5. Upcycle glass and metal containers

Recycling glass and metal takes a lot more resources than recycling plastic, which makes plastic not such a bad idea so long as it gets recycled. The good thing about glass and metal, however, is that it can be upcycled and reused for other purposes.

The following is an idea rephrased from Anita Vandyke’s instagram rocket_science (see it here):

All different types of glass jars, such as from jam, sauces, soups, pickles or condiments, can be washed and reused for many other purposes. Drinks, lunch, snacks, paint, decorations, flowers, grains, flour, sugar, baby food, even for hot drinks. To protect your hands from heat, cold, or condensation, wrap some cloth with an elastic band around it to keep it in place.

8. Donate, sell or send clothes to be repurposed

Another way to increase the lifetime of textiles is to make the products available for other people. This is a very easy way to keep fabrics in circulation and to reduce resource use. You may even get some of the money back that you used to buy the clothes! If you feel that selling your clothes is too long of a process, donate them. There are tons of thrift stores and collection spots around, just make sure your clothes end up in the right hands after you let them go. Most churches accept clothing donations as well. If clothes are beyond the point of use, send them away to be recycled into new clothes.

Where you can send clothing for recycling:

1. thereformation.com accepts clothes that are in good shape - link

2. marinelayer.com accepts old tees - link

3. knickey.com accepts old undies - link

4. Eileen Fisher accepts only worn down clothes made by them and in clean condition - link

   • bring them to your local Eileen Fisher retail store in person

     or ship to (with all contact information):

   • 50 S Buckhout St, suite 108G, Irvington, NY, 10533

   • 4860 Rainier Avenue S, Seattle, Washington, 98118

   • 624 South Lander St, suite 20, Seattle, Washington, 98134

(for many of these options you get a discount or free item sent back to you)

Use this link to find out more about upcycling and recycling your old clothes.

Tip: arrange a clothing swap with your family and friends! Swap clothes to upgrade everyone’s wardrobe, and take everything that doesn’t go home with a new owner to be donated. This is super fun and a lot cheaper than buying new clothes, plus everyone benefits!