What It’s Like to Live with Zero Waste

this is the trash that I personally

invite into my life that I choose to

throw away how long is this so this is

going in four years Wow

yeah I'm Simone Sullivan and I'm about

to go meet up with Stevie Van Horn who

has a zero-waste lifestyle and I'm gonna

spend the day with her and see how she

does it good come on in Thanks so what

is zero waste so zero waste is pretty

much where I don't utilize any plastic

or trash and I try to avoid the landfill

at all costs that must be pretty

difficult yeah you'd think so but it's

actually pretty easy once you get the

hang of it all right also pretty much

everything in the house is secondhand or

vintage I guess I'm just kind of curious

like how do you start your day I usually

start my day I'm gonna wash my face and

then I brush my teeth but I ran out of

toothpaste so I can make some more for

if you want how do you make toothpaste

okay I will show you I'm gonna get the

ingredients here it's now pretty much

three ingredients

this is bentonite clay and this is

coconut oil and this is baking soda this

is fully recyclable this is fully

recyclable and this is fully recyclable

do you ever get any cavity no I don't

get any cavities so why did you decide

to start doing zero waste

so actually mushrooms was one of the big

reasons why I decided to be zero waste

mycelium is the neurological network of

planet Earth and the forests known to

repair replenish recycle and communicate

with the environment I was kind of

wondering what our role with the

environment is and then you think of

plastic pollution and overflowing

landfills deforestation and species

extinction and then I just got until

like this big rabbit hole of trying to

change it and one of the big things is

cutting out plastic it's not too much no

that's great Cheers it's very pretty

easy tasting not it's like coconut oil

and how long ago did you start doing

this I'm going into my fourth year Wow

this is a fourth year what was the

transition

like for you when you decided to do

zero-waste I started about two months

before to prep so I bought like utensils

mason jars and cloth totes and cloth

produce bags that made it really easy to

like start fresh and not really make

mistakes and then forming the habit of

going out and making it happen like

prepping ASAP or your lifestyle

basically yeah so before it was like ah

[ __ ] I forgot my mason jar I guess I'm

gonna have to like not go to this place

to eat or avoid this place that was a

little bit challenging right when I

started how do you avoid using plastic

products for showering so the ones that

I use right now it's in bulk and it's

all-purpose the same thing that I use to

wash my hair I used to clean the floors

and I used to spray the sink and the

toilet and everything else that's so

cool I think it's a myth that this

lifestyle is expensive

I'm saving so much in supplies just by

buying bulk of one thing I'm not buying

anything that's plastic wrapped and 15%

of what we're spending is in the

packaging and now we enter the bedroom

what's it like dating being a zero-waste

person any embarrassing stories if I

have a drink if I have like a margarita

and I have the lime I'll like put it in

my purse but it just dries up like it

doesn't mold or anything I'd have like a

special compost pocket in my backpack so

has anyone ever stumbled upon your

compost yeah oh yeah definitely what do

they say that's nasty are there ever any

like temptations you have the only one

is when I'm at the airport and I forget

stuff it's super tempting there's

plastic everywhere there's like no bulk

sections at the airport it's just like

trail make some chocolate and all those

like really good things that I love and

when I'm starving sometimes I want to be

like book it just like do it but it's

not worth a shitty future just to have

like a convenient snack you know yeah

this is a compost we used you want me to

open yeah so I usually put them in brown

paper bag and I'll just toss it in there

and it won't smell cuz it's frozen yeah

it gets picked up by the city and gets

distributed through different like

gardens and parks and stuff how do you

feel about doing this lifestyle in such

an urban environment I've seen at like

8:00 a.m.

I'll leave the house see a trash can

that's empty and then come back two

hours later and it's filled to the brim

with coffee cups and that bowl that's

going to the landfill so the biggest

thing you could do is just carry like

two things with you which is a produce

bag but Oh Anna mason jar or reusable

mug yeah I gotta go I've gotta get one

of those yeah what are your friends

think of all of this um I have a lot of

different reviews we can actually meet

up with one now for coffee if you want

we can talk to him oh yeah you wanna do

okay okay are we gonna bring our own mug

yeah you can pick any lug you want them

all mom so you should probably take

do you ever feel like Stevie's judging

ya like yes all the time

like right now yes No

one of the greatest things about her is

that she really is not judgmental like

for me it's not a hundred percent doable

yeah I mean I'm obviously I'm using a

straw is there a line drawn between

Stevie and zero-waste or like have they

merged identities that's a really good

boy I think she is zero-waste Stevie

like now I'm trying to think of the

times where I wasn't there waste Emily

but I'm zero waste even though I'm not

zero waste because I hate the sound of

that but I just have I've gravitated

toward that lifestyle and it like has

been so many things in my life that's

positive so yeah the identification is

kind of like together when creepy

everything about it yeah I didn't really

know what to expect

spending a full day being zero waste for

me personally I don't think I'm ready to

make all those changes but I think

simple stuff like being aware enough to

bring a coffee mug to the coffee shop or

a tote bag to the store is totally

doable hangouts TV was super fun she's a

normal girl she just makes less trash

you

you