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Get to Know More About Zero Waste Lifestyle: A Lifestyle that doesn’t Create Any Waste

15 Aug 2023

 Source: https://wiser.eco/zero-waste-lifestyle/

What is Zero Waste Lifestyle?

Globalization that leads to a modern lifestyle makes people sometimes become more consumptive in buying goods. This activity of buying goods further increases the potential for generating waste. This is happening in our country, namely Indonesia, which has been named the country that produces the most marine waste in the world. Therefore it is important for us to find effective steps in protecting our environment by implementing a Zero Waste lifestyle. Zero Waste Lifestyle is a lifestyle to minimize waste that comes from our daily lives. Even though it is impossible to create Zero Waste, at least we are trying to reduce it for the sake of survival and protecting the environment. This zero waste lifestyle was originally popularized by a singer from the United States named Lauren. Lauren has been living this lifestyle for 4 years and she manages to produce just one jar of trash.

The main goals and benefits of implementing a Zero Waste Lifestyle :

The zero waste lifestyle has many benefits that can be obtained, especially in today’s world where there are thousands of tons of waste generated per day. The main goal of this lifestyle is to reduce waste, so that the waste produced will certainly be reduced. As we know, waste has many negative effects, especially plastic waste. Plastic waste is very dangerous for land and ocean ecosystems, there are many fish and other marine animals trapped among this plastic waste. Not a few animals, such as fish and turtles, eat plastic because they think plastic is their prey.

Second, implementing a zero waste lifestyle will create efficiency and change our mindset in using plastic. When buying items, we will tend to consider their benefits. Using durable items such as food containers would be a consideration instead of using plastics. In other words, reused items will be more efficient and eco friendly. Waste not only comes from plastics but also food waste. Maximizing the use of food ingredients will reduce food waste. Instead of throwing, leftover food can be processed into compost which is beneficial for the environment.  

By minimizing food waste, it helps tackle global warming. This is because one of the causes of global warming is food waste piled up in Final Disposal Sites (TPA). The rest of the food can produce methane gas which has a global warming potential 21 times higher than carbon dioxide (CO2). Global warming can cause damage to the ozone layer which can affect changes in earth’s temperature and climate change.

How to do a Zero Waste Lifestyle?

There are many ways to practice a Zero Waste Lifestyle. One of them is by applying 5 R’s which consists of:

  1. Refuse, we must start refusing to buy packaging or plastic items that are once used such as plastic bottles, plastic straws, sachet packaging, styrofoam & plastic bags. This is because this type of plastic is difficult to decompose & takes up to hundreds of years to decompose.
  2. Reduce, Reduce a consumptive lifestyle that can cause frequent buying of new things that are not really necessary. Use the goods until they run out and then we can buy a new one.
  3. Reuse, Reuse used goods or take advantage of used goods. For example by making used bottles as flower pots.
  4. Recycle, recycle waste or reprocess waste that can create new items.
  5. Rot, processing waste into compost. Organic waste such as food dregs and food waste can be reprocessed into compost

In our daily life, ways to reduce plastic waste is by start using our own bottles and food containers in school, campus, or office. We also can bring our own shopping bags when we’re about to buy at the supermarket, and use stainless steel straw instead of plastic straw. 

Conclusion 

        As a conclusion, plastic waste creates mostly negative impacts rather than positives. High uses of plastic increase the possibility of significant climate change. In other words, plastic waste brings a worse impact on the environment which creates pollution. In order to prevent negative impacts, a zero waste lifestyle needs to be implemented. Zero waste lifestyle means zero use of plastic bags or bottles. Instead of using plastic, reusable bags and tumblr would reduce those possibilities.

References :

Tarisa Carolina, Jocelyn Anggelina, Jenny Puspita Kendek, Rakha Arsya Putra, dan Karen Chelentine Natalia.