When I first tried living more sustainable I wanted to go from 0 to 100% and I think that’s a mistake a lot of people tend to make because your primary motivation will vanish quickly. For me personally it works so much better to adjust one or two things at a time. The little changes will add up eventually and you‘ll be so proud.
I remember back in the day (5+ years ago) looking for a specific handmade product on etsy and I kept seeing “ZW” in the description of many items. I had no idea what that meant so I looked it up and learned a l’il bit about the modern zero waste movement. I grew up in the 60’s & 70’s in a family that didn’t have much money and parents who were raised in The Depression and The War. I remember thinking to myself “Well, I’m gonna rock this ZW thing because this is my frugal, make it yourself, reuse & repurpose childhood all over again.” Now-a-days I feel the value of my upbringing and am quite thrilled to have the skills and knowledge on how to be low waste, thrifty, and planet-kind. Great video today Gittemary and Happy ❤️ to you & Jens and to all your viewers here today. 🌎💦Ⓜ️ary💝
Happy Monday, Mary! Yes, I was raised in a more frugal time as well (50s & 60s), so my kids grew up wearing secondhand clothes, nearly all my furniture was secondhand; a lot of it was from garage sales! I went to a LOT of garage sales! ;) They are not so common anymore because of thrift stores, but I still like to go. I wear my mostly-used clothes for decades! Still, I am always finding ways to improve my choices to be even more sustainable. I think it helps to be more cognizant of the need for it. Have a great week!! ♥
@@jemma50 We certainly are two peas on a pod!! I, too, love me a good garage sale, and I also wear my clothes forever. Thankfully this is becoming more the norm now-a-days. Thrift is nifty!! Have a great day Jemma. Ⓜ️ary❤️
I remember years ago watching a zero waste family demonstrating how they keep their trash to such a small amount and it was ridiculous. If they were in a store they would decline their receipt but the receipt was already printed so they were just making the waste someone else’s problem. They did it with some other situations too. It was like they thought if it didn’t go home with them then it ceased to exist. I wonder how many people felt inadequate because they had more trash without realizing this particular family were really only accounting for garbage generated within the confines of their home. I prefer to look at the type of garbage my family are generating. If it is food waste how can we use things up before they go bad or can we preserve them for another time, those that we can’t make use of can they be composted? If it is packaging can we buy the item packaged in a better way by shopping elsewhere? Can something we need/want be bought second hand which means it won’t come with packaging (or likely less packaging).
Yes! A blogger who put a year's trash in a martini glass would buy shoes at a store but refuse to take home all of the packaging - but that retail employee just threw it all in the trash. It felt like exactly what got us here, sweeping the ugly parts of our easy choices under the rug. I don't have an answer to this but it's been nagging at me.
If she took the shoe box and tissue home, the box could be used for storage instead of buying specific storage items tissue used for present wrapping whereas it will just go to landfill if left with retailer.
THIS! I also see a lot of people claiming ZW sending things to "recycle" that don't actually get recycled. If you don't learn what your recycler is going to shove in the trash instead of truly recycling, you aren't doing zero waste you are living a lie. Also anyone who has ever worked retail where clothing is sold, my goodness, the amount of packaging you remove before you ever see it on a shelf! Every shirt tends to be individually wrapped in plastic. You remove it then sell it, then put it in a new plastic bag for folks to take home. Even if you don't get a bag at a counter, that doesn't mean there wasn't a bag involved already.
I also felt like if I didn't make all my trash fit into a mason jar, I was a failure. I had to step back and look at the reality of my life: we have no bulk bins or package free shops where I live. I finally realized that if I do the best I can: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot, I was doing so much more than most. I cannot save the world, and I just need to be okay with doing what I can access, what I can afford, and what I am able to.
So at my work place nobody cleaned the forks and knifes they used. And at a time i was just feed up with cleaning others dirt because i wanted to use it. So i wanted to bring my own stuff to work and store it in my bag. So i was thinking „should i buy wood, or this or that or second hand or or or“ for over 2 month. Until it came to my mind! „I have one whole set (knife, spoon, fork) in my draw, that looks different than the rest because it is from set previews of kitchen stuff (giftet from mother in law, probably 20-30years old) since then i have this in a selfmade case in my Bag. Made from felt and a Bandana i never wore. This was the moment i startet to see things different.
I have to admit, I really enjoyed the dig into "trash jar heroes" as they really made zero waste seems like something unaccessible from other planet. I even read the book from BJ and it made me feel like - OK, nice, but I can never do that - and I'm not even sure I want to. We need to keep it real here, so thanks for your great work!
As I was washing my hair this morning with cruelty free, vegan, good shampoo that is made in my country but comes in plastic bottles, I realised that I have let go of the plastic (though recyclable) guilt in favour of supporting a small local company, and I felt such relief. I was also thinking that almost everything I buy is a compromise, except for local veg at the farmer’s market. We’ve just got to do the best we can.
My biggest mindset shift since I started trying to reduce my impact: zero waste is mostly a shift of the blame onto consumers instead of on the corporations and politicians that are really murdering our climate. We can use our consumer decisions as votes for the future you want but if you spend all your energy on your individual impact you are only helping the powerful people that want to keep your attention and blame off of them.
Yes to this. My friend challenged me to write corporations about sustainability before I make individual changes. It was really thought-provoking. (Instead I wrote chocolate companies about slavery and child labor, but it's the point of it.)
I'm totally guilty of buying rice or legumes in plastic but then transfering it to glass containers in the pantry😂 honestly it feels much more organised for me and I avoid things spilling when moving things around the pantry. I'd really love to be able to shop everything in bulk but it's sometimes out of my budget unfortunately.
I do the same thing. Bulk isn't always available and since Covid much of the bulk containers are already weighed into small plastic bags. I buy the largest I can reasonably use and store but I transfer it to my glass pickle jar containers. It makes it so much easier to compare how much is left and an opened bag doesn't spill stuff all over the cabinet if you tilt it wrong. I think the idea is to do the best you can. I reuse pickle jars (don't ask about the pickle addiction that populated the cabinet), I reduce the amount of packaging. I use what I bought. Unlike easy to shove bags, those pickle jars prevent me from fitting anymore in my cabinet so I am not excess buying. It isn't ideal but it is an improvement.
Thank you for saying the thing. AHH! The aesthetic is getting under my skin because I just fill my jars. Old pickle jars, mayonnaise jars, Tupperware for deli chicken, etc. It’s not pretty. And to your punk comment!… I’ve always been known as “the Wednesday Addams of my friend group”. I like black, I like creepy, it is what is. So when I wanted produce bags but didn’t want to spend a bunch on designer ones, I just got an old Hot Topic dress out of my closet and used the fabric to sew my own produce bags. Even I used the straps as tie closures for the bags. Easy peasy, sustainabreezy. 🥰
The trash jar was definitely what drew me in! but I first heard of it from a sustainability video that trashed the concept of it. I remember thinking, “wait what?” lol. I was feeling very proud that my trash bin only had to be taken out once per week tops and here is some lady doing a jar per year. Its impossible for me and I have learned to live with that. Thank you and a few others for helping me through that. Im becoming better and better by the day. I have never considered myself a wasteful person but I was definitely not conscious of my decisions
Can we take a moment to consider how evil (yes, evil, even if it's a strong word) social media are in terms of ads? Like, they now exactly what to show to you, and this is totally part of the "sustainable aestethic" thing. Now, when I scroll and see an ad, I'll remind myself that the most sustainable option is not to buy tha pretty, fancy swap in the ad, but to make use of what I already have. Thank you Gittemary!
Since I’ve purchased some swaps from some eco businesses, I keep getting bombarded with those ads. It’s so ironic because the primary point of zero waste is buy LESS. I don’t need a bunch of random ZW products thank you very much. The swaps I bought are reusable, so that I don’t have to keep buying more!
something I find funny in modern zero waste is how some people (mainly americans) act as if they reinvented the wheel by doing things like reusing glass jars when other communities (like mine, for example - im brazilian) have been doing these things for ages lol
I grew up living on a farm in the 🇺🇸 and we always reused household items, hand-me-downs clothing and grew and canned our own food. Not all Americans are wasteful slobs!
Or how it suddenly became 'stylish' when white Americans adopted these practices as 'upcycling,' but back when it was Asians/Latinos/other POC reusing stuff, it was tacky and shameful. :)
@@janetstonerook4552 Same - I inherited a large quantity of my housewares and jar collection from my grandmothers who didn't throw much out, including Cool Whip containers 😆
I struggled/still struggle with plastic bags. I had so many 😏 i wound up cutting them to thick ribbons and stretching them out.if youre handy with a crochet hook they make great outdoor rugs at mats. I get my daughter to plait them and we weave them into rugs and mats for camping and for the pets... its a great way to get use out of them if you still have a lot. Now i get my friends to give me their plastic bags cause i always need more 🤣🤣 i have beach bags and shopping bags that will NEVER break and dog camping mats that cant be destroyed 🤣 and i just blast them with the hose to clean them. I even made a hammock thats suprisingly comfortable... may say they're ugly. But i think theyre cool 😁
I’m less than a year into my ZW “journey” and already see myself in this lmao. Definitely my first mistake was not considering upstream waste, which is MUCH higher than downstream waste. Reusing plastic containers as storage containers rather than buying new ones makes more sense than buying brand new jars, which creates waste to produce.
I really appreciate your (very classy) call out of a certain "Girl Boss Cut-Throat-Capitalism, but make it *eco-chic*" influencer. Starting your own business to hawk unnecessary designer-style goods to other rich New Yorkers so that you can all having matching rich-New-Yorker marble and reclaimed old-wood kitchens to model in decor magazines is NOT sustainable. "You're killing the environment if you don't buy this fancy glass thing I'm selling" is just another advertising technique that's made another millionaire, and there's no reason for that to be the face of Zero Waste.
I really like this video and the realness. When I first started learning about zero waste I really wanted to fit into the mold, even if that meant buying a mold in which to make my own soap from : 0. It's taken a long time for me to realize that I can't control everything in my household and prevent trash from being made. For instance I live with my Dad who does not respect zero waste, won't even put a toilet paper roll into the recycling no matter how easy I try to make it. I find myself surrounded by waste and meat and unhealthy lifestyle and it makes it really easy to be sad with myself when I can't compost all the food scraps and waste. Can't even have a space in the freezer for such things. Anyway, I love that this video shows that it's a process to lower your overall consumption and use of resources made readily available to you. I'm still growing into this process and having to slow down to notice the things I'm doing right instead of focusing on the things that I cannot really control. Anyway loved the realness in this video! Thank you! #stillworkingonit #stilltrying
When I get given a plastic straw anyway, I only have one metal one, I just save them and reuse them when I make smoothies etc for family or friends, clean them with my strae cleaning brush, and keep them. On occasion they become useful in some project, and there you go!
we grew up living quite poorly, a lot of the things my parents got back then I still use till this day. we are talking about old food containers from the supermarket, some are at least 20-30 years old but they still work wonderfully well. does it fit a beautiful minimalistic aesthethic? no of course not. who cares. people need to be realistic. let go of perfectionism, just be realistic and practical and don't care about how it looks
Really good video. I am so fed up of avoiding plastics when the society around me is not conducive to achieve that. I am now looking at other ways on how I can be sustainable instead of focusing only on plastics.
This is one of your best videos in my opinion. Just awesome. Every ZW or sustainability beginner should watch it. I started my journey about 4 years ago and had many of the same experiences. Still one of the hardest things for me to do is using up „unsustainable“ things before switching to a sustainable alternative. As soon as wie make the decision to live more sustainably, we most likely want to change everything right away. But it takes A LOT of time to convert a home let alone a life (or a family) into a more environmentally friendly one. So everyone: keep going one step at a time, but don‘t rush it and don‘t be too hard on yourselves. ❤️🌱🧘🏼♀️
Yes please, more content on Ugly Sustainability! Ugly Sustainability seems to be much more accessible to the average person who can't afford to look the like the "Instagram" Sustainability
Have you come across The Simple Environmentalist's videos? She has some great content on ugly sustainability, totally worth checking out! 😊 It would be so cool if Gittemary or someone else in the community collabed with her. I think it could spark a whole lot of new ideas for everyone! ✨
Luckily, I started my "journey" because of great content creators like you, and I was able to start off with the big picture and see the invisible impacts as well. Thank you so much for what you do and how you inspire others to do better!
Speaking of sustainability coming from certain groups... yeah poor people. We grew up in poverty and reusing food containers, having reusables is something we did anyway. Buying bulk quantities too! Just means the "journey" hasn't been far from my normal habits. Only small changes.
I agree we should not favour aesthetics to the detriment of practicality / frugality / common sense. True, zero waste goes together with having a low income and doing the best one can with it. However, when I can’t find something in bulk or paper packaging I will buy it in plastic and I will transfer it to my aesthetically pleasing jars, because it will benefit my mental health, which is important too. Thanks for sharing your thoughts 😊
I love bringing up the intrinsic waste conversation, like is it more sustainable to buy package-free lettuce from across the country or the packaged lettuce from 20 min away. From a ZW perspective, the package-free version is better because no package. But I think buying local, even in a package, has a better impact. I'm not buying package-free pears from Argentina (I don't live anywhere near Argentina) just because they're package-free. Where your food comes from has a big impact too, not just its container.
And again ... thanks a lot for the proportions. For me personally the thing with the jar only prevented the beginning of the process. And please ... more content on Ugly Sustainability!!!
We started our journey with swapping rags for napkins and paper towels. I bought a 100 pack of used cotton rags for $15 on eBay. They key since we have kids that we needed a lot so we always had some clean. They are not pretty but they work great and our kids are 100% used to this now. Then we started composting. We are making one change at a time, but still getting there.
Speaking of things we already have, my bulk dry goods like rice and beans are stored in PLASTIC old peanut butter jars. The big ones. Saves them from being just thrown away, they work super well, and I don't have to worry about getting glass ones or really them ever breaking. Its also dry goods so any worry abput the plastic breaking down into the food is pretty minimal.
My husband use to make honeywine by himself and bought a lot of the same honey, same packaging. We washed the glass containers and use them to store. So we do have kind of a pleasing aesthetic in a very easy way. Sometimes it's simple!
Yes! Sometimes it can be. 🐱 I did the same with some products in glass containers of 3 different sizes. My collection has been slowly (very slowly) growing to a satisfying and practical number. I have now started to buy some basics in bulk and fill these glass jars to store it. And when I have enough of them, I will probably stop buying these specific products and try to find ones in bulk. If I can afford it 😅
I just starting my low impact journey (bit too late,but better late than never) and this video really helped me avoid some mistakes as it was how I thought about zero waste (hey Pinterest)
I couldn't love this video more! I would love more videos about the foods you cook from supermarkets.. I only have these and local shops due to disability but would love to make vegan recipes that aren't pretentious and something my meat loving husband would eat! I am currently living with my Grandmother who is 95 and she was 'saving' things just in case and it took over her house - it took me while before I realised that she grew up with nothing and lived through ww2 on rations and everything had to be saved and reused - nothing was wasted! She doesn't like the way the world is today and neither do I. The Earth doesn't belong to us - it belongs to our Grandchildren x
This is probably the best video on sustainability that I have seen. You are totally right on all of your points, I think that people love the look of zero waste but don't look into what it really means to be sustainable. There are many things that we can do, but sometimes we just need to realise that we can't control it all. I can totally relate to your straw situation in a restaurant 🤦, I would sometimes forget to tell the waiting staff to not bring a straw and then feel disappointed in myself 🙄🤦. But if the look of zero waste gets you on your journey then let it. 👏👏👏👏👏👏 Thank you for your honesty 😁
I made these same mistakes too & was frustrating myself. I'm living in the States in a apartment now. Finding your channel has helped me so much! Thanks bebz♡
Thank you very much for making this. Almost all of what you touched on has driven me positively crazy with the Zero Waste Influencer crowd over the last few years, and honestly made me stop taking the movement seriously. A trust that I am just starting to rebuild. Every solution being a shiny 50 dollar stainless steel thing, or you must refuse every tiny scrap of plastic you might not have control over, and the general lack of mainstream discussion on accessibility and other issues (still something the movement needs to work on). Drove me up the wall. Thanks again.
Gittemary, your videos became so wholesome. Those things is what pushed me back and made me miserable for years. I always forget to say I don't want a straw because they put straws in the weirdest things like hot chocolate. And felt so bad about it. Now with a child people give me so much trash and I start being more relaxed. And this actually helps me to do better because I am able to focus and prioritize. So thanks.
I love your channel so much. I've always figured I couldn't go low-waste because of lack of money, health issues, that it buys into obsessive habits, etc. I really love that you promote the idea that moderation and compassion can exist in low-waste lifestyles
I started watching your videos almost when you started, I saw you comenting in Lauren Singer's blog and I began to read yours... I kind of feel that we've been growing up together in this "zero waste" world! Your content is the best of all the sustainables youtubers! 😍 No one have your political approach! 🙌🏽
I'm proud that I have reduced my waste to one very small trash can per week. I reuse, recycle and compost all I can. And I buy much less to start with which makes me very happy with the money and resources I save. 😊 Feeling good about my efforts and being a positive example to my friends and family makes me proud! We all stumble in this process but it's how we internalize it that matters. I choose joy!
Ive only been on the sustainability journey for a little over a year and I've already made a few mistakes, like falling for a few greenwashed items at the store, and buying a few overpriced sustainable things I could have lived without. Ive learned since then, its its something you really have to educate yourself on and learn as you go. I think most people will make mistakes at the beginning, but having more people doing sustainable things imperfectly is better than no one caring at all. More progress will be made that way. Now I just try to reuse things and get the longest life out of the stuff I buy. Some of the products I buy are expensive, but they are usually reusable or last several months so it makes it worth it to me. I also love the point you brought up about being able to be goth and sustainable! I have been goth for several years and I also live as sustainably as I can, but I let go of my guilt for band/music related merch and thats one of my exceptions for buying new, I like to support bands and thats important to me. Keep making your great videos, people can learn a lot from you!
Thank you for that insight! I did the same thing at first with the “aesthetic” piece, almost losing sight of what sustainability is supposed to be about. So, thanks for bringing that up!
Our county in California is finally letting us throw used paper goods, meat waste and produce waste into the green bin. We have blue bin for clean recyclables. So the straight up garbage can takes about 3 days to get to the brown bin. If I have to use plastic, I reuse over and over again.
I love your view on sustainability and a reminder that it isn't about the so popular aesthetic idea. In terms of going to a supermarket to buy wrapped things just to then organise these into functional containers. I am one of these people at the moment. Sadly it is out of my financial or free-time reach to do shopping more sustainably at the moment. However, it is training me to have space made for the products that I use and when I will be able to top these up more sustainably, I will. It also gives me an idea of whether containers are too small or too big for my needs. I call it, halfway there :)
What a great video. Just recently l decided to get on YT to share what battling with the ‘choice’ is like 😅. I still have so much to learn. So glad to find a low impact channel like yours. 🥰 I totally agree with you. It’s most important to make choices that feel sustainable for your own lifestyle. If it’s exhausting, you won’t be happy and people will feel it’s a wrong choice to make 😄
Would you be willing to make a video on the environmental impact of wild caught fish vs farm raised fish? I feel like farm raised would be ultimately better for environment if you need to eat fish, but I wonder what the statistics are.
There are other creators that I follow, and love and respect, but this was by far the most informative and enlightening video for a baby in the sustainable lifestyle. Thank you!
In the beginning, I used to throw a tantrum when I wasn't quick enough to tell the fruit vendor at the farmer's market to not put the produce in plastic bags lol. I also do the ugly sustainability of reusing the shit out of single-use plastic bags as my family really doesn't consider these aspects when doing the groceries so I have to do these small things to somewhat lessen the impact
I am new to this journey, although I’m realizing I’ve done some things naturally most of my life, can you talk about cardboard? Recycling, reusing, etc? In America so much of our food, deliveries, etc come in cardboard and I’m curious of what to do with them besides recycling or learning new tips. Thanks!
if you have access to composting, it's a great "carbon" source for that! Also makes great weed block under landscaping mulch. Would make a great video topic in my opinion as well!
Id love more ugly sustainability! :D haha. It helps feel like I am doing something right, compared to seeing all these beautiful photos on instagram! As I was watching, I was thinking of sustainable jobs. Do you have a video for that? I have received a job offer but the company sells things that arent sustainable in specific, so I dont really want to take the job. And as I was thinking about that, I wondered what is really a sustainable job and how to implement more sustainable ways in my day to day work life, including the office, colleagues, waste we produce etc.
I just bought cleaners (bathroom, kitchen) in a tablet form. And I saw the excatc problem you pointed out. They have a "starter kit" that includes plastic spray bottles. So they all look the same. Like come on. Who doesn't have spray bottles at home? Mine are all differetn and I keep reusing them until they break but many people think they NEED this perfect set. Like it is under my sink most of the time you know so let them be different:)
Love that shirt you've got on today! I think it's very cute and pretty and am jealous I've never been able to find something like it in my local thriftstores LOL 😆
Those were all very good points. Its the difference between fashionable enviromentalism and ... enviroment friendly enviromentalism ;) I just had a sad thought that its unfortunate that at this point of time the social platform itself is not enviroment friendly. Its not a dig at you, you're using it to educate and who knows maybe its in plus. Just more of a thought about general state of the way were so dependant on electricity production
I would also add the mistake of thinking that whatever you do is fine as long as you "offset" your carbon footprint. There is a very misleading narrative going on about it and it has taken me forever to realise that a) some of the lifestyle choices I make would take a lot of money to offset b) the companies offering a "carbon neutral" journey are more likely than not NOT offsetting anything and most importantly c)we are at the very end of the supply chain and it is ridiculous to shift the responsibility of the carbon emissions on us consumers rather than expecting the companies to become more sustainable in their processes
And how the carbon footprint is just one part of the product's effects to the environment 🙈 I wish more people realized that! We should be talking much more systemically and focus on the whole picture instead of hyperfocusing on this one aspect. You're so right about it that emissions etc cannot be simply "erased" by any kind of offsetting, even if it was truly impactful. The whole system and our mindset has to change
Especially since studies are starting to show that carbon offsetting has actually had a net negative impact on the environment by giving corporations a monetary way to keep up their massive pollution while showing a green score card.
A recent mistake for me was buying detergent strips so that I could avoid plastic- only to open the external paper box and find a plastic box inside. I was so annoyed. I'm thinking most folks that buy this product think its plastic free!
Which brand? Not all do that. Blue water has a home compostable plant poly. Ecos has no liner, but the ingredients in blue water are more to my biochemist satisfaction. Hu chocolates, and other industries did the same plastic lining bait and switch in their green washed packaging. Companies outright forget that repeat business is a thing.
It is absolutely possible and the thing is, often when we focus on HOW we get there, the "aesthetic part of the lifestyle" comes as a natural result of refusing, reused and reducing💚
It's important to realize that people may do similar things for different reasons. For instance one may be avoiding plastic for health reasons rather than environmental concerns, or simply care more about the environmental impact of plastic as opposed to CO2. So for them it is rational to throw out plastic tupperware and buy steel, even if that has more environmental impact, since it prevents plastic chemical exposure for themselves and their kids. Is that "consumerism" or "superficial"? I don't think so, just somewhat different priorities...
I have often suspected that those zero waste people, who put their year's worth of trash in a Mason jar, secretly sneak out at night and toss a lot of disgusting stuff in roadside trash barrels so that they're home situation will stay so pristinely trash free!! 😝
Hey Gittemarie, I have a question. I try to buy as much organic produce as I can, because it doesn‘t have (as much) pestisides on it, is better for the soils, nature/ animals around the fields where the produce grows etc. as the conventional produce. My problem is that I live in Germany and a lot of the organic stuff e.g. noodles are packaged in plastic. Would you rather buy a conventional product because it is packaged in cardboard or would you stick to the organic one with plastic packaging?
I so bad want that metal lunch box, but it would be so useless. I usually take lunch that needs to be warmed up so I'd have to transfer the food to different dish every time.
I am pretty new at trying to go zero waste (some things I’ve been doing for a while, vegetarian/mostly vegan for nearly 2 years, and last year I started only buying loose leaf tea from a local shop, bringing tins I already had, buying a metal tea ball and throwing used tea in my garden), but can definitely say I’m kinda torn between falling for aesthetics and doing a decent job. For instance I’ve been repurposing pickled beet jars, cleaning them out and collecting them for when I start bulk buying things we run out of in small quantities (like nuts, I just filled one with pumpkin seeds I got in bulk, yay!!), but I’ve been very tempted to get a bamboo cutlery set. I’ve been hunting for a bag I already have that I can put silverware I already have in, but haven’t found a good size where they won’t clank around in my bag, and I hate loud noises. I’ll still look at what I’ve got, but if nothing shows up I think a happy medium could be, if I find a good sized pouch, to buy a bag but not the cutlery? I dunno. But yeah, I’m taking it slow, sometimes I wish it were faster but hoping to avoid burnout, like you mentioned. ☺️ love your videos, they are a massive reason I am making much more proactive swaps, like phasing in some bulk buying (which, disclaimer, I did buy some reusable bags for…I might be in need of a couple more too 😬)
Could you consider sewing the pouch yourself? I'm thinking about one that has separate sections for each item - the fabric between would then prevent noise. It could be a farely easy project to do by hand even, if you just have access to some suitable fabric 🤔 I relate so much to the loud noises being very annoying! 🙈
@@tuanoini that’s not a bad idea! I was actually looking at an old square scarf of mine and trying to figure out how I could make it work. Wasn’t coming up with anything, but I will get back at it, cutting and re-sewing might be the answer. I haven’t worn it in years and doubt I ever will. Thanks for the suggestion!
Lol it’s so funny you talk about aesthetics cause almost all my Tupperware/my snack bowls are just…plastic to go containers 😅 food fits in them, why throw em out??
A reason why restaurants want you to drink with straws is so your lips aren’t on the glass and they don’t have to spend more time washing them. Bringing your own metal straw would be better probably
Hi Gittemary, I am looking into make-up that is both as ecofriendly as possible, but also sticks to the face like an octopus because I wear full face helmets. Are there any companies that you recommend?
I mean this very respectfully, I hope you don't take this the wrong way :) Another way would be to rethink your perceived need for makeup in the first place. Maybe I am just old (mid 40s so not THAT old!) and out of touch but I don't understand the need to cover up natural beauty with products that are fake. Honestly, the way that social media encourages young people to hide their natural selves is disturbing ..... which I guess is a different topic of conversation altogether.
When I first tried living more sustainable I wanted to go from 0 to 100% and I think that’s a mistake a lot of people tend to make because your primary motivation will vanish quickly. For me personally it works so much better to adjust one or two things at a time. The little changes will add up eventually and you‘ll be so proud.
I remember back in the day (5+ years ago) looking for a specific handmade product on etsy and I kept seeing “ZW” in the description of many items. I had no idea what that meant so I looked it up and learned a l’il bit about the modern zero waste movement. I grew up in the 60’s & 70’s in a family that didn’t have much money and parents who were raised in The Depression and The War. I remember thinking to myself “Well, I’m gonna rock this ZW thing because this is my frugal, make it yourself, reuse & repurpose childhood all over again.” Now-a-days I feel the value of my upbringing and am quite thrilled to have the skills and knowledge on how to be low waste, thrifty, and planet-kind. Great video today Gittemary and Happy ❤️ to you & Jens and to all your viewers here today. 🌎💦Ⓜ️ary💝
Happy Monday, Mary! Yes, I was raised in a more frugal time as well (50s & 60s), so my kids grew up wearing secondhand clothes, nearly all my furniture was secondhand; a lot of it was from garage sales! I went to a LOT of garage sales! ;) They are not so common anymore because of thrift stores, but I still like to go. I wear my mostly-used clothes for decades! Still, I am always finding ways to improve my choices to be even more sustainable. I think it helps to be more cognizant of the need for it. Have a great week!! ♥
This is also super useful to see after reaching a lull in maintaining low waste habits...
@@jemma50 We certainly are two peas on a pod!! I, too, love me a good garage sale, and I also wear my clothes forever. Thankfully this is becoming more the norm now-a-days. Thrift is nifty!! Have a great day Jemma. Ⓜ️ary❤️
@@marycharlebois6627 ♥♥♥
I remember years ago watching a zero waste family demonstrating how they keep their trash to such a small amount and it was ridiculous. If they were in a store they would decline their receipt but the receipt was already printed so they were just making the waste someone else’s problem. They did it with some other situations too. It was like they thought if it didn’t go home with them then it ceased to exist. I wonder how many people felt inadequate because they had more trash without realizing this particular family were really only accounting for garbage generated within the confines of their home.
I prefer to look at the type of garbage my family are generating. If it is food waste how can we use things up before they go bad or can we preserve them for another time, those that we can’t make use of can they be composted? If it is packaging can we buy the item packaged in a better way by shopping elsewhere? Can something we need/want be bought second hand which means it won’t come with packaging (or likely less packaging).
Yes! A blogger who put a year's trash in a martini glass would buy shoes at a store but refuse to take home all of the packaging - but that retail employee just threw it all in the trash. It felt like exactly what got us here, sweeping the ugly parts of our easy choices under the rug. I don't have an answer to this but it's been nagging at me.
If she took the shoe box and tissue home, the box could be used for storage instead of buying specific storage items tissue used for present wrapping whereas it will just go to landfill if left with retailer.
THIS! I also see a lot of people claiming ZW sending things to "recycle" that don't actually get recycled. If you don't learn what your recycler is going to shove in the trash instead of truly recycling, you aren't doing zero waste you are living a lie. Also anyone who has ever worked retail where clothing is sold, my goodness, the amount of packaging you remove before you ever see it on a shelf! Every shirt tends to be individually wrapped in plastic. You remove it then sell it, then put it in a new plastic bag for folks to take home.
Even if you don't get a bag at a counter, that doesn't mean there wasn't a bag involved already.
So true about the whole "natural is good"..... arsenic is natural, uranium is natural...... this is so true
I also felt like if I didn't make all my trash fit into a mason jar, I was a failure. I had to step back and look at the reality of my life: we have no bulk bins or package free shops where I live. I finally realized that if I do the best I can: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot, I was doing so much more than most. I cannot save the world, and I just need to be okay with doing what I can access, what I can afford, and what I am able to.
So at my work place nobody cleaned the forks and knifes they used. And at a time i was just feed up with cleaning others dirt because i wanted to use it. So i wanted to bring my own stuff to work and store it in my bag. So i was thinking „should i buy wood, or this or that or second hand or or or“ for over 2 month. Until it came to my mind! „I have one whole set (knife, spoon, fork) in my draw, that looks different than the rest because it is from set previews of kitchen stuff (giftet from mother in law, probably 20-30years old) since then i have this in a selfmade case in my Bag. Made from felt and a Bandana i never wore. This was the moment i startet to see things different.
I have to admit, I really enjoyed the dig into "trash jar heroes" as they really made zero waste seems like something unaccessible from other planet. I even read the book from BJ and it made me feel like - OK, nice, but I can never do that - and I'm not even sure I want to. We need to keep it real here, so thanks for your great work!
As I was washing my hair this morning with cruelty free, vegan, good shampoo that is made in my country but comes in plastic bottles, I realised that I have let go of the plastic (though recyclable) guilt in favour of supporting a small local company, and I felt such relief. I was also thinking that almost everything I buy is a compromise, except for local veg at the farmer’s market. We’ve just got to do the best we can.
My biggest mindset shift since I started trying to reduce my impact: zero waste is mostly a shift of the blame onto consumers instead of on the corporations and politicians that are really murdering our climate.
We can use our consumer decisions as votes for the future you want but if you spend all your energy on your individual impact you are only helping the powerful people that want to keep your attention and blame off of them.
Yes to this. My friend challenged me to write corporations about sustainability before I make individual changes. It was really thought-provoking. (Instead I wrote chocolate companies about slavery and child labor, but it's the point of it.)
I'm totally guilty of buying rice or legumes in plastic but then transfering it to glass containers in the pantry😂 honestly it feels much more organised for me and I avoid things spilling when moving things around the pantry. I'd really love to be able to shop everything in bulk but it's sometimes out of my budget unfortunately.
Bestie no shade, it is satisfying 😂 I am simply coming for those who that and go an post on insta with #zerowaste noooo 😭
And that's totally okay too. Your weekly budget needs to be sustainable too :)
More than okay and one ZW aspect of that is that food in jars won’t get moths or go stale as easily! Do what you can
@@sisterursuline And if you do live in an older house, sounds gross but mice can't chew through glass containers 🤷🏻♀️
I do the same thing. Bulk isn't always available and since Covid much of the bulk containers are already weighed into small plastic bags. I buy the largest I can reasonably use and store but I transfer it to my glass pickle jar containers. It makes it so much easier to compare how much is left and an opened bag doesn't spill stuff all over the cabinet if you tilt it wrong. I think the idea is to do the best you can. I reuse pickle jars (don't ask about the pickle addiction that populated the cabinet), I reduce the amount of packaging. I use what I bought. Unlike easy to shove bags, those pickle jars prevent me from fitting anymore in my cabinet so I am not excess buying. It isn't ideal but it is an improvement.
Thank you for saying the thing. AHH! The aesthetic is getting under my skin because I just fill my jars. Old pickle jars, mayonnaise jars, Tupperware for deli chicken, etc. It’s not pretty.
And to your punk comment!… I’ve always been known as “the Wednesday Addams of my friend group”. I like black, I like creepy, it is what is. So when I wanted produce bags but didn’t want to spend a bunch on designer ones, I just got an old Hot Topic dress out of my closet and used the fabric to sew my own produce bags. Even I used the straps as tie closures for the bags. Easy peasy, sustainabreezy. 🥰
The trash jar was definitely what drew me in! but I first heard of it from a sustainability video that trashed the concept of it. I remember thinking, “wait what?” lol. I was feeling very proud that my trash bin only had to be taken out once per week tops and here is some lady doing a jar per year. Its impossible for me and I have learned to live with that. Thank you and a few others for helping me through that. Im becoming better and better by the day. I have never considered myself a wasteful person but I was definitely not conscious of my decisions
Can we take a moment to consider how evil (yes, evil, even if it's a strong word) social media are in terms of ads? Like, they now exactly what to show to you, and this is totally part of the "sustainable aestethic" thing. Now, when I scroll and see an ad, I'll remind myself that the most sustainable option is not to buy tha pretty, fancy swap in the ad, but to make use of what I already have. Thank you Gittemary!
Since I’ve purchased some swaps from some eco businesses, I keep getting bombarded with those ads. It’s so ironic because the primary point of zero waste is buy LESS. I don’t need a bunch of random ZW products thank you very much. The swaps I bought are reusable, so that I don’t have to keep buying more!
something I find funny in modern zero waste is how some people (mainly americans) act as if they reinvented the wheel by doing things like reusing glass jars when other communities (like mine, for example - im brazilian) have been doing these things for ages lol
Absolutely, so many of these "hacks" have been around for ages!
I grew up living on a farm in the 🇺🇸 and we always reused household items, hand-me-downs clothing and grew and canned our own food. Not all Americans are wasteful slobs!
Or how it suddenly became 'stylish' when white Americans adopted these practices as 'upcycling,' but back when it was Asians/Latinos/other POC reusing stuff, it was tacky and shameful. :)
@@anthyavila9726 yeah... you nailed it on the head.
@@janetstonerook4552 Same - I inherited a large quantity of my housewares and jar collection from my grandmothers who didn't throw much out, including Cool Whip containers 😆
I struggled/still struggle with plastic bags. I had so many 😏 i wound up cutting them to thick ribbons and stretching them out.if youre handy with a crochet hook they make great outdoor rugs at mats. I get my daughter to plait them and we weave them into rugs and mats for camping and for the pets... its a great way to get use out of them if you still have a lot. Now i get my friends to give me their plastic bags cause i always need more 🤣🤣 i have beach bags and shopping bags that will NEVER break and dog camping mats that cant be destroyed 🤣 and i just blast them with the hose to clean them. I even made a hammock thats suprisingly comfortable... may say they're ugly. But i think theyre cool 😁
“Sustainability happens outside of what we can buy.” *mind blown* Girl- I love that you said this! Thank you.
I’m less than a year into my ZW “journey” and already see myself in this lmao. Definitely my first mistake was not considering upstream waste, which is MUCH higher than downstream waste. Reusing plastic containers as storage containers rather than buying new ones makes more sense than buying brand new jars, which creates waste to produce.
I really appreciate your (very classy) call out of a certain "Girl Boss Cut-Throat-Capitalism, but make it *eco-chic*" influencer. Starting your own business to hawk unnecessary designer-style goods to other rich New Yorkers so that you can all having matching rich-New-Yorker marble and reclaimed old-wood kitchens to model in decor magazines is NOT sustainable. "You're killing the environment if you don't buy this fancy glass thing I'm selling" is just another advertising technique that's made another millionaire, and there's no reason for that to be the face of Zero Waste.
I really like this video and the realness. When I first started learning about zero waste I really wanted to fit into the mold, even if that meant buying a mold in which to make my own soap from : 0. It's taken a long time for me to realize that I can't control everything in my household and prevent trash from being made. For instance I live with my Dad who does not respect zero waste, won't even put a toilet paper roll into the recycling no matter how easy I try to make it. I find myself surrounded by waste and meat and unhealthy lifestyle and it makes it really easy to be sad with myself when I can't compost all the food scraps and waste. Can't even have a space in the freezer for such things. Anyway, I love that this video shows that it's a process to lower your overall consumption and use of resources made readily available to you. I'm still growing into this process and having to slow down to notice the things I'm doing right instead of focusing on the things that I cannot really control. Anyway loved the realness in this video! Thank you! #stillworkingonit #stilltrying
When I get given a plastic straw anyway, I only have one metal one, I just save them and reuse them when I make smoothies etc for family or friends, clean them with my strae cleaning brush, and keep them. On occasion they become useful in some project, and there you go!
we grew up living quite poorly, a lot of the things my parents got back then I still use till this day. we are talking about old food containers from the supermarket, some are at least 20-30 years old but they still work wonderfully well. does it fit a beautiful minimalistic aesthethic? no of course not. who cares. people need to be realistic. let go of perfectionism, just be realistic and practical and don't care about how it looks
Really good video. I am so fed up of avoiding plastics when the society around me is not conducive to achieve that. I am now looking at other ways on how I can be sustainable instead of focusing only on plastics.
This is one of your best videos in my opinion. Just awesome. Every ZW or sustainability beginner should watch it. I started my journey about 4 years ago and had many of the same experiences. Still one of the hardest things for me to do is using up „unsustainable“ things before switching to a sustainable alternative. As soon as wie make the decision to live more sustainably, we most likely want to change everything right away. But it takes A LOT of time to convert a home let alone a life (or a family) into a more environmentally friendly one. So everyone: keep going one step at a time, but don‘t rush it and don‘t be too hard on yourselves. ❤️🌱🧘🏼♀️
oh, God! that jar! thank you for raising that up. It makes you feel a failure before you even start
Yes please, more content on Ugly Sustainability!
Ugly Sustainability seems to be much more accessible to the average person who can't afford to look the like the "Instagram" Sustainability
Have you come across The Simple Environmentalist's videos? She has some great content on ugly sustainability, totally worth checking out! 😊
It would be so cool if Gittemary or someone else in the community collabed with her. I think it could spark a whole lot of new ideas for everyone! ✨
@@tuanoini Thanks for the recommendation!
Luckily, I started my "journey" because of great content creators like you, and I was able to start off with the big picture and see the invisible impacts as well. Thank you so much for what you do and how you inspire others to do better!
Thank you so much for the support 🌿😍
Speaking of sustainability coming from certain groups... yeah poor people. We grew up in poverty and reusing food containers, having reusables is something we did anyway. Buying bulk quantities too! Just means the "journey" hasn't been far from my normal habits. Only small changes.
I agree we should not favour aesthetics to the detriment of practicality / frugality / common sense. True, zero waste goes together with having a low income and doing the best one can with it. However, when I can’t find something in bulk or paper packaging I will buy it in plastic and I will transfer it to my aesthetically pleasing jars, because it will benefit my mental health, which is important too.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts 😊
I love bringing up the intrinsic waste conversation, like is it more sustainable to buy package-free lettuce from across the country or the packaged lettuce from 20 min away. From a ZW perspective, the package-free version is better because no package. But I think buying local, even in a package, has a better impact. I'm not buying package-free pears from Argentina (I don't live anywhere near Argentina) just because they're package-free. Where your food comes from has a big impact too, not just its container.
That’s so absolutely true 🌿
Glad I didn't make any of these mistakes because from the beginning on I had great people like you and Shelbizzle to tell me what to do 😁
And again ... thanks a lot for the proportions. For me personally the thing with the jar only prevented the beginning of the process.
And please ... more content on Ugly Sustainability!!!
We started our journey with swapping rags for napkins and paper towels. I bought a 100 pack of used cotton rags for $15 on eBay. They key since we have kids that we needed a lot so we always had some clean. They are not pretty but they work great and our kids are 100% used to this now. Then we started composting. We are making one change at a time, but still getting there.
Speaking of things we already have, my bulk dry goods like rice and beans are stored in PLASTIC old peanut butter jars. The big ones. Saves them from being just thrown away, they work super well, and I don't have to worry about getting glass ones or really them ever breaking. Its also dry goods so any worry abput the plastic breaking down into the food is pretty minimal.
My husband use to make honeywine by himself and bought a lot of the same honey, same packaging. We washed the glass containers and use them to store. So we do have kind of a pleasing aesthetic in a very easy way. Sometimes it's simple!
Yes! Sometimes it can be. 🐱
I did the same with some products in glass containers of 3 different sizes.
My collection has been slowly (very slowly) growing to a satisfying and practical number. I have now started to buy some basics in bulk and fill these glass jars to store it.
And when I have enough of them, I will probably stop buying these specific products and try to find ones in bulk. If I can afford it 😅
This is just what I wish I knew about sustainability to begin with. Loved the video!
I am so happy that you feel this way, thank you for the support 🌿
I really like the look of a mix matched kitchen. And have really been enjoying getting stuff second hand. So many cool things already out there 🌏💜💚🌿🔥
I just starting my low impact journey (bit too late,but better late than never) and this video really helped me avoid some mistakes as it was how I thought about zero waste (hey Pinterest)
I couldn't love this video more! I would love more videos about the foods you cook from supermarkets.. I only have these and local shops due to disability but would love to make vegan recipes that aren't pretentious and something my meat loving husband would eat! I am currently living with my Grandmother who is 95 and she was 'saving' things just in case and it took over her house - it took me while before I realised that she grew up with nothing and lived through ww2 on rations and everything had to be saved and reused - nothing was wasted! She doesn't like the way the world is today and neither do I. The Earth doesn't belong to us - it belongs to our Grandchildren x
This is probably the best video on sustainability that I have seen. You are totally right on all of your points, I think that people love the look of zero waste but don't look into what it really means to be sustainable. There are many things that we can do, but sometimes we just need to realise that we can't control it all. I can totally relate to your straw situation in a restaurant 🤦, I would sometimes forget to tell the waiting staff to not bring a straw and then feel disappointed in myself 🙄🤦. But if the look of zero waste gets you on your journey then let it. 👏👏👏👏👏👏 Thank you for your honesty 😁
One thing I live by now is that just because something is 'natural' does not mean that it is good for the environment or your body.
It is a really good thought to remember, because many products are marketed based solely on their "natural abilities" which aren't always good 😅
I made these same mistakes too & was frustrating myself. I'm living in the States in a apartment now. Finding your channel has helped me so much! Thanks bebz♡
Thank you very much for making this. Almost all of what you touched on has driven me positively crazy with the Zero Waste Influencer crowd over the last few years, and honestly made me stop taking the movement seriously. A trust that I am just starting to rebuild. Every solution being a shiny 50 dollar stainless steel thing, or you must refuse every tiny scrap of plastic you might not have control over, and the general lack of mainstream discussion on accessibility and other issues (still something the movement needs to work on). Drove me up the wall. Thanks again.
Gittemary, your videos became so wholesome. Those things is what pushed me back and made me miserable for years. I always forget to say I don't want a straw because they put straws in the weirdest things like hot chocolate. And felt so bad about it. Now with a child people give me so much trash and I start being more relaxed. And this actually helps me to do better because I am able to focus and prioritize. So thanks.
i feel like the imperfect zero waste lifestyle is more aesthetically pleasing
Thank you so much for this video
I love your channel so much. I've always figured I couldn't go low-waste because of lack of money, health issues, that it buys into obsessive habits, etc. I really love that you promote the idea that moderation and compassion can exist in low-waste lifestyles
I started watching your videos almost when you started, I saw you comenting in Lauren Singer's blog and I began to read yours... I kind of feel that we've been growing up together in this "zero waste" world! Your content is the best of all the sustainables youtubers! 😍 No one have your political approach! 🙌🏽
I'm proud that I have reduced my waste to one very small trash can per week. I reuse, recycle and compost all I can. And I buy much less to start with which makes me very happy with the money and resources I save. 😊 Feeling good about my efforts and being a positive example to my friends and family makes me proud! We all stumble in this process but it's how we internalize it that matters. I choose joy!
Ive only been on the sustainability journey for a little over a year and I've already made a few mistakes, like falling for a few greenwashed items at the store, and buying a few overpriced sustainable things I could have lived without. Ive learned since then, its its something you really have to educate yourself on and learn as you go. I think most people will make mistakes at the beginning, but having more people doing sustainable things imperfectly is better than no one caring at all. More progress will be made that way.
Now I just try to reuse things and get the longest life out of the stuff I buy. Some of the products I buy are expensive, but they are usually reusable or last several months so it makes it worth it to me.
I also love the point you brought up about being able to be goth and sustainable! I have been goth for several years and I also live as sustainably as I can, but I let go of my guilt for band/music related merch and thats one of my exceptions for buying new, I like to support bands and thats important to me.
Keep making your great videos, people can learn a lot from you!
Thank you for that insight! I did the same thing at first with the “aesthetic” piece, almost losing sight of what sustainability is supposed to be about. So, thanks for bringing that up!
Our county in California is finally letting us throw used paper goods, meat waste and produce waste into the green bin. We have blue bin for clean recyclables. So the straight up garbage can takes about 3 days to get to the brown bin. If I have to use plastic, I reuse over and over again.
I love your view on sustainability and a reminder that it isn't about the so popular aesthetic idea. In terms of going to a supermarket to buy wrapped things just to then organise these into functional containers. I am one of these people at the moment. Sadly it is out of my financial or free-time reach to do shopping more sustainably at the moment. However, it is training me to have space made for the products that I use and when I will be able to top these up more sustainably, I will. It also gives me an idea of whether containers are too small or too big for my needs. I call it, halfway there :)
I dont know why you have 1 million subs already! you are brilliant!
Aw thank you! Haha a million subs would be neat 😂
What a great video. Just recently l decided to get on YT to share what battling with the ‘choice’ is like 😅. I still have so much to learn. So glad to find a low impact channel like yours. 🥰
I totally agree with you. It’s most important to make choices that feel sustainable for your own lifestyle. If it’s exhausting, you won’t be happy and people will feel it’s a wrong choice to make 😄
Would you be willing to make a video on the environmental impact of wild caught fish vs farm raised fish? I feel like farm raised would be ultimately better for environment if you need to eat fish, but I wonder what the statistics are.
There are other creators that I follow, and love and respect, but this was by far the most informative and enlightening video for a baby in the sustainable lifestyle. Thank you!
In the beginning, I used to throw a tantrum when I wasn't quick enough to tell the fruit vendor at the farmer's market to not put the produce in plastic bags lol. I also do the ugly sustainability of reusing the shit out of single-use plastic bags as my family really doesn't consider these aspects when doing the groceries so I have to do these small things to somewhat lessen the impact
I get the aesthetic point. But it did set me on the ZW path, so I think I started out wrong, but now I’m on track.
I am new to this journey, although I’m realizing I’ve done some things naturally most of my life, can you talk about cardboard? Recycling, reusing, etc? In America so much of our food, deliveries, etc come in cardboard and I’m curious of what to do with them besides recycling or learning new tips. Thanks!
if you have access to composting, it's a great "carbon" source for that! Also makes great weed block under landscaping mulch. Would make a great video topic in my opinion as well!
Hi! I have a video about paper/cardboard, you can find it in the impact playlist or by searching for "gittemary cardboard" 🌿
Id love more ugly sustainability! :D haha. It helps feel like I am doing something right, compared to seeing all these beautiful photos on instagram!
As I was watching, I was thinking of sustainable jobs. Do you have a video for that? I have received a job offer but the company sells things that arent sustainable in specific, so I dont really want to take the job. And as I was thinking about that, I wondered what is really a sustainable job and how to implement more sustainable ways in my day to day work life, including the office, colleagues, waste we produce etc.
Great video, Gittemary. You make very good points. Always good information on this channel. ♥♥♥
I am guilty of caring too much about aesthetics haha. I just discovered your videos from a veganism debate you had elsewhere. I'm learning a lot!
I just bought cleaners (bathroom, kitchen) in a tablet form. And I saw the excatc problem you pointed out. They have a "starter kit" that includes plastic spray bottles. So they all look the same. Like come on. Who doesn't have spray bottles at home? Mine are all differetn and I keep reusing them until they break but many people think they NEED this perfect set. Like it is under my sink most of the time you know so let them be different:)
Omg I have been in this exact situation! Like... we all save these bottles and reuse them, right? RIGHT!? 😳
Yes! I have spray bottles just chilling waiting to be reused!!!!!!
Love that shirt you've got on today! I think it's very cute and pretty and am jealous I've never been able to find something like it in my local thriftstores LOL 😆
Exactly! We have to look at the bigger picture. Take care of our planet.
Thank you so much for sharing your journey and what you've learned.💜 You have taught me so much!
Excellent video! We definitely learn from each other. My approach to things is to do my best because I’m perfectly imperfect 😁
I love your videos! Thank you for being so real and showing yourself for what you are :) keep going! 🌱
I always read your name as GlitterMary and I kind of think it suits you, you have such a sparkly personality ✨💕😊
Thank you 🤗 "Gitte" is rather common Danish name ✨
Thanks for sharing these 5 mistakes so we don't make the same mistakes. Love 🥰 the video and love 💕GitterMary.
Those were all very good points. Its the difference between fashionable enviromentalism and ... enviroment friendly enviromentalism ;)
I just had a sad thought that its unfortunate that at this point of time the social platform itself is not enviroment friendly. Its not a dig at you, you're using it to educate and who knows maybe its in plus. Just more of a thought about general state of the way were so dependant on electricity production
I would also add the mistake of thinking that whatever you do is fine as long as you "offset" your carbon footprint. There is a very misleading narrative going on about it and it has taken me forever to realise that a) some of the lifestyle choices I make would take a lot of money to offset b) the companies offering a "carbon neutral" journey are more likely than not NOT offsetting anything and most importantly c)we are at the very end of the supply chain and it is ridiculous to shift the responsibility of the carbon emissions on us consumers rather than expecting the companies to become more sustainable in their processes
And how the carbon footprint is just one part of the product's effects to the environment 🙈 I wish more people realized that!
We should be talking much more systemically and focus on the whole picture instead of hyperfocusing on this one aspect. You're so right about it that emissions etc cannot be simply "erased" by any kind of offsetting, even if it was truly impactful. The whole system and our mindset has to change
Especially since studies are starting to show that carbon offsetting has actually had a net negative impact on the environment by giving corporations a monetary way to keep up their massive pollution while showing a green score card.
Completely agree. I also have a whole video about the impact of carbon offsetting and that entire industry, it is in the impact playlist 😊✨
@@Gittemary I watched it, it was an eye opener I needed, so thank you for that one as well :D
A recent mistake for me was buying detergent strips so that I could avoid plastic- only to open the external paper box and find a plastic box inside.
I was so annoyed. I'm thinking most folks that buy this product think its plastic free!
Which brand? Not all do that. Blue water has a home compostable plant poly. Ecos has no liner, but the ingredients in blue water are more to my biochemist satisfaction. Hu chocolates, and other industries did the same plastic lining bait and switch in their green washed packaging. Companies outright forget that repeat business is a thing.
Carring about the aesthetics is nice but definitely not ecofriendly. The transition is hard but possible. Its way more eco to use what we already got.
It is absolutely possible and the thing is, often when we focus on HOW we get there, the "aesthetic part of the lifestyle" comes as a natural result of refusing, reused and reducing💚
'No nugget shaped thing is natural' haha, I laughed
Haha I'll stand by that forever ✨
It's important to realize that people may do similar things for different reasons. For instance one may be avoiding plastic for health reasons rather than environmental concerns, or simply care more about the environmental impact of plastic as opposed to CO2. So for them it is rational to throw out plastic tupperware and buy steel, even if that has more environmental impact, since it prevents plastic chemical exposure for themselves and their kids. Is that "consumerism" or "superficial"? I don't think so, just somewhat different priorities...
Hi, have u ever thought about a setting up a podcast. Love your speechs ❤
All jars are beautiful nomatter shape or form ;)
....blows my mind that people buy empty jars where all of them looks the same xD lol
I love your perspective
I have often suspected that those zero waste people, who put their year's worth of trash in a Mason jar, secretly sneak out at night and toss a lot of disgusting stuff in roadside trash barrels so that they're home situation will stay so pristinely trash free!! 😝
Loved this, this was very helpful.
Hey Gittemarie,
I have a question. I try to buy as much organic produce as I can, because it doesn‘t have (as much) pestisides on it, is better for the soils, nature/ animals around the fields where the produce grows etc. as the conventional produce. My problem is that I live in Germany and a lot of the organic stuff e.g. noodles are packaged in plastic. Would you rather buy a conventional product because it is packaged in cardboard or would you stick to the organic one with plastic packaging?
This is so true!!! I can't believe it 🙊
Ugly sustainability: the ugly stains on all my produce/bulk bags and on my wax wraps. I like veg! I like turmeric! They are all stained.
Ugly sustainability sounds like a fun idea 👍
Thanks for making this video 😍
I started my sustainable journey 2015 too and did every single of these mistakes 😂🙈
Haha*check check check check check* 😭😅
🌱
zero waste is actually so ridiculously punk rock dude i loooovvee a crustpunk
I so bad want that metal lunch box, but it would be so useless. I usually take lunch that needs to be warmed up so I'd have to transfer the food to different dish every time.
I keep using the plastic straws i have until they are too gross to use!🍹
Amen.
I am pretty new at trying to go zero waste (some things I’ve been doing for a while, vegetarian/mostly vegan for nearly 2 years, and last year I started only buying loose leaf tea from a local shop, bringing tins I already had, buying a metal tea ball and throwing used tea in my garden), but can definitely say I’m kinda torn between falling for aesthetics and doing a decent job. For instance I’ve been repurposing pickled beet jars, cleaning them out and collecting them for when I start bulk buying things we run out of in small quantities (like nuts, I just filled one with pumpkin seeds I got in bulk, yay!!), but I’ve been very tempted to get a bamboo cutlery set. I’ve been hunting for a bag I already have that I can put silverware I already have in, but haven’t found a good size where they won’t clank around in my bag, and I hate loud noises. I’ll still look at what I’ve got, but if nothing shows up I think a happy medium could be, if I find a good sized pouch, to buy a bag but not the cutlery? I dunno.
But yeah, I’m taking it slow, sometimes I wish it were faster but hoping to avoid burnout, like you mentioned. ☺️ love your videos, they are a massive reason I am making much more proactive swaps, like phasing in some bulk buying (which, disclaimer, I did buy some reusable bags for…I might be in need of a couple more too 😬)
Could you consider sewing the pouch yourself? I'm thinking about one that has separate sections for each item - the fabric between would then prevent noise. It could be a farely easy project to do by hand even, if you just have access to some suitable fabric 🤔 I relate so much to the loud noises being very annoying! 🙈
@@tuanoini that’s not a bad idea! I was actually looking at an old square scarf of mine and trying to figure out how I could make it work. Wasn’t coming up with anything, but I will get back at it, cutting and re-sewing might be the answer. I haven’t worn it in years and doubt I ever will. Thanks for the suggestion!
Lol it’s so funny you talk about aesthetics cause almost all my Tupperware/my snack bowls are just…plastic to go containers 😅 food fits in them, why throw em out??
I literally search glass jars in the trash of my neighbors 😂
Like this video a lot!
A reason why restaurants want you to drink with straws is so your lips aren’t on the glass and they don’t have to spend more time washing them. Bringing your own metal straw would be better probably
They should fully wash the glass either way...
Hi Gittemary, I am looking into make-up that is both as ecofriendly as possible, but also sticks to the face like an octopus because I wear full face helmets. Are there any companies that you recommend?
I mean this very respectfully, I hope you don't take this the wrong way :) Another way would be to rethink your perceived need for makeup in the first place. Maybe I am just old (mid 40s so not THAT old!) and out of touch but I don't understand the need to cover up natural beauty with products that are fake. Honestly, the way that social media encourages young people to hide their natural selves is disturbing ..... which I guess is a different topic of conversation altogether.
@@tarnr5713 haha. No worriez! On most days I can't be bothered as taking it off is too much work, but every once in a while I like to wear some :)
Her: bike to work Baby it’s not gonna happen!
Them: why? What’d you do to my car? 🤔👀😂
I don't buy note pads. Instead, I save any mail and envelopes that can be reused for notes, grocery lists. Etc.