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Wasteland Rebel

Going #ZeroWaste

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FAQ: How to Wash your Hair with Rye Flour? #NoPoo

A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming More Sustainable

Through Zero Waste Eyes: Hannah Arendt’s “The Human Condition” #FoodForThoughtFriday

8 quick and easy hacks for a plastic-free July—or any other time of the year ;)

Homemade Zero Waste toxic-free dishwasher detergent in only 1 minute

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FAQ: How to Wash your Hair with Rye Flour? #NoPoo

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Our tash of one entire year! #TrashTalk

Bathroom, Toiletries

Zero Waste Dental Floss

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Article, Bathroom, featured, Hair care

FAQ: How to Wash your Hair with Rye Flour? #NoPoo

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TrashTalk

Our trash of the last 5 months #TrashTalk

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Zero Waste – free your life from trash

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  • HOW WE SAVE MONEY TO AFFORD BUYING ORGANIC FOOD We don’t waste food! In average 20-25% of the food you buy gets wasted. That’s hundreds of dollars a year 💸! • We apply the 80:20 rule to the food items we choose. 80% “cheap” staples or veggies (in our case: millet instead of quinoa, oats+raisins instead of granola, flax seeds instead of chia seeds, lentils instead of tofu, squashes, cabbages, zucchinis when in season, etc.), 20% pricey things (berries, bell peppers, sweets, jams, spreads, nuts, things from the deli counter etc.). When we are strapped for money we ditch the whole “pricey food” category altogether. It’s a luxury, not a necessity after all. • We don’t buy beverages like soda or juice. Instead, we stick to tap water 💧and (herbal) tea 🍵and make a smoothie from time to time. We also make our own plant-based mylks (article on that coming up on my blog soon!) • We have swapped all single-use items in our house for reusables, or have gotten rid of them altogether. • I firmly believe a sustainably lifestyle isn’t about buying “green” alternatives. It’s about buying LESS! This one’s the biggest money saver. Just don’t buy all that crap in the first place, it won’t make you happier. • We wear our clothes 🧦👖until they literally fall apart (after mending them several times), so we only buy very few pieces every year, if at all. • We reflect if it’s a need or a want before we buy anything that’s not an essential consumable (e.g. food, cleaning ingredients). If we do buy something, we ask around if anyone has a spare they don’t need, if they don’t we try to buy it pre-owned. Only if there’s no other alternative do we buy something new. • We DIY our cleaning and skin care products 💆‍♀️💁‍♂️(I have all recipes in my book “Zero Waste: Simple Life Hacks to Drastically Reduce your Trash” @skyhorsepub or “Zero Waste: Weniger Müll ist das neue Grün” @freyaverlag) • Most people buy more than what they can realistically use up before it goes bad, or even more than what they can use in a lifetime! So we often use up things from our parents and friends. My mom just gave me bag full of 15+ year old hotel soap! We’ll use it for laundry.
  • This is our #zerowaste pantry. Swipe to see our mismatched jars! We use them for leftovers in the fridge to keep our pantry looking neat 😉. • As you an see we don’t even use the upper shelf of our cabinet. Personally, I believe huge cabinets and fridges often trigger what I like to call “squirrel mode” LOL 🐿🤪. (You gather things, stuff them somewhere, and then forget about them) At least that’s what it does to me. • So here’s a confession: I am not a natural minimalist 🙊. I do have hoarding tendencies…I used to have a beer mat collection with a few hundreds different beer mats from all over the world which I displayed proudly in my boarding school dorm room. I know, puberty hit me hard 🤪! I also used to collect coins, stamps, cake stands, cookie cutters, DVDs… You name it! • So yes, I definitely have the tendency to fill up blank space with stuff. The bigger the fridge or kitchen cabinets, the more food I’d stuff them with. But you know what? This often leads to food waste! • What is perceived as a “normal” amount of food in kitchens is usually way more than we can eat up before it spoils! Did you know the average person living in an "industrialized country" wastes ~20-25% of what they buy? This extends to bathrooms, where most of us use multiple bottles of shampoo, body wash, lotions, etc. at the same time, instead of using up one bottle before moving to the next one. • Sticking to what you will actually be able to use up isn’t just better for the environment, but also for your wallet. The biggest environmental problem we face is overconsumption after all. • So even though it doesn’t come natural to me, I have been learning to accept blank space. I have actually come to like it! It’s a lot easier on the eyes ☺️! Another trick is to use smaller cabinets, a smaller fridge (helps with the electricity bill too!), and to have less storage space.
  • This is an old #zerowaste #groceryhaul from April I think! I totally forgot to post it 🙈! • I also shot a time lapse to show you how I arrange the produce and take the picture! Swipe to see how 😆. Unfortunately it’s cropped so you can’t see how I actually take the picture (well, you can see my feet LOL), but oh well, I had to make do with the phone on a random box 🤪 • We try to stick to local and seasonal produce, but we do make exceptions. The squashes weren’t local nor seasonal obviously, but they were marked down because they were slightly smushed, and sadly, nobody wanted to buy them it seemed 😫. The sweet potatoes were on sale because they got a new batch and the old one had to go. And we went for the orphan banana too. • We don’t live in a perfect world. We have to navigate through this not very sustainable infrastructure regardless of whether or not we like it. Sometimes the best option available to you isn’t the optimal one. • Without a car, we didn’t have access to local produce where we lived when I took this photo. So we went for the most local organic, package-free veggies we could get and filled up on things that the store would otherwise have tossed at the end of the day. • There isn’t a one-size-fits-all zero waste lifestyle, no one right answer. Sometimes the best option isn’t available to you, but a better option is. Remember to be kind to yourself, you’re already doing a great job! Every little bit counts 💚💚💚
  • Knowing how to store food prevents food waste! Did you know the average person in an industrialized country wastes around 20-25% of the food they buy? This is something that can easily be avoided! #LoveFoodHateWaste Thank you @ecowithem_ for sharing your tips in the beautiful way 💚💚💚 Repost @ecowithem_ ・・・ Random piece of trivia for the day: the first Plastic was invented in 1869 by John Hyatt. Errrr... good one, John! He wanted to create a substitute for the ivory being used in billiard balls that was driving the mass slaughter of elephants for aforementioned ivory. Nawww... John, dude. Sorry. Forgive me for what I said when I was angry 🐘💗. Those good intentions went awry when - post World War II - plastic “went viral” in day to day lives. We started using a material that last forever for functions that required minutes. My point is, the 1950s aren’t so long ago. These are relatively new habits. A teeny speck on the time spectrum of humans on Planet Earth. So it reeeeally shouldn’t be that hard to simply dial it back a notch. Adopt the sensible, more resourceful, less plastic habits of our grandparents. It isn’t that hard. It’s common sense. Here are some ideas inspired by yesteryears on how to store food without all the plastic.
  • 💚 TINY LIVING TALK 💚 So many of you DM’d me about our murphy bed and living small 😆! Do let me know below👇 if this is something you are interested in knowing more about! //Werbung, da Namensnennung • Hanno and I are huge tiny living enthusiasts LOL! The two of us have been living small (together) for 12+ years! We fell in love with it by accident actually! Back in college, Hanno just moved into a 19.5 m2 (210 ft2) studio apartment and I ended up moving in “temporarily” to get away from my hoarder roommate 😅. The plan was to find a bigger place together asap, but we actually loved it so much we ended up living there for 2+ years! • Since then, we have lived in spaces ranging from 30-55 m2 (322-592 ft2). We value location over size. We don’t have a car 🚫🚗, so access to public transportation 🚌🚃, walkability🚶‍♀️, and/or bike-ability 🚲 is extremely important to us. Plus, we believe in living within our means, not spending more than what we earn, and not getting into debt if possible. We simply couldn’t afford a bigger space in locations with this kind of access. • Besides, we never liked the bigger spaces to be honest. Cleaning and maintenance took waaay longer, items were constantly out of reach, and we had to yell a lot because the other person was in another room 😆. It was also a huge waste of space we paid for every month, seeing how there were so many areas in the apartment we never used! • Right now, we live in a lovely 30 m2 (323 ft2) studio in DT Cologne. We've got a murphy bed and a foldable table, so our place transforms according to the time of the day, which I love sooo much 😍! Keeps us active too LOL! • We bought the murphy bed (~1.000€/ US$1,240) from a company with their workshop in Germany called Smartbett. So at least we supported a more or less local business. The wood is NOT FSC certified tho, and I do not recommend assembling it yourself! Not only because parts were missing, mislabelled, and the instructions full of mistakes. But bc it was LITERALLY a huge pain (bloody head injury)! The instruction wasn’t very helpful with “use SUITABLE screws + anchors to secure to wall”, but no explanation of how extremely strong the hydraulic mechanism is.
  • All the produce is locally grown 💚! It wasn’t easy, let me tell you! In fact, most people do not have access to locally grown food! • Isn’t it weird that nowadays imports from all over the world 🌎 have become the norm in grocery stores and even eco-conscious health food stores? How come it is a lot more difficult to get your hands on locally grown food when it should be readily available? • Instead, produce goes through a lengthy global supply chain ⛓. The more complicated the supply chain, the more important it is to prolong the shelf life. This means layers and layers of plastic to "protect" the produce, and also energy-consuming storing facilities, e.g. cold storage ❄️. Not to mention all the transportation emission 🚛💨💨 this system causes. • It is often said (plastic) food packaging is necessary to prevent food waste. I say no, the system is broken. Did you know that, according to a report by the Guardian, about 50% of all produce in the US is wasted? Slapping on even more plastic to prolong the shelf life is not going to fix this. • But you know what would? Simplifying this bloated food system would! Selling everything all year round and importing produce that also grows locally from abroad chips away the limited resources we have left on this beautiful planet unnecessarily. • We usually go for the most local organic produce we have access to and to stick to the seasons. Oftentimes it wasn’t very local at all… Whenever we do have access to local produce like now, we try to support this infrastructure. The more people support this more sustainable infrastructure, the more it grows. Change starts in our own communities. Support local businesses and let your voice be heard. Make suggestions, and maybe even be one of the amazing individuals that create access by opening a store, a farm, 💚!

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