A Trash Free House (Not Mine!)
August 30, 2023
Listen to my voiceover here.
The end of the summer is always lazy and slow, and I almost skipped my newsletter this week (which would be the first time I’d done so) BUT I had an unexpected experience that I wanted to share.
Lunch with Jussara
I had lunch at the trash-free house of designer Jussara Lee. The only visual cue for ‘waste’ was the chipped enamel compost bin full to the brim, almost alive itself, but that’s certainly not really waste.
At lunch, my placemat was a cloth napkin - I had no paper napkin, and I didn’t need one, I wiped my fingers on my placemat. If it had been a messy meal with face-wiping involved I’m assuming I would have been handed another cloth napkin. The food was delicious: veggies, eggs, guacamole, toast, coffee, milk.
Their food is from local farms and/or purchased from stores with little or no paper packaging. The only disposable packaging I spied was for the surprisingly delicious vegan butter. (Never did I EVER think I would udder those words- but it tasted actually just like butter.)
It was funny to me that on the one hand, ‘trash-free’ feels like a radical idea, something I have always thought I could never do, but the actual experience of it felt simple and straightforward. Everything in Jussara’s house has been thought through to eliminate waste / garbage- which really comes down to sustainable purchasing habits, mostly around food and household products.
Jussara and her family showed me all their food that they source in reusable containers, and some need no containers at all - milk, yogurt, bread, produce. I didn’t ask about meat- I am curious how they procure meat!
Jussara said it has been a long process to get to this trash-free place. At first it was no plastic containers, just glass. Then glass was avoided as well. Now she avoids all packaging whenever possible. It isn’t always possible, and she isn’t a stickler about it, it’s more of a choice that she chooses to maintain week after week because she feels good about it and what it means for her and our world. In case you’re wondering, don’t worry- there was toilet paper!
The Toll of Choosing
I love that there is less choice involved - make it easier for me. I don’t want 5 ketchups to choose from - it’s exhausting. To have a set of governing principles to make decisions sounds deeply helpful in simplifying life. Does it come in a plastic container? Don’t buy it. Can you find it in a glass container or paper? Maybe buy it. Can you get it refilled? Go ahead. Can you make it yourself? Go ahead.
I started thinking about soap and all the different soaps in my life: dish soap, hand soap, dishwasher soap, laundry soap, hair soap (shampoo), body soap, face soap… it’s a lot of soaps! And each purchase requires time to think about which one I want. What scent? What brand? Etc. I’m not saying I’m getting rid of all my soaps, but there is something about the idea of letting go of the multitude of products that sounds liberating. I also find it funny that there probably was only one or two types of soap in the late 1800’s and now we have ‘evolved’ to having 10 different types of soap and each type has 50 brands. Along the way, more choices felt more luxurious and created a new customer experience- I don’t question that, BUT I’d argue we have gone too far.
Someplace to Start
One great place to start with all of this is the Package Free Shop that sells all types of zero-waste products. I find it a bit overwhelming, personally, and I also find it ironic that I get regular emails from them selling me their products at a discount. I get it- they are a business too, but it feels strange that they are part of the same email marketing and promotional system that everyone else is. I’m sure I’m holding them on a pedestal when I shouldn’t be.
I think I would probably choose one product- ONE PRODUCT- to try to replace with something less wasteful. Maybe it’s switching from toothpaste tubes to toothpaste tabs, or from shampoo in a bottle to a shampoo bar.
Personal Road Blocks
Of course my mind leaps to “How can I do this myself?” and I have two issues that arise immediately:
1- I want help. I want to do this step by step. Navigating the Package Free website actually pushes me away. I get overwhelmed and leave.
2- My husband is not on this bandwagon with me. He is a jaded New Yorker who doesn’t believe in …. just about anything. He thinks the world is messed up and whether or not we recycle
our yogurt container will not change the state of the world. I only share this because I know that many of these types of decisions and purchasing choices are for a household, not an individual. So, I’m going to keep thinking about that one.
Thanks for listening, and thank you to Jussara for the unexpected dose of inspiration.
Cynthia
ps. I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that these types of choices are not available to all people. Many choices are highly dependent on where you live, what you have access to and how much money you have.
