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Week 12 [21-27.01.19] - How to live without producing waste


I recently stumbled upon an interesting video where a girl tells that she has produced only 450 grams of garbage over the past three years. Then I found her lecture in the TED and decided to share it. I do not fully agree with it in some moments, in fact, I think, she is simply unhappy with modern society and unhappy with the lack of transparency in technological production.  But her overall message is clear to me.


Questions :
1. What do you agree or disagree with in this video?
2. Will such small tricks related to household garbage help the ecology of city?
3. What steps in everyday life do you take to at least slightly reduce the amount of garbage you produce?

Comments

1. I belive that living a zero waste life is possible for a normal, casual person and that living that kind of life can be helpful for enviroment and quite good for us (as she mentioned: she now uses healthier products, food).
And I'm really impressed that she has her own values and does a lot of things to be honest to her self and her values.
2. I belive so. Small steps while taken by a group of peoplecan change a lot.
3. I'm really bad at managing my garbage. And after watching that video I realised that I'm so unaware of my groceries shoping habits. For now I can't even say that I'm slightly reducing garbage. But now I know how to start :D
A wide range of actions is taken now against garbage, like no straw restaurants, and only paper bag shops, but it is not enough. In order to fully change the situation, this should be taken over on a governmental level, with laws and punishments for producing unneccessary garbage.
I also do not fully agree with this video, but I think that general idea is very important, people are providing tremendous amount of waste. But I don’t think that trash can be omitted completely, what is more, making all products in home requires time. In my opinion the best solution is recycling, where you are producing wastes which can be used again.
In my opinion small tricks related to household garbage can help the ecology of city, because people are producing most wastes (at least in cities where most people work in services).
I am trying to avoid taking plastic bags and using plastic bottles to reduce amount of garbage I produce. What is more, I am trying to segregate my wastes, so at least part of them can be recycled.
I agree that living a zero waste life can be beneficial also directly for us. Maybe it sounds cheesy but I think living this "lifestyle" can change your food habits, needs etc. and general outlook on life. And I am glad that you have noticed "problems" with your shopping habits and now will try improve them.
Thanks for comment, it's cool that you segregate your wastes and avoid plastic bags and bottles. If most people do the same as you, we will see the result pretty quickly. It's important to inform people about this problem. I hope that in the near future the awareness of people on this topic will increase.
1. What do you agree or disagree with in this video?
-As great as this idea is, I think that we shouldn’t go from one extreme to another. What would be the global results of ‘not producing any wastes’? How many people responsible for the recycling process etc. would lose their jobs? There are always consequences which come with choices, and most of them remain invisible to us, some, and to some, forever.
2. Will such small tricks related to household garbage help the ecology of city?
-Doing such things in a greater scale, surely would help the ecology not only of a city but of the planet.
3. What steps in everyday life do you take to at least slightly reduce the amount of garbage you produce?
-I am not sure whether that counts, but I’m “crushing my garbages” so that they take less place.
Unknown said…
I don't think that putting responsibility for waist should be on individual people. You child will produce much more waist and harm to the earth but nobody willing to sacrifice children in the name of the earth. So the point is if you want really to “save the planet” and not just feeling good about changing life to accommodate those difficulties. Governments should incorporate policies that will change society, not putting responsibility on regular people. It’s just don’t work.
Unknown said…
I agree that it would be great if everyone could produce less garbage. I do not agree with the fact that you can completely abandon it, for example, the peel from a banana or the skin of beets is also waste.
Yes, my wife did a deodorant and cream on her own, but not to reduce the production of garbage, but simply to make everything natural.
I would like to believe that the "zero rubbish" lifestyle will help save the ecology and nature. It seems to me that plastic produces and sells so much that most will not stop using it. Plastic packaging is convenient and time saving. Plastic is recycled. Therefore, I would solve this problem in such a way that people made sure that the plastic got into the container. I just try not to use plastic dishes if I can take another and nothing else. But I do not store at home a separate jar from which I go to a store or a jar into which I pour only drinking water.
1. What do you agree or disagree with in this video?
Overall I agree, but it sounds hard to me to adapt to this lifestyle. I don't think that a lot of people will try it - it requires to be consious of our environment and to completely change Your behaviour. Also she mentioned buying second hand things, and making a lot of products on her own. Cool, but... what will happen to the national economy ?

2. Will such small tricks related to household garbage help the ecology of city?
It would help a lot - in 2018 there was a big problem a Warsaw because there was no company which will take garbage out of a few neighbourhoods - it was a good chance to see how much garbage do people "produce" in a week.

3. What steps in everyday life do you take to at least slightly reduce the amount of garbage you produce?
I do nothing, and I feel bad about it - propably I should at least sort my garbage before throwing it out, but in my rubbish dump there are containers only for mixed garbage, whitch is not motivating me to actually sort them
Cezary Róg said…
I think this idea is kind of crazy but I respect the fact that she can live like this. This is definitely challenging.
Well, if most people would start living similar to her, then that would definitely help the ecology of the city but for now I think that few people won’t change the world. The things that she’s talking about are kind of extreme but we can definitely reduce garbage production in our everyday life remembering about simple rules.
The only thing that comes to my mind is using a water filter so I don’t buy water in plastic bottles. I have a special jug that has a filter inside filtering water for me. I don’t know whether it’s more a special step or just my ow comfort because I don’t have to think whether I will have enough water to drink or not because this Sunday shops are closed.
Ahmed Elsawi said…
1. What do you agree or disagree with in this video?
I totally agree with this girl about zero garbage, actually, these ideas will keep our planet saving.

2. Will such small tricks related to household garbage help the ecology of city?
of course yes, but it depends on people culture around the care of their environment, there are interesting or not.

3. What steps in everyday life do you take to at least slightly reduce the amount of garbage you produce?
actually, I'm didn't thinking about my steps in everyday life around my way at reducing the amount of garbage before, but it's the time to pay attention. "Useful topic".
Unknown said…
What do you agree or disagree with in this video?
I agree with the idea of reducing waste and exclude unnecessary garbage, but this 0 waste lifestyle is to much for me. I mean it is a good concept but for people who have time and ambition to limit so many products.
2. Will such small tricks related to household garbage help the ecology of city?
For sure they will but propably not in a significant extent. The most pollution and trash is produced by factories and huge workspaces. Anyway a small diference still matters.
3. What steps in everyday life do you take to at least slightly reduce the amount of garbage you produce?
Now I drink water in my glass bottle so I reduced the waste of pastic bottles. The number of water points where people can fill their bottles is growing really fast. Even in our academy there is one! The second thing is that I am using material bags for shopping.
Honestly, her lifestyle is too laborious and time consuming. In order to live in a sustainable environment, doing what she does is too much. I try to live a zero waste lifestyle by always drinking water from a reusable bottle, brushing my teeth with toothbrushes made from bamboo, grocery shopping with tote and mesh bags, using metal straws, using Tupperware instead of zip lock bags, etc but all you need to do is just recycle. She’s an environmental hero though and I take my hat off to her for living like that, but come on for reals? Making your own shampoo and deodorant? I’ll just buy those things and then recycle them later
1. Mostly yes. We must think about what we produce after ourself in every day life. There are two most biggest threats to our planet. The first one is a nuclear war and the second one is climate change. Obviously the former one is totally dependent on how we live today.
2. I can't say it for sure, but in my opinion yes, it would help. At least slightly. Recently, I read somewhere that there is more plastic in the ocean that fish itself. So by doing such small things can be useful to at least polluting out plant, I'm not even talking about cleaning all that mess which the human kind produced.
3. The first thing which came to my mind is I never thrown any garbage on the streets or anywhere else. If there is no trash can I'm always caring the trash to the home.
Unknown said…
I agree with the the general idea presented in the video, but as often the devil is in the details. I think that living zero waste life and using DIY products requires form you a lot self-discipline and can be often quite uncomfortable for a average person.
Every small action which contribute to reduction of household garbage is important as it often becomes your habit then your family’s habit, your friends’ habit and so on and it is a kind of a positive snowball effect which helps to protect the environment.
I think that I could do more to reduce amount of garbage I produce. On daily basis I use reusable bags when I go shopping and I always sort waste that I produce.
Thanks for comment, I know it sounds uncomfortable but I think it's just a matter of habit. At the beginning it requires a lot of self-discipline and dedication but after few weeks it will be a part of your daily routine.
Thank you for you opinion , it's great that you don't belong to people that threw garbage on the streets. Because it's a huge problem in big cities. In my opinion, it all depends on a person's upbringing since childhood.
Illia Lukisha said…
1. What do you agree or disagree with in this video?

I agree with speaker, and sometimes I caught my self on the same ideas of over-packaging of products especially from deliveries, cause it don't have lot of sense. So idea to produce less trash and less plastic trash in particular in my opinion is really important.

2. Will such small tricks related to household garbage help the ecology of city?

One by one, if society or more importantly government will look on this problems like speaker, we can get the ball rolling. Doing nothing is the worst strategy.

3. What steps in everyday life do you take to at least slightly reduce the amount of garbage you produce?

I stopped to buy bottled beverages and instead bought a filter for water, so I don't need to buy bottled water everyday. Also I always bring my backpack with me on shopping instead of plastic bags.
Mykhailo Reznyk said…
That is an interesting topic. To be honest, I’ve never thought about that. But now, I think that it is actually our responsibility to pay attention to it, because garbage disposal is a big issue. We don’t see it, because after we throw away garbage, we don’t know what happens to it. But our ecology may suffer a lot from that. I think that adding those little and not complicated tricks to your life can actually benefit not only you personally but all of us. As I said before, because I have not thought about it, I didn’t pay any attention to how much garbage I produce. Since now I think, I will try to change my regime and get rid of some habits, in order to make a small difference in this situation.

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