25+ things that are NOT zero waste but are sustainable ️

One thing I've always struggled with the zero waste or no plastic thing is I take medication. I take three different medications. Two are pills and one is an oil based injection. That's not even taking into consideration any changes in medication, temporary medications like anti-biotics, or the medication my partner is on. These are not recyclable bottles and there is no way in hell I can find enough uses for the each one of these. I've seen some people make art with them, but I don't think making an art piece every year that'll just take up space is really a good solution.

Does anyone have any idea what I could possibly do?

Metal straws kinda remind me of plastic flowers.

Soaking all your produce, especially things like berries, cucumbers and other soft-ish things which tend to mold, in a white vinegar and water solution when you get it home from the store will deter mold for a very long time so food doesn't go to waste. Rinse (to remove the vinegar taste, lol) and store as normal. My other tip is Nuclear Energy. It may not be the final goal, but it is clean enough energy which will allow us time to get to where we need to go with solar, wind, etc., which are currently unsustainable and inadequate.

I'm jealous.

I’m surprised there isn’t more pushback on planned obsolescence of so many electronics, appliances, tools, etc… it’s a lot more environmentally friendly to have things that last and are repairable. Stop buying cheap crap that falls apart super fast.

This video motivated me so much!! Thank you for making it

Heck yes Wealthfront!

Shelbie out here talkin PRAXIS and DOING PRAXIS!
YES!

In Germany we have something called foodsharing, maybe that would be quite interesting for you too?
I’m just starting and already fell in love. It’s all about saving food from grocery stores, gas stations etc. that would have been thrown away otherwise. Something like legal dumpster diving 😂

I love how you show the most simple ways to make small changes and over time,just keep doing more and it becomes habit.

I'm actually transitioning to eating everything homemade vegan. Im a natural vegan and this is my dream to be eco friendly and make everything homemade vegan foods.

Any leftovers we didn't get to, veggie scraps, or food that is going to go bad goes to our chickens! Not for everyone and honestly I don't know if I could do the chickens on my own (they kinda freak me out) but they will eat just about everything but bread!

Sad to see people push eating more plant based rather than supporting our local regenerative farmers to get that movement more momentum.

If I have chargers that are just a thin plastic cord I wrap them with embroidery thread friendship bracelet style. It looks pretty and helps protect the cord.

I'd love to see a video about you documenting a month going car-free!

I hope to have solar one day

One thing that third-world country people do ( or at least in mine) is that we don't throw away ruined clothes, but we turn them into different things, like a pajama or if it's really old, then a little cloth for cleaning. That way we don't buy towels for cleaning; usually those things are useful for at least two years more!

Even medieval and earlier people produced some waste. Think: pie crusts that weren't eaten but discarded. 0 waste isn't feasible for humans. We should make sure the waste we do produce doesn't cause harm instead of striving for some unattainable standard. I disagree on the more plant based diet point, but there's different thoughts on this from person to person as always.

Get this: your trash can is stealing from you.

Love too good to go!

How did I not know about this channel until now?

A suggestion when it comes to food waste; "spicy moustache." That's the name of his channel. I've seen him talk about ways to reduce food waste. (A lot of gardening related channels talk about ways to reduce waste.) Gardening channels in general are worth checking out.

As a car guy… who else knows what it takes to make a lithium ion battery for an electric car/hybrid vs what a small gas powered car emits? It’s shocking. Also I’m not anti-environmental or anything, I just think picking the lesser of two evils is the best thing for the environment. Sometimes getting to last longer is better. Even if it does drink gas.

fungus is good too! (mushrooms aren't plants)

POOR people know well how to be thrifty and how to use every bit and piece till it's completely destroyed. It's not a happy life. Doing some of that may be reasonable, but some things you can do which would definitely get lots of use and reuse out of your stuff are time-consuming and make you mostly miserable. But living a poor life (with a VERY few investments like purchasing food shoes instead of shit shoes, better washing machine and a few other essential appliances) has truly small footprint 🥲👍

Even really obviously good things, such as gardening require investment of your time and work, lots of time and work, and doing it CONSISTENTLY and SMARTLY.

(I live in an apartment, my mom has a tiny summerhouse on a tiny lot, my aunt lives in a house in the country on a decent lot (about 2 acres maybe), so I know first-hand how it goes - work, work, more work, always there is work in the garden, in the house. I wish I could live in a house on a big, or at least medium lot (1 acre to me is just above medium, 4 acres is big). But that's not what I can afford 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️, I'd have a small vegetable garden for sure. You can be certain of what you put in there (although you can poison yourself by gardening without knowledge, you have to understand what you do), and there is zero transportation involved.

One of my favorite ways to shop for kitchen 'necessities' secondhand is through estate sales! That's where I found an ice cream scoop, lime press, mesh sieve, extra tablespoons, and silicone food covers. :)

Reduce waste by growing a salad cut and grow garden, usually leafy greens go slimy because you have too much, you didn't plan specifically how to use it, it was just not fresh enough so you procrastinate using it. A cut and grow salad garden means you can cut what you need when you need it, avoiding the above problems and could make you more interested in your greens

in terms of groceries, as a college student it can be difficult measuring out how much groceries you need, so i think meal prepping is the easiest way to go about it. learning the best ways to store food as well helps have your food last longer. i cook a lot of asian foods, so i reuse a lot of the same ingredients, i.e. soy sauce or garlic, so buying those in 'bulk' and knowing how to store it saves money which can also help the environment. a lot of towns have farmer's markets and (at least in ca) a lot of college students qualify for ebt/cal fresh, and a lot of farmer's markets match how much you spend, so that not only helps locally, but it's also a lot fresher of food. generally this is a difficult topic because everyone has different lives and different capacities of actions in terms of food, so its important to be kind to yourself and understand that everyone's situation is different.

Did I hear you use they/them pronouns for Madison??? 💗💗Thank y'all so much for these videos! You're really an inspiration for me to make whatever difference we can, even when it seems like our individual actions don't have any visible impact.

Can you make a video about your journey in restoring natural habitats? I have bought plants and more than one occasion and found out my landscaper was pesticiding them thinking they were weeds.😩 I am wondering what areas of your yard you restored, how you chose which plants, where you got them, whatever else was part of your journey.

Reduce food waste by making it easier to access every nook of food storage. Use a turn table in the corners so the very corner can rotate closer for browsing. Baskets to take out and browse through (filled with containers that have labels on lids), drawers same logic as baskets.

Being able to easily browse and access all food is important to avoid wasting anything. You can also check monthly for best before dates and put anything that falls in the upcoming month in a 'use next' basket and let that guide your meal planning.

I have been given an energy efficient multicooker that has pressure cooking, slow cooking, airfrying, etc. These devices are smaller so they are more energy efficient than an oven and it's a multifunctional one so I have less appliances. Something to put on your Christmas list if you are moving out and people are offering to help you invest in appliances

I've followed your videos for a few years and always appreciate your thoughtful and informed content, and how you take into account certain limiting factors and accessibility issues that people may or may not experience. Certain other "zero waste" videos, groups, and comment sections I've seen honestly leave me feeling cruddy... a mix of eco-guilt and feeling judged. But I like how your videos present options for small changes with the understanding that there is no one "right" way to do things that will fit everyone. I never finish a video feeling judged, which is very valuable, and always feel like I can trust you as a reliable sustainability resource. Thank you so much for your content!!

I wish I could go solar, but I live in an apartment. :(

Can you talk about subscriptions or things like gym memberships? I go to planet fitness and feel it’s more sustainable than buying all the equipment but some don’t agree with me

I love In cypress texas and I’m always talking about how horrible the walkability is in the Houston area

Electric cars are fuelled by generators in out back Australia these are fuelled by diesel

When I moved to a different city, I was so excited to have real, functional public transportation… only to find out that it takes 3-8 times longer than using a rideshare app to get anywhere. A 20 minute drive to the aquarium is 2.5-3 hours by public transportation. The only place where using public transportation is reasonable is going to the mall, which I think only has one second hand store that exclusively sells clothing

can you do a video on solar and specifically solar farms? we’ve been getting them in my area and it’s hard to know if it will benefit the community or the power companies

An idea of how to make your chargers and wires last longer, get electrical tape. I noticed my charger was starting to break and usually I would go buy one but instead, I wrapped a bit of electric tape on it & now it's lasting much longer.

It’s weird, I wouldn’t say I am part of the zero waste community but I do have metal straws and reusable items. I diy a lot of things. I use Olió to get stuff from supermarkets that they going to throw for free. I buy second hand or make my
Own clothes, accessories and furniture. I reuse jars from foods I consumed and use them as cups and to make my own pickles etc buuuut I do it to save a penny 😤

A video where you stop using your car for a month in a car dependant place would be helpful!

As someone who works at a bodyshop, yes, people cant drive for shit. We need to reduce that shit snd make good public transport available.

I just really needed to appreciate that this is like a 9 minute video. I am so happy to see a video from you and then for a moment I didnt know if I could handle getting into all the doom. But then I thought I can handle 9 minutes. And Im glad I did. I hope to see some change for those future people. And im sad for my child. I hope we can save each other and ourselves.

Sadly i live in an area thats middle of nowhere, like the town im in is srounded by farmland, but its the midwest, and i live in a low income apartment building, so i cant hang gardening plants, and have to shop cheaply, meaning i need to be able to eat each month for only 100-120 a month.

Hi Shelby, could you make a video on your opinion of online thrift stores and their actual impact considering shipping and other factors

Are you concerned about faulty solar panels. In Europe solar is quite popular but they have had a lot of catastrophic disasters where buildings have burnt down and even cattle sheds have burnt to the ground. The biggest issue is they can't be turned off so it makes it hard to fight a solar fire.

I would love to see you do a video about not using your car. I have often thought of trying this myself. 😊

I love that you talked about swaps & repairing, perhaps the intersection between those that I've seen popping up is repair cafes! They're community events, like swaps, run by volunteers to help you repair your objects :) from clothes to electronics to bikes to furniture, the point is that you can bring things that need some tlc but might be above your own skill level or require tools you don't have. I think it started in Amsterdam and I've only heard of 2 here on the east coast, but technically anyone who's willing & able can start this in their own community so it's always helpful to know :)

I’ve been asked to lead an effort to teach bokashi in my temple system. And I’m happy to hear you talk about community, local government activism and voting, as well as the climate plan and inflation reduction act. 2024 will determine whether we continue on this path, or allow it all to be torn down and put the oil lobbyists back in control of the EPA.