I've always recycled. In my house growing up that was just what we did. We did things we thought were more environmentally friendly such as walk everywhere we could and turn the lights off when we didn't need them. These things are something I took with me when I left home. Ways I thought I was helping with the ever growing concern that there are way too many people out there not caring enough about the environment or are perhaps under the illusion that using more and more of the earth's natural resources will not have a significant impact on it's future.
About 16 months ago, while searching for sustainable, fairly manufactured clothing after watching True Cost (a documentary available on Netflix about the fashion industry - if you haven't seen it add it to your list, it's eye opening!) I came across a blog by Lauren Singer called Trash is for Tossers. From there, I found Zero Waste Home and Bea Johnson. How I had not heard about her before this I do not know, and I felt awful to be so behind on something and someone who was clearing making a much bigger impact than I was. Both of these bloggers, and many others, have adopted a zero waste lifestyle where as little as possible goes to landfill. This blew my mind. There was so much they were doing that I could have been doing too. I decided right then to change as much of my life as possible to waste as little as I could. Turns out recycling is great and all, but a terrible place to stop.
These past 16 months have been a fun and sometimes extremely frustrating journey. I'm still not where I want to be (I mean, I don't even compost!) but overall I've made great strides and love living the way I do. People often ask me about zero waste and sustainability and I see small changes in their lives just because we had a conversation about something they saw me doing. Last September I started a new job where the amount of disposables used and trash produced blew my mind and honestly made me question if I could even work here. Then, instead of turning away, I stepped forward and asked if they had thought about in office composting in our building as I knew other buildings did it. They were completely surprised but amazingly receptive and now we compost, as well as recycle, all disposables we use are compostable, all our office purchases are the greener choices and all our events are 97% zero waste.
Everyone thinks that one person can't change enough to make a difference. One person is plenty.
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