Have you considered going zero waste and actively working to lessen your overall carbon footprint? It includes more than simply preserving food in fashionable mason jars, purchasing fresh vegetables at farmers' markets, and creating things from scratch. It's a way of living that values meaningful experiences while also being environmentally conscious.

Perhaps you've given it some thought. However, renouncing your reliance on plastic and traditional methods of buying, cleaning, and eating can be daunting if you don't know the basics and receive any help. Here’s your guide to zero waste living.

Remember the 5 R’s

We all know that recycling is a great way of reducing waste that goes to landfill, but there are four other ‘R’s’ that you can incorporate into your life too, such as:

Reuse-

Reuse whatever you can, whenever you can to avoid unnecessary waste going to landfill. Things like plastic bottles and food wrapping can all be reused multiple times. You can also buy reusable bottles and food wrap to avoid the purchase of plastic in the first place.

Refuse-

Simply refusing items you don’t need such as flyers and gift bags is the first step to take when adopting a zero waste lifestyle. You can find alternative methods such as taking a picture of a flyer and only accepting items you’ll use from gift bags to avoid anything going to waste.

Rot-

Composting is a wonderful way of reusing food scraps. Not only does it prevent those scraps from ending up in landfill, it also helps create nutritious soil that you can use in your garden - perhaps to grow your own produce?!

Reduce-

Reducing the amount of things you need will easily prevent any waste going to landfill. Reducing the amount of cleaning products you use too can seriously help the environment, especially if you’re using natural products. Buying only what’s necessary is friendly to both the environment and your wallet too.

Join Zero Waste Communities Online

There are plenty of zero waste communities on social media that can provide you with tips and support as you make this positive change in your life. Join them to learn new “hacks” and ways you can continue your zero waste lifestyle.

Take Your Own Containers To Stores

There are plenty of stores around the UK that allow you to pick only what you need. It’s usually fresh produce such as fruit and veg, but some stores even sell things like nuts, oats, rice and pastas to allow people to only buy what they need. Take your own storage containers to these stores to prevent any unnecessary plastics being used. Then you can simply rewash and refill when you need more!

Finally, at every given chance choose to buy things you can reuse over and over again such as coffee mugs, straws and toothbrushes.