How to GO zero waste and STAY zero waste in 2025!!

Let's bust some zero waste myths: zero waste can be EASY, zero waste can be FUN, and zero waste can be for everyone! Here are my top tips for going low waste and how to STAY low waste in 2024. You don't have to change your whole life, you can start small and start right here right now. One small step at a time will add up to a lifetime of positive impacts :)

Videos mentioned/recommended:

Timestamps:
00:00 - Busting low waste myths
1:22 - 1. Know your WHY
1:59 - 2. No one can be 100% zero waste
2:53 - 3. Don't do it cold turkey
3:47 - 4. Start with free and easy swaps
4:42 - 5. You don't need a ton of swaps to get started
5:39 - 6. Don't give up everything you love
6:56 - 7. Don't get discouraged over "mistakes"
7:28 - 8. Find a community
8:05 - 9. Dealing with eco anxiety
8:43 - 10. Content creators only post highlight reels
9:41 - 11. Find swaps you LOVE
10:51 - 12. Document the process
11:19 - 13. Keep learning!
11:47 - 14. No one size fits all swap and it's not linear
12:51 - 15. Be a conscious consumer
13:34 - What are your tips for living zero waste?
14:32 - Bloopers

SHOP MY FAVES!

SHOP MY GEAR

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[crowgrl]

I believe that you CAN be zero waste for life, because once you start doing all these little things, it becomes a habit. It's a habit for me to take my reusable bags to the grocery store, to fill my own water bottle from home, and to use my own coffee cup at Peet's. It's a habit for me to automatically separate my trash, recycling, and compost items. I don't even think twice about it anymore. So I will likely be doing things this way for the rest of my life!

[cocothela]

One of my favourite zero waste or low waste swaps is to choose secondhand first. I love finding the item I need, saving it from landfill, giving it a new life instead of it gathering dust in someone else’s home, saving money, and the stories that my second hand items have! And then selling or donating usable things I no longer need to close the loop.

[bumblebeez]

Not buying things online helps a ton too, try and look for it locally instead of just ordering it off of Amazon.

[givegrace]

Thank you for talking about disability- I find that a lot of folks glaze over it. I appreciate you!

[KS-jfjf]

Thank you for being such a positive force in this community 💞
I have been an environmentalist since I was a pre-teen. I wish my younger self saw your video. The amount of times I have felt like a fraud because I wasn't perfect...why?! All the while the large corporations keep wasting on a massive scale....
Last year I kicked a new gear on: we started to rescue our food. About 75% of our groceries come from dumpsters now. And the volume of food we can donate to homeless shelters and food banks is unreal...so, I look at all the hooplaa about judging myself on buying diapers for my kid, getting my medication in a non recyclable container....yet EVERY SECOND massive corporations send tons of totally good stuff to landfill...so I wholeheartedly agree with your message. So many need to hear that 🤗💞 Do what you can, keep learning and don't give up!

[chrstopherblighton-sande]

I so wish I had seen this video back when I adopted eco-living! I put myself through a lot of distress, guilt and shame because I wasn't able to do things as sustainably as possible due to the limitations that OCD (and ADHD) force me to navigate. Thankfully a wonderful therapist, who shares my ecological values and ethics, helped a lot and so much of your advice in this video reflected the kind of guidance he gave. I do everything I can and my consumption is low as I live a minimalist lifestyle, but I'm certainly not perfect. I continue to learn and makes changes as when I can and your channel has been a great help.

As always thank you for taking time to make all your wonderful content. It's very much appreciated.

[ithacacomments]

I live in an apartment complex for older adults.
110 adults.
We have a giveaway area to place unwanted items for others to pick up.
I have gotten most of my clothing from the giveaway area for years.
We compost.
older adults do not understand zero waste....and everything goes down the trash tube.
I am committed to doing what I can to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, etc.
I collect my glass containers and take them to a special collection site to be made into new glass.
I collect my plastics and send them off to be made into garden benches.
I try my best to replace disposable items with a reusable item.
One day at a time...One choice at a time.
Thank You Father God for the Earth and its beauty. May we always respect and cherish her.

[ronjatuovinen]

One of my favorite things about zero waste is how some of the things are so easy and save you so much time, energy and money, and so I focus on that in my journey to being imperfect zero-waster. I really like your ideas, because they very often go into those categories, so I've been able to try many of them out. Me recent favorite is making wet wipes out of my old, ripped pyjama pants.

[Camille_Boomer]

Hahaha making food from scratch is also one of the things I've done. But I actually really enjoy it.

I can relate so much with everything you've said in this video. What makes me feel better is to see that I went from having to take the trash out once or twice per week to once every two to three weeks.

[jkflores]

This video makes me feel so much better on what I'm doing. I also recycle because we get juices that are in plastic and I would try to avoid it if I could but the store we go to for groceries doesn't have it an anything else and we have a baby so we can't go from store to store. But anyway we reduced SOO much trash. But I still sometimes feel like I'm not doing good enough but tbh this video helped me realize that what I'm doing is better than nothing.

[claimsandwarranties]

You always encourage. I just filled out the form for zero waste zero judgment- Thank you

[BeccaDoesStuffYT]

Brava!!! Love it, Emma! Great job 👏👏👏 This is an excellent video. We need more like this from other content creators.

[baharpiena]

I am happy that you made this video. This is very supportive.👌🏼👏🏻❤

[erintannehill]

I think I've been around since close to the beginning... a long while at least! One zero waste thing I do is buy second hand as often as possible with clothes, technology, etc. It's allowed me to try different things to see what works and what doesn't, while also giving items a second chance. Also, I love your tip about making certain swaps because they do save money. Because of your tips, I no longer buy tissues [hello repurposing old shirts] and many other single-use items. For anyone who says zero waste is expensive hasn't experienced the joys of these kinds of swaps. With the money I save, I can afford to invest in eco-friendly alternatives, such as recycled or bamboo toilet paper.

[thestorykeeper]

What a refreshingly encouraging video! Especially thank you for saying "don't give up things you love." The other day I saw an (old) video in which someone said that in order to be zero waste they had to sacrifice marshmallows (because they always come in plastic packaging). It made me so sad. It's okay to buy marshmallows every now and then! (Incidentally, it's also possible to make homemade marshmallows, which they didn't mention either...)

[terryhenderson]

Most of us have more than enough opportunity to become more eco-friendly, there's plenty to pick from. It is a life style and life style changes are both more comfortable and stick with you longer if you do a little at a time. All of those little changes and alternatives of individuals add up as more people join with thier little changes. A point not discussed is that eco-friendly involves interaction to yoir environment including the available yoir community's infrastructure. What works in one place may not in the next; ormwork without significant struggle.

[CHRowan]

I really enjoy your videos because they help give me ideas of what I can do to help impact the environment in a positive way. I’m disabled and because of my illnesses I have chronic pain so it’s easy for me to become discouraged at what little I can do some days. Thank you for giving me good ideas of what I can do to help make a positive impact on our environment.

[terryhenderson]

While the zero waste movement is centered upon not sending things to the landfill through thier life cycle from gathering/ making the raw materials through manufacturing, use, and end of life - eco-friendly is more encompassing and is about using the fewest amount of resources with the least amount of long term environmental impact. In terms of being able to do this on a low income, the eco-friendly movement, of which zero waste is but a subset, is a low income nirvana. It is all about less use, complete use, reuse, repurposing, and all the rest.

Again, there is plenty of opportunity. If you can still walk, bend over or use a grabber stick, it costs nothing to pick up one piece of litter per day, outside of disposal costs, for 365 pieces in a year that would elsewise work its way to a waterway. Plenty of opportunity to even pick whst you pick up in many communities. Reducing your use of disposables ove reussbles is cost saving and eco-friendly. Reusing things others throw away, or even destined for your own waste stream, is another. The list goes on.

[kafragnichtmichduidiot]

I had a bad day yesterday.
So, on my way back, I treated myself to some chips.
And they came in plastic.

Well... good news, it's such a nice container, I can go there again with it ahd reuse it ^^

[tekayla]

Just subscribed today. I'm TeKayla88 on everything I'm so excited to start making some changes! Might take the rest of the day and binge watch all your videos. 💯😂🥰🦋❤️✌️💯👑