The zero waste lifestyle movement, popularized by eco-conscious YouTube creators and bloggers, became household vocabulary in the last decade. It has a well-intentioned message — to inspire people to change their eating, living, and purchasing habits to produce no waste.
Despite the meaning behind the movement, maritimjatim.info some online toxicity, privilege, and judgment prevented the zero waste lifestyle from having a perfect reputation. What were these blips, and how can environmental allies change the conversation to be more supportive and optimistic?
1. It Places Too Much Responsibility on Consumers
Individual responsibility is the changes consumers can make on a personal level to alter their carbon footprints and ecological impact. Corporate responsibility is the same concept but for companies. Logically, companies produce more carbon emissions and have a more significant adverse influence on the climate crisis. So, why doesn’t the zero waste lifestyle acknowledge this?
2. The Cost Makes it Inaccessible
Living zero waste isn’t cheap. Buying organic food without packaging is surprisingly more expensive. Plus, there is an upfront investment in purchasing all the containers and tools required to keep up the zero waste life. The movement frequently touts taking advantage of thrift stores or engaging with your local community to buy-sell-trade objects. But, this is a price paid in time that others may not have.
To be a successful zero waster, it usually requires living in a metropolitan area with an extensive recycling and composting program and many eco-conscious stores and bulk grocers to make it an easy choice to switch.
3. The Trash Jar Is Unrealistic
Influencers like Lauren Singer, the mind behind Trash Is for Tossers, demonstrated a zero waste lifestyle where it was possible to pack years of trash into a 16oz Mason jar. Personalities like hers proved it was possible to reduce personal waste production with research and determination.
However, other environmentalists on a similar journey pulled away the curtain behind the mystical trash jar. The aspirational trash jar received backlash for not being honest, asserting that people must have omitted trash from it. Some admitted to doing so.
4. It Ignores Other Environmental Concerns
When a product gets to a customer, they only have control of the end of its life cycle. The upstream food and product waste from before is out of their control. Therefore, even if they purchase an eco-friendly dining set, it would have been better to thrift that than buy it from an eco-friendly company because most waste produced during manufacturing.
The zero waste lifestyle isn’t primarily concerned with solving upstream waste problems but focuses on end-of-life, which misses most of the picture.
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