Every one of us can take part in making the world a better place. And while recycling your garbage and using less plastic are the first steps that everyone can take, there’s so much more we can do. Thankfully, the ZeroWaste subreddit is here to help us.
This online community targets the 5 R’s principle (refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot). Its users regularly share many useful tips and projects that will help to minimize your environmental impact. Check out some photos of inspirational ‘zero waste’ ideas in the gallery below!
#1 Christmas Tree Rental
#2 Instead Of Polluting The Planet With Confetti, Hole Punch Leaves! Fully Biodegradable
#3 My Christmas Present To My Mother In Law. (It Looks Like Her Dog.) I Used All Donated Scrap Fabric. I Throw Away Nothing When Trimming - I Keep Even The Tiniest, Weirdest Pieces When I’m Quilting My Big Quilts, Because You Never Know When Something Is Going To Need A Shadow, A Collar, Or A Nose
#4 Libraries Are So Vastly Underappreciated
#5 This Awesome Moroccan School Security Guard Wasted No Quarantine Time And Restored, Free Of Charge, These Benches That Were Supposed To End Up In The Trash So That They Can Be Reused This School Year
#6 Recycling Old Picnic Coolers For Stray Cat Shelters
#7 Turkish Garbage Collectors Open A Library For All Of The Books Citizens Discard In Their Trash
#8 Italian Brand Barilla Removed The Plastic Window From Their Boxes (UK)
#9 Toothbrush With Replaceable Bristles So You Don’t Have To Keep Buying A New Handle
#10 This Was Enough For Me To Finally Kick Starbucks For Good
#11 Just Finished My Latest Art Made Solely Put Of Recycled Wine Foils
#12 Sunnybee, A Farmer's Market And Store In Chennai, India, Has Begun Wrapping Their Produce In Banana Leaves. Makes Me Glad That My Country Is Thinking Forward Like First World Countries
#13 My Shopping Bag Has A Printed Holiday Pattern So It Can Be Reused As Wrapping Paper
#14 This Week I Will Hit My 8000th Bag Of Trash Cleaned Up. I Love My Life, And I Encourage Others To Try This
#15 This Is Completely Out Of Season And I Did It Four Years Ago, But I Work In A Bakery In A Health Food Store And This Is How I Evaded Throwing Away Broken But Otherwise Perfectly Fine Cookies That Didn't Make The Cut For Platters. Injure Bread Men!
#16 A Few Weeks Back I Put A Box Of Empty Candle Jars Out On My Verge For Giveaway - I Didn't Want To Throw Them Away - And Today I Found A Lil Box Of Candles In My Doorstep With Some Of The Jars Refilled With Lovely Scented Candles
#17 A Library That Rents Cake Pans!
#18 Picked Up A Used Cardigan That Turned Out To Look Much Better In The Picture Than In Person, So I Turned It Back To Yarn And Crocheted The Yarn Into A Cat Bed
#19 We Need More Coffee Shops To Do This
#20 You Can Grow Loofahs (They Are In The Cucumber Family), Dry Them And Use Them To Wash Dishes. 5 Plants Make Enough For About 2 Years In Our House. Fully Biodegradable When They're Worn Out
#21 For Anyone Out There Who Has An Old Trampoline And Isn't Sure What To Do With It
#22 My Dad Built A Green House Out Of Piles Of Random Stuff He’s Been Saving In The “You Never Know When It Will Come In Useful” Pile. Old Windows, Bits Of Flooring, Recycled Straightened Nails, And Off Cuts Of Steel Roofing. Only Had To Spend $40 On 8 Large Bolts. So Proud Of Him!
#23 Old Spice Has Plastic-Free Deodorant
#24 Bulk Frozen Vegetables In Romania! First Time I've Seen Somethibg Like This
#25 Sometimes Junk Store Frames Don’t Come With Hanging Hardware. Tin Can Lids Get The Job Done. Learned This Trick From My High School Art Teacher
#26 My Boyfriend Wrote A Paper On How Superworms And Mealworms Can Digest Styrofoam Into Biodegradable Waste At A Fast Rate. We Expanded It Into A Project At School This Year. This Is A Farm That I Started A Week Ago. It's Simple And Low Maintenance. Please Try It Out!
#27 Our Local Supermarket Makes Juice Out Of Unsold Fruits. Literally Zero Waste
#28 As A Truck Driver I Am So Tired Of Seeing Garbage Everywhere Left By Other Drivers. So I Decided To Be The Change That I Wanted To See In The World
#29 My Drugstore Just Got A Refill Station For Laundry And Dishwashing Detergent!
#30 Decorating My New Apartment My Updating The Furniture Left Behind
#31 I Built This House Almost Entirely Out Of Dirt And Reclaimed Materials!
#32 Can't Believe A Zero Waste Shop Opened Up Only 15 Minutes From My Rural Village In Scotland!
#33 Today I Collected 8 Bags Of Garbage From Nature... We Try To Justify Our Ignorance In Front Of Ourselves And We Will Say "It's Not Mine", But We Are No Longer Entitled To That Nowadays. Nature Is Our Collective Responsibility, And This Sense Of Responsibility Motivates Me To Clean Up The Forest
#34 Somebody Made Homes For Street Cats To Take Shelter In Out Of Water Jugs
#35 My Eldest Daughter, 13, Started Doing Embroidery After She Saw Some Videos On Instagram. Yesterday She Surprised Me With This Beautiful Flower That She Stitched Over A Hole In My Favorite Jeans!
#36 The Paper Didn't Reach
#37 A Friend And I Have Started Doing Weekly Trash Walks Around Our Neighborhood In La. This Week We Filled Two Whole Trash Bags Going Less Than Two Blocks. We’re Hoping To Keep Growing Our Little “Club” And Maybe Inspire Some Others To Start One Too!
#38 Sell Clothing Online And Finally Mastered Zero Waste Mailers! Made 100% Of Discarded Plastic And Sealed Shut With My Sewing Machine
#39 A Local Soapmaker Sells Miscellaneous / Broken Pieces Of Soap Without Packaging At A Discount. Perfect For Trying Out New Scents!
#40 George Kent Using His Own 64oz Nalgene Bottle Instead Of The Single Use Plastic Bottles Provided At The Impeachment Hearing Today
#41 With An Axe And Two Knives, I Carve Spoons From Freshly Fallen Wood Picked In My Forest. Spoons Are Everyday Tools That Have Been Used Since The Beginning Of Humanity
#42 Office Goes Zero Waste And Gave Everyone One Of These
#43 Diyed A Soap Dish Out Of Unused Takeout Chopsticks, Glue, And Thread
#44 Used Bird Seed For My Graduation Pictures Instead Of Glitter/Confetti!
#45 A Knit A Sweater Made Entirely Of Old /Scrap Yarns I Had Lying Around
