13 'weird' ZERO WASTE/sustainable habits that bother my friends & family

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[ninastefekova]

I have recently visited the US for the first time (I am from a small European country) and the amount of plastic you guys use without thinking literally gave me an anxiety attack. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel and there were PLASTIC cups for your morning water/juice and almost everyone was using them even for coffee and tea (the hotel also had ceramic cups for coffee but yeah). The amount of surprised faces we saw when we would bring our own tote bag when buying something (it is so normal in my country, even people who dont own tote bags just reuse those plastic ones until they literally fall apart), the amount of packaging on everything. And the worst thing is, how hard it is to avoid using it. In most coffee shops we visited, the barista would automaticaly put the coffee in a plastic cup even though it wasn't a to go order. Sometimes when I am watching you and other American sustainability youtubers talk about reducing waste and sustainable habits I am thinking that "Isn't literally everyone doing this already? That's not even an enviromantalist thing it is just a normal behavior.". Now I understand why. Love you Shelby, you are doing a great job on educating people! <3

[abigailm]

In the uk yards are referred to as gardens. It’s a simple thing but the culture around yards is way different here, much more biodiversity is normal and having things like ponds, rockeries and wildflowers is common. I feel like thinking of your yard, as a garden is a subtle way to acknowledge the value it adds to us and the wildlife.

[titililalita]

Definitely felt like the odd one out and a buzzkill yesterday at lunch with my coworkers, they were talking about what they all have shopped for on temu and when it got to my turn told them I actually found it super wasteful

[emilybusby]

I feel like people have completely forgotten that you can RENT dish- and glassware for parties! It used to be common practice.
You can rent almost anything- even clothing! Do it!

[jenniferburns]

My family decided I was weird when I was in college in the late 80s and became a vegetarian. Then when I bought a home in 1990, my neighbors though I was weird when I put in a compost pile and slowly shifted my front and back yard into less grass and added trees and shrubs, a veggie garden, and used herbs and strawberry bushes instead of flowers around my house. When they discovered it was all organic (not pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers) and saw us using a rotary mower for the small amount of grass left. My weird status was secure. Over the years, friends and family have just shrugged when I banned air fresheners from my home, dried my laundry on a clothesline and drying racks, chose a compact car over a van or SUV, brought my own bags everywhere, and had no interest in shopping for fun. Being called weird or a hippie is a badge of honor for me. My daughter did love going to other kids houses to eat "normal" food, but now prefers a healthier diet.

[bobbylove]

We reuse bread bags for everything -- food storage, litter box, loose change, odds and ends, etc. Basically everything you would use a Ziplock for, we reuse bread bags instead.

It's actually really funny when someone asks if I have any quarters or whatever and I pull out a hot dog bag lmao

[ishathakor]

i find the plastic to go disposable containers you mentioned weird honestly and this is imo an example of different cultural norms. i'm indian and in my culture whenever you want to send someone home with some food, you just give it to them in one of your regular containers with the expectation that the next time you see them, they'll give you your container back. sometimes, it would be like a continuing chain of people making food for each other so the next time we saw someone we gave our nice glass box too, they would give us our container full of something they made. i think it's really nice and builds community.

[feelslikeforeve]

I live in Sweden and would never buy water in a plastic bottle. Not drinking tap water is insane, and honestly sad that it’s not possible in so many places!

[laurendaniels]

All of these were totally normal for me 😂 One big difference I've noticed between my friends and I over the last few years is that when I moved into a new house I didn't immediately go out and buy everything I need for it. I've spent 3 years finding the pieces that I LOVE secondhand rather than immediately going out and buying a bunch of cheap stuff that I don't really love and get tired of quickly. After being so excited about the pieces that I've found I've also noticed my friends changing their mindsets though! One friend just thrifted a pair of cabinets for her laundry room and that's something she never would have even thought to do before 🎉

[amberarmstrong]

I get looked at sideways for loosely putting my veg in my cart. I'm going to wash it anyways!

[riiissaaa]

My most recent conversation I had where someone thought I was ‘weird’ was when I told them I have never bought anything off Amazon.. they couldn’t believe it. It has never even crossed my mind!

[avacurtis]

I send people leftovers home in old plastic containers from the grocery store. Bought yogurt in this once, three years ago here you go. A lot of them are fr like 10 years old and were my grandparents first. They sent me home something in that and then i give it to someone else. No one finds it weird by whole family has done that for as long as can remember and I'm sure much longer

[michelleheegaard]

My newest habit is that I reuse every single small plastic bag as a poop bag. I go through 2-3 poop bags a day and I might as well reuse the ones that comes along when I buy regular groceries or when small plastic bags are becoming too filthy to use for other purposes. Im obsessed with it.
I'd suggest anyoen do this tbh. It saves a lot of money and just makes sense. If you dont have a dog, you can give yours to a friend of yours. I wish other people in my life did that for me.

[sapphire]

For leftovers, freezing etc save, wash put and reuse the plastic containers with lids u get when ordering takeout

[santanarich]

The tap water one gets me! Everyone in my area says it’s gross but they all used to drink it. It’s not gross. It tastes fine! I hate when people buy plastic water bottles to use to fill their Stanley’s!!

[JenziGee]

My “weird” sustainable habit is being very conservative with heating and cooling. In summer months, our air conditioning is set to 75° and heat is set to 65° in the winter. Most of the spring and fall months we just let the fresh air in and keep the central heating and cooling off. Friends and family think it’s “weird, ” but you know what’s actually weird? Going into someone’s house in the heat of summer and being frozen or overheating in someone’s house in the dead of winter. Of course it is necessary to a degree to manage the temperature of ours homes, but people go WAY overboard with it.

[carly]

Lawns are so WEIRD! Why are we literally farming ornamental grass in the yard? And that’s normal?? And we don’t do any sort of crop rotation so it looks terrible. It honestly has become kind of creepy to me, walking around suburbia where I grew up and and seeing lawn after lawn after lawn for absolutely no purpose.

[anahidkassabian]

Wonderful vid! Lots to stay, but I'll try to stick to one: my 71 year old physicist husband never agrees with anything, but he *loved* your lawn video! Unheard of, so be proud, 🤣 Also, I'm a long-time viewer, and I converted to rags and a bidet years ago because of you, and I can't thank you enough. Incoming TMI: the bidet solved my chronic yeast/thrush problems! *hugs*

[kalaniblake]

Drinking from the tap! My coworkers will say, "I wish we had water at work..." we have multiple taps, with a filter! But they will bring plastic bottles to work, drink two sips and leave them EVERYWHERE. One day I cleaned ten water bottles up in the breakroom and in the fridge, that had been sitting there for a week but no one finished any :( The plastic bottled water companies have really convinced the general public that tap water is dangerous. Anytime I see people leaving costco with carts full of MINI plastic water bottles 😵‍💫

[justinemard]

I live in Ottawa Canada and we have some of the worlds safest and highest quality tap water and yet so many people here still buy and use single use water bottles. It’s wild to me.