Going Low Waste: 6 Months Later

One of my most popular posts on this blog is my Sustainability Resolutions post. At the end of last year, I became very interested in going low waste. Come January, I did what so many of us do, and set ambitious sustainability resolutions for myself to follow.

I promised myself I would check in on these goals six months later, so that’s what I want to do today. I knew a check-in would help me keep my goals more top of mind.

In that post, I talked a little bit about my low waste inspiration, as well as the ways I was already going low waste. So definitely go give that a read for the full picture! For a brief refresher, here were the goals I set:

Going Low Waste Goals

• I will start an at-home compost bin.
• I will buy or bake more fresh bread. Swapping out the usual sandwich bread, even a few times a month, will help cut back on buying bread wrapped in plastic bags.
• I will grow more fruit at home. Plastic produce bags and small plastic containers for berries are the worst! And I can grow fruit that tastes really yummy here in Iowa.
• I will switch to plastic-free shampoo bars and a plastic-free toothbrush.
• I will make my own plastic-free personal care and cleaning products.
• I will wrap presents in reused or recyclable materials.
• I will participate in environmental events in my community.

What I Did Well

It’s so fun to read those goals back! I feel like I’m already doing a lot of low waste things well, like ditching fast fashion, carrying reusable products for drinks and shopping, supporting local businesses, and reducing my impact as much as possible when I travel.

But my 2018 goals still gave me lots to work on.

I’m happy to say I have been growing more food in my garden this year, and more fruit. We usually grow tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, but this year we also grew rhubarb and raspberries in the backyard. At my in-laws (they have a much larger acreage) I help pick strawberries, asparagus, blueberries, and other spring-summer produce. And later in the fall I will pick tons and tons of apples! We reuse a lot of the supplies from our restaurant in the garden.

I also made an effort to wrap all my presents in recycled materials this year! Sometimes I use newspaper or recycled brown packing paper. Other times I save and reuse gift bags. On a couple of occasions I’ve just given presents that don’t need to be wrapped — things like beautiful plants or homemade baked goods!

I made good progress switching out my cleaning products for more clean and low waste solutions. I think this will be a future blog post to come.

Finally, I’ve done a good job attending environmental events in my community, and it’s been so informative! I went to our city’s EcoFest and learned about optimizing my flower garden to help butterflies and bees. I attended another event where I learned about a way I can improve our patio (which we want to re-do anyway) by using water permeable pavers that help prevent run-off. Better yet, the city offers financial incentives for being so environmentally positive. We also learned about a city program that provides discount shade trees for residents.

Not bad for 6 months of work! But I know I can do even better.

Areas for Improvement

Like I discussed in my first post, progress is what matters, not perfection. Of course, there were a few goals that I didn’t achieve in the first 6 months, so those are things I can work on for the next few months!

I still haven’t bought an at-home compost bin for my kitchen. We know we want something for under the kitchen sink (like this) so I just need to get on it!

I haven’t been great at baking bread regularly, although I was a lot better at this when the weather was cooler. I need to find a way to make bread baking part of a weekly routine if I ever want to replace, or cut into, the store bought (plastic-wrapped) bread I’m buying. This could be difficult to do with my current schedule, so I’m also going to look into options to buy fresh, unwrapped bread from the local co-op.

I’ve struggled to switch my beauty products out for zero waste options. Part of the reason I’ve struggled is I committed to buying cruelty free beauty products, and that just takes priority over zero waste for me. If I can find some beauty swaps that are both cruelty free and zero waste, I will share those here! I definitely think I can find some options for hair and body care that fit both criteria and plan to integrate those.

How I can Get Better

When I think back on what got me excited to start going low waste, it was all the low waste bloggers and YouTubers I was excited to follow. I need to keep up my enthusiasm for the movement and stay inspired! I’d like to start reading books and watching documentaries about going low waste, too. Girl Gone Green gives some great recommendations here, and Be Zero has a reading list on her blog. I also really enjoyed this podcast from Slow Your Home with Anita Van Dyke about going low waste slowly.

I also want to put my monthly goals in my bullet journal. I have a place in my bullet journal where I track goals for fitness, finance, and even this blog, so I should track my low waste goals in this same place.

And I’m going to participate in Plastic Free July! Let’s do it together so we can both take those little steps forward. I’d love to chat about the journey. I’m on Instagram or Twitter, as @brumeanddaisy. And don’t forget to come find me over on Goodreads where you can find what I’m reading lately.

Peace & love, and talk soon, Emily