5 Easy Beginner Zero Waste Swaps

Over these past few months, I’ve been looking for more ways to live more sustainably. This pursuit is, in fact, due to my love of minimalism and a dream of living a life with a minimal impact on animals, the earth, and the environment. The Zero Waste movement , for those of you who are hearing this term for the first time, is a movement that focuses on reducing waste and trash that end up in landfills, oceans, and incinerators. The movement aims to promote alternatives to heavy usage of plastic, easy ways to recycle, and to highlight the benefits of a sustainable lifestyle. Going completely zero waste is a process and doesn’t happen overnight, so below is a list of 5 easy swaps I’ve made over these past few weeks.

HydroFlask

Any reusable water bottle will work and is better than using plastic bottles everyday. This swap is super easy and can probably be found in your kitchen cabinet waiting to be used!

Steel or bamboo Straws

I personally have plenty of straws from my Starbucks tumbler cups I’ve purchased over the years, so I use those whenever I go to a restaurant or coffee shop. If you don’t have any reusable straws, amazon or etsy have plenty of cute steel and bamboo options for low prices.

Tumbler cups

This swap is perfect for all you weekly latte drinkers out there like me. I never thought to bring my reusable tumbler cups to my favorite coffee shops to avoid the excessive waste of plastic cups, lids, and straws. Tumbler cups can be found anywhere such as Walmart, Target, Starbucks, etc.

Shampoo Bar/Conditioner

This swap was one of my favorites. Instead of purchasing another shampoo product stored in plastic, I opted to trying out a shampoo bar that was packaged in a steel container instead of plastic. The ingredients are all natural and smells amazing. (The brand that I purchased was Aspen Kay Naturals off of amazon).

Reusable Pads, Menstrual cups, underwear

This last swap is geared more toward my ladies out there. I’ve never been taught that there were alternatives to disposable pads and tampons. Recently I’ve discovered reusable pads, cups, and period underwear. Since I wasn’t a big fan of tampons before I decided to go zero waste, I decided to purchase reusable pads (but I’ve heard high praise for the diva menstrual cups if you prefer that).

I hope that these swaps made switching to a more sustainable, zero waste lifestyle seem a little less daunting. Small steps lead to big changes, so start small and see the impact you have on the environment around you.