If you don’t have access to a wide variety of bulk items, you’re stuck with dealing with excess wrapping. I don’t live in a huge city and therefore, there’s still at least 8 wasteful items that I continually purchase. I used to beat myself up over it. Wanna know why I no longer feel immense guilt?
The term “zero waste” originated through the manufacturing process. It is essentially impossible for anything to be zero-waste on the consumer’s end.
Here’s 8 Wasteful Items that I continue to purchase…
Groceries: A Girls Gotta Eat
Grocery shopping is one of the most difficult places to reduce your waste. For food preservation and security reasons there are many items that still come packaged in plastic.
Sidenote: Girls Gotta Eat is also a great podcast.
Homogenized Milk
Now, I personally don’t drink milk. But my nearly two year old daughter requires it for her smart developing brain. Thus, I don’t feel bad about purchasing bags of milk. And I rinse and recycle them once they’re emptied, too.
Yep, we live in Canada where bagged milk exists.
Meat
I’ve got a personal problem that no one sympathizes with: I have a lot of trouble gaining weight. I know, so heartbreaking. It’s okay, you don’t have to take pity in me.
Transitioning to a plant-based diet isn’t exactly the healthiest option for me. I need all the calories and necessary vitamins and proteins that come with a omnivorous diet. It doesn’t mean we eat meat for every meal of the week, we do incorporate plenty of plant-based meals and try to source antibiotic-free meat when we can. Or hit up our local butcher shop if they have a good deal.
Household: Keeping clean ain’t easy
Tide Laundry Detergent
Before you start shaking your head at me, I know Tide is horrible for aquatic ecosystems. Prior to cloth diapering I completely agreed with you. However, nothing cleans like Tide.
When it comes to bodily functions, you want something that is going to get the job done. After using a variety of more eco-friendly detergent I found that Tide was much more effective at cleaning.
Once we’re finished with our cloth diapering journey (hopefully soon!) I won’t be purchasing this anymore, but I don’t feel bad about it.
Bleach
If you’ve had a toddler bring home the stomach bug from daycare, you’ll understand the importance of bleach. Growing up, my mother bleached everything. From a young age I was well acquainted with bleach. So much so, that I decided to clean our pet fish once. That didn’t end well.
RIP Goldie.
Kids: The gift that keeps on giving
Disposable Diapers and Wipes
Wait, didn’t I just tell you I use cloth diapers? I do.
But when we send my daughter to daycare I use disposables. We attempted to cloth diaper at daycare and let’s just say it really wasn’t worth the time and the mess. So I’ve learned to live with the guilt.
Personal Hygiene: In my heavy rotation
Skincare
Not all of the skincare I use is completely plastic-free, but I try to source products that align with my ethos whilst being effective. There are a few brands I enjoy so much that I’ve learned to look past their wasteful ways.
Deodorant
One of my favourite deodorant brands is not plastic-free, but that’s okay. Because if it keeps me from smelling like a teenage boys locker room, then I’ll accept their shortcomings.
Share some of the non-zero waste products that you still purchase in the comments below!
