Easy Zero Waste Items You Need To Bring Next Brunch
When heading out it’s simple to bring a couple little items for a zero waste day.
Coffee Cup – If your outings usually start with a trip to a coffee shop try to bring a cup to make sure you wont have to throw one away later. Alternatively you could drink the coffee at the shop. 99% of the disposable cups end up in landfills whether they’re fancy biodegradable or Styrofoam. More and more cafes are offering a discount to patrons that bring their own cups. Best to not rely one the cafe to make the decision for you. BYOC!
Leftovers Container – So the coffee cup I bring is actually a wide mouth camping mug, that came with a lid. If plans are up in the air, instead of bringing a separate container having a coffee cup that doubles as a leftovers container is super helpful and saves space. If I’m only going out to eat or I know there will be a lot of leftovers I’ll bring an old glass peanut butter jars. Plastic leftover containers are horrible for the environment. They are hard to sort making them harder to recycle. Scientists estimate 65% of all plastic waste in the US is clam shell containers, which includes leftover containers. An easy fix is bringing your own container or if you drive, keep a few containers in your car, just in case. BYOC!
Cutlery Kit – I made my own little cutlery kit to keep my fingers from being stabbed by a loose fork and to steer clear of plastic cutlery. Plastic cutlery is described as most deadly by the Ocean Conservancy as marine and bird life mistake it for food. An easy cutlery kit is a cloth napkin wrapped around utensils you already own with a rubber band around it. Super simple and it helps the planet. Plastic cutlery break creating micro-plastic and because of it’s size and variety it’s next to impossible to recycle. BYOC!
Cloth Napkin – Many paper products are made from virgin trees which some may argue initiates planting and growing more trees. The truth is older, bigger trees inhale more carbon dioxide and exhale more oxygen. Constantly cutting down more trees for a small convenience that humans only recently started is irresponsible. Paper napkins made from recycled materials are better but they still contribute to our ever growing trash heap. Bringing a cloth napkin is an easy solution that hardly takes any room. If none are at your disposal making cloth napkins from leftover fabric is easy and better for the environment than buying new. BYON!
Grocery Bag – Carrying a small bag everywhere is a great way to avoid unwanted, plastic hand outs. If there is an opportunity of something new coming home with you make sure to bring a bag. Plastic bags take 400-1000 years to degrade and are incredibly deadly to marine life who mistake it as food. Because of the film it’s are made into it’s impossible to recycle, meaning every plastic bag you’ve accepted until today is still floating around one the planet and will be for another 400 years. Better not to add more plastic pollution to that. BYOB!
Bag – The bag you carry all these items in is important too! Consumer society tries to convince it’s citizens new is better which is not true for the environment or for some of the humans making these items. The production of new clothing or accessory items is sometimes horrible for human rights and the earth. Being diligent with the items you buy is important for being apart of a well rounded society. The bag I carry I bought over ten years ago and have mended it twice. We should be buying things for life not per season. When I bought this bag I just liked it, it’s not from a fancy cruelty free or human rights shop because those weren’t my values yet but keeping it for so long and fixing it aligned with my values and made this bag worth purchasing in the first place. Use what you have and don’t buy new.
All of these suggestions only get more healthy for the planet with use. If getting a new zero waste item is something you’d like, sure get your shopping on but just remember to bring it with you and use it. Buying new doesn’t make sense unless it’s needed and functional.
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