This is Me: My Family's Journey towards Sustainable Waste Management

The best place to start your zero-waste journey is right in your own home.

But this task does not come overnight. It is a process that needs to be done and sustain one step at a time.

Let me reiterate that being zero waste is not about perfection, but about doing your best to make a difference.

And this can only be achieved by mutual understanding among family members of the importance of sustaining and reaching the goal for a zero-waste home.

Our own home journey started with a simple school project of my youngest daughter in support of their school's drive for zero-waste management. From then on it becomes an on and off journey. It is only on the second quarter of this year that we become dead-serious with it.

Here are some of the list we observe and practice at home to minimize our home share of garbage thrown at the landfill:

REFUSE what we don't need.

Every time we go the nearby sari-sari store, groceries and wet market we made sure to bring ecobags, food containers and basket so that things we bought don't need to be put in plastics.

When buying our favorite "taho","buko" juice, and fries we provide our own cups and bowl instead of the usual plastic and paper cups.

REDUCE what you do need.

We try as much as possible to buy what we only need.

Also if my budget allows I buy items in bulks instead of items in small packaging such as laundy and dishwashing soap, condiments, soap and shampoos

We prepare also our food meals for work in food containers, unlike before when my husband prefer putting it in food plastics.

We also consider purchasing sustainable products.

REUSE what you have consume.

Old bowls,plastic containers and cups are used as planters or seed beds.

We convert old stair woods removed from my parent's house and made it into benches.

We also consider buying second-hand items like clothes and home decors in japan surplus.

RECYCLE what you cannot refuse, reduce,or reuse.

Tetra packs,single used plastics from groceries, supermarkets and wet markets are clean with soap and water to get rid of residual waste and later dried.

Sachets are put into empty softdrinks bottle to turn into eco-bricks. This will later be turover to waste disposal facilities that supports zero- waste.

Clothes and things no longer used are given or donated.

Old, worn-out clothes are turn into scrunchies, bags, tote bags, rags, or even ebike curtains and seat covers.

Bubble wraps collected from previous online purchases are given to online-seller friends for their e-commerce business.

Cartons, bottles and cans are given to "Manong Mangangalakal" which they can exchange for cash in the nearby garbage facility.

ROT (compose)the rest.

All biodegradable waste we consumed are put in a compost bin/sacks. In which these materials when compost turns into small units and become plant soil and fertilizers.

Egg shells are made as ornament and fertilizers for plants.

Kitchen scrap such as fruit waste, vegetable peelings, dried flowers and plant prunings.

Here's the composted waste output after several days of composting. It's amazing how waste turns into something which human can still be used.

My daughter also tried vermi composting.

Vermicomposting is the process by which worms are used to convert organic materials (usually wastes) into a humus-like material known as vermin-compost. However, we weren't lucky enough to continue with this project for so long as worms are very fragile to maintain.

It has been three months since we started this journey. Lots of waste collected! A little bit difficult at first as it eats a lot of time segregating and cleaning the waste we collected everyday. But once you started doing it everyday it unconsciously becomes a habit that things becomes an ordinary and natural household activity.

I am glad to say that we had lessen our garbage ready for pick-up by garbage trucks from 1 and 1/2 sack a week to just mere pieces thrown at a small garbage bin. A big development indeed! Looking forward to fully refuse things that might end up as waste.

Our family's journey towards sustainable waste management may be far from perfect and we still have alot to learn.. However, the satisfaction of knowing that you had given your share to preserve our environment is something which is incomparable.

There may be imperfection in the process but it is just okay. There is no such thing as perfect.

And let me quote Anne Marie Bonneau,

"We don't need a handful of people doing zero-waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly".

Till next on my update on our Family's Journey towards sustainable waste management.

Can you also share your own zero-waste journey? Please comment down below.

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