{"id":24645,"date":"2017-09-18T15:47:49","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T15:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.faithful-to-nature.co.za\/natural-organic-blog\/?p=24645"},"modified":"2018-02-06T13:24:53","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T11:24:53","slug":"journey-to-zero-waste-tips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.faithful-to-nature.co.za\/blog\/journey-to-zero-waste-tips\/","title":{"rendered":"Shannon’s tips on starting your zero waste journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>Shannon is 19. She lives in Paternoster, South Africa and has been passionately committed to living a zero waste lifestyle since July 2016. She’s alread raked up over 1300 followers on her Instagram account @Journeytozero_\u00a0<\/a>. We decided to touch base with her, to find out what inspires her and what her tips are to get others motivated on going zero waste.<\/p>\n

1. What inspired your Zero waste journey?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve always fancied myself as a bit of a greenie.\u00a0\u00a0When I started seeing social media posts about people who only produce a mason jar\u2019s worths of trash in a year, I was seriously intrigued. Once I started researching the issue, it seemed ridiculous to not make some changes myself. \u00a0And watching lots of documentaries, of course.<\/p>\n

2. What has been the most challenging part of this journey?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Getting the rest of my family fully on board. \u00a0I sometimes have to sneak homemade sparkling water into restaurants or make tortillas from scratch to avoid the plastic and the palm oil.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0What has been the most rewarding part of this journey?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Seeing how much waste we avoid every day just by making simple swaps or refusing certain items. We avoid dozens of plastic bags and containers everytime we go shopping, And that really adds up after a few months.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0When you are not saving the world, what is your favourite way to spend your time?<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Cooking, baking, sewing, embroidery, tapestry weaving, just the standard hobbies of an old lady.\u00a0\u00a0And doing beach cleanups. lots and lots of beach cleanups<\/p>\n

Why refuse plastic<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Some food for thought to start you on your plastic-free journey\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery piece of plastic ever made still exists somewhere.\u201d Isn’t that a scary thought? \u00a0<\/span>How crazy is it that we’ve chosen an \u2018immortal\u2019 material to make single-use items from? \u00a0Your plastic toothbrush from when you were little is still out there, stubbornly existing. Your throw-away plastic straw will outlive you. Think of this next time you reach for that plastic fork.<\/p>\n