Jasper Larkins, ZWH Intern
Accessibility to low-income people and communities is often an important component missing in discussions of Zero Waste and sustainable materials management. Sustainable practices popularized in the media tend to be costly, such as buying organic or completely plastic free. While those practices are significant, not everyone can afford them. Corporations capitalize and profit off of products that are meant to reduce harm to our planet without accepting responsibility for the way they devastate our environment. Instead they shift the blame to the general public – consumers – misleading us to think if we don’t purchase their green-washed items, we aren’t doing our part.
However, that is not true! There are many low cost, environmentally-beneficial practices that are easy to integrate into our daily habits.
- Use natural lighting during the day. Conserving energy is a habit that is completely free, and will actually put money back into your pockets! Keeping lights off during the day will lower your living expenses, and help protect our environment from needless carbon dioxide emissions and excess resource use.
- Reduce, reuse,… repurpose. Repurposing old items minimizes natural resource extraction and reduces the pollution from new product manufacture. It reduces landfill disposal and is significantly less energy-intensive than recycling. Repurposing helps limit our carbon footprint, and makes us more conscious of the waste we produce. Plus, repurposed items can be donated! Someone else may find treasure in items you no longer want.
- Think about the veggies you buy…and grow them. While this practice isn’t cost-free to start, it will save you in the long run. Think of all the vegetables and fruits that are wrapped in plastic or sold in plastic containers that can be grown in your home.
- Composting is a good alternative or addition to gardening. If you don’t have yard space nor access to a community garden, gardening may not be possible. You can still reduce food waste though by composting! Composting reduces landfill methane emissions, enriches soil (which is why it’s great for gardening), and aids in the uptake of carbon dioxide in plants – overall helping to combat climate change.
- Question your purchases and consumption to save money. Often the single-use packaging for food and beverage purchases is a significant portion of the total price. For example, bottled water (most commonly from a tap) is thousands of times more expensive than tap water. Compare $0.002 per gallon for most tap water to a range of $0.89 to $8.26 per gallon for bottled waters. Have you ever planned on just buying one item, but left the store with many? It’s a cycle of ‘I see it, and I want it, so I’ll buy it’. Next time, ask yourself: do I really need this? Can I borrow this? Chances are, you’ll discover that you in fact do not need to buy more than what you came for.
These are not the only free, affordable, and cost saving daily life habits readily available to people on a tight budget, they’re simply easy ones to start with. It may be overwhelming to try them all at once. Set small and achievable goals to integrate these habits into your daily routine. Living as environmentally-sustainable as possible looks different for each of us. We know that making an effort to reduce your environmental impacts does not need to be costly. To learn more visit our website zerowastehumboldt.org or follow us on social media.