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Conscious Waste: overcoming perfection paralysis
The 16 oz mason jar: it’s the universal symbol of the zero-waste lifestyle, a growing movement that has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers worldwide. But what does it really mean to live with zero waste and is it realistic for everyone?
Hats off to the zero waste bloggers out there — the likes of Bea Johnson, Lauren Singer and Kathryn someone, who somehow manage to fit their year’s waste in a small jar, only buy clothes in op shops and run tours through their trendy, minimalist homes. But while there are hundreds of thousands of people all over the world living or aspiring to a zero waste lifestyle, my take is that this is too daunting or unrealistic for most people.
It is also worth mentioning here that the term ‘zero waste’ is a bit misleading, as there are certain things that are usually left out of the jar (I’m not exactly sure what — condoms perhaps?). Also it doesn’t consider the supply chain or ‘upstream’ waste. For example, while zero waste-ers might shop in bulk stores, the produce in the bulk bins usually comes in plastic originally (it’s just the bags are a lot larger than the ones you see on supermarket shelves, so overall there is less plastic, but…
