This year, the International Day of Zero Waste 2024 falls on the 30th of March.

In celebration of this day, we bring you a blog article written by one of our community members!

For this year’s theme, International Day of Zero Waste highlights the importance of supporting waste management worldwide and promoting sustainable consumption and production patterns.

But first, let’s look at some numbers to help us understand and relate to this global problem.

According to this source, humans are producing an incredible amount of waste, most of which is toxic!

Furthermore, our global waste production will keep growing until at least 2100, at which point, we will be producing around 11 million tons of trash per day.

Let’s think about this for a moment…

This is more than one kilogram of waste for every single person on the planet, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

If we do not implement drastic changes, humanity is certain to be trashed!

So, what can we do, together, to preserve our common home, planet Earth?

We can start at home, and we can start with ourselves. If everyone takes care of themselves, disposing of their own waste in a skillful and respectful way, we will be able to make a great impact, together!

Here are some fun and practical tips!

Use reusable bags for shopping and more

Instead of using plastic bags for shopping, we can use paper bags. Or, even better, we can make use of fabric bags. Fabric bags can be made at home with old cloth, or we can buy these fabric bags at a local store. They usually last for years, and most of them have fun motives and patterns on them!

What’s more, is that we can use them for more than just grocery bags. We can pack food into these bags for a picnic, or carry our glass bottles in them when we take the glass to the recycling station.

This leads us to the next tip.

Avoiding single-use food and drink containers

Instead of taking a new paper cup every time we buy a coffee from the street barista or a single-use plastic glass from the festival’s beer tent, we can bring our own, reusable container.

Reusable cups and glasses come in many forms and sizes, and they are very practical. Some can help keep our coffee warm, while others keep our drink cold.

When buying these, it is best to shop locally to avoid unnecessary transportation and packaging! You can even buy them second-hand at your local thrift store.

Which brings us to…

Buying secondhand and donating our used goods

Buying second-hand helps us to save production material, shipment, and transportation pollution, as well as wastage on the packaging. Visiting a local second-hand shop can be a fun treasure hunt! One usually finds unique and special items, while at the same time saving money and waste.

If we are not buying used goods, we can also donate our used goods! One can keep a box ready for goods that we are no longer using, keep filling this box until it is full, and then drop it off at the local thrift store. Most of the second-hand shops are connected to a charity, so you will be helping others while at the same time helping the world!

What do you think? Do you think these tips are practical, and do you have some more fun and practical tips for us? What are you doing on this International Day of Zero Waste?

Please tell us what you are doing, in the comment section below!

We look forward to hearing from you, and learning how we can reduce waste, together!