My name is Lauren Singer and I live a Zero Waste lifestyle in New York City. That jar I’m holding is all of my trash from the past 5 years.
I was an Environmental Studies major in College and have always been interested in the environment, but I made the conscious decision to live sustainably about a year and a half ago.
There were two moments that brought me to a trash-free, waste-free lifestyle:
The first was my senior year of college when my professor Jeffrey Hollender, of Seventh Generation fame, emphasized the importance living your values and made me think about my own personal environmental impact.
The second was when a fellow environmental studies major would bring lunch to class every week in a single use plastic bag, a disposable water bottle, and a plastic takeout container. I would sit there and think, we are supposed to be the future of this planet and here we are with our trash, messing it up.
Then I learned about this family in California, calling themselves the Zero Waste Home, that was producing little to no garbage, it was this Aha! moment for me. I wanted to lessen my impact, so I started my Zero Waste journey. This is when I really decided that I not only needed to claim to love the environment, but actually live like I love the environment.
Trash is for Tossers is my attempt. It will document my Zero Waste journey and show that leading a Zero Waste lifestyle is simple, cost-effective,
timely, fun, & entirely possible for everyone and anyone. If I can do it, anyone can!
***
For the purpose of this blog, Waste will be defined as point source, meaning it is discarded by its holder with
intent of it going to landfill. Trash is anything a person plans to
throw away or anything a person deems obsolete that is then discarded in
a manner where it will
not be intended for re-purposing or reuse even if it unknowingly will be
at some
point in the future.
How do I define ZERO WASTE? To me, Zero Waste means that I do not produce any garbage. No sending anything to landfill, no throwing anything in a trash can, nothing. However, I do recycle and I do compost.
Photo Credit: Daniela Spector