Put Zero Waste Into Action
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We've got a big problem…
We make way more trash than we (or the planet) can handle, but as just one person it's easy to feel guilty and helpless.
…that you can help solve.
Taking action is the best way to go from helpless to hopeful. And luckily there is a lot you can do to make a real difference!
More than throwing away better
Most of the environmental impact of a product comes from its manufacturing and shipping.
We focus on reducing waste at the source by finding ways to avoid making new stuff in the first place.
Wherever you are, go zero waste
Big change starts small
We think globally, but we find power in acting locally.
"We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly."
Anne-Marie Bonneau, @ZeroWasteChef
🤿 Dive In
Swaps Database
Search for zero waste alternatives to common items
How to start zero waste
A comprehensive guide to reducing waste in your everyday life
Food Waste
Tackling food waste is the most impactful action you can take to reduce your household's trash
Zero Waste Essentials
Basic techniques and items that help make every day less wasteful
Why Zero Waste?
Trash is environmental impact you can touch, understand, and act on. It's the very last step in a long chain of extraction that does real damage to people and the planet. When we find ways to eliminate waste we not only avoid that harm, we build up alternatives too!
We’ve made more plastic in the last 10 years than in the preceding century. This exponential rise in production places an incredibly heavy burden on the people and animals that have to live near or among the things we throw away.
Couple that with the fact that 90% of a product’s environmental impact happens before you even open the package and we start to understand the true scale of the problem we’re facing.
Upstream Impact
When we throw something away, the waste we see is just a small moment in a much larger story. The real problem is that for each pound of waste we create, 32 pounds are created upstream of us. That’s because each new thing requires all kinds of extraction, shipping, refining, and packaging before it even lands in the store.
Real solutions to the waste crisis focus on reducing consumption in the first place and using only resources we have already extracted. Zero waste is not about "throwing away better," but rather eliminating the need to constantly purchase new things.
Climate
70% of global greenhouse emissions come from our food and stuff. Extracting, transporting, manufacturing, storing, using, and disposing of things that end up in landfills are huge drivers of climate change and equally big opportunities to quickly address the climate and environmental crisis.
