Erica Wells strives to live a waste-free lifestyle. (Photo by Jay Paul)
After the birth of her first child in 2016, Erica Wells was too tired to recycle, wasted a lot of food and threw away disposable diapers each day. After months of wearing maternity clothes, she found herself buying a lot of new postpartum outfits.
“I started noticing how much waste our household was producing and was getting sucked into a consumer lifestyle,” she says.
After watching “Minimalism,” a documentary “showing the virtues that less is more,” Wells, a registered dietician and Richmond native, vowed to buy no new clothing for a year. She also began to chip away at the waste she generated in other areas of her life, educating herself on the “zero-waste” movement, a way of life that seeks to eliminate nearly all waste.
Since then, Wells has substantially reduced the waste her family generates. Now, instead of a large trashcan in the kitchen, they use a small bathroom-sized can that is emptied about once a week.
“The first thing I did on day one was I removed anything disposable from the kitchen,” Wells says. Paper napkins, paper towels, plastic bags and plastic picnic wear were replaced with burp cloths, cloth napkins and reusable containers.
She began saving glass jars to use as storage containers for bulk food purchases — rice, beans, nuts, flour and other dry goods — to eliminate food packaging. She began cooking more and learned how to use the food she used to throw away, making dishes such as kale-stem pesto and broth from bones and vegetable scraps.
She started a blog, “A Waste Not Kind of Life,” to document her journey and also started teaching free classes monthly at Ellwood Thompson’s (currently on hiatus due to the pandemic) to share tips on waste-free living.
Wells is still paring down her belongings, and when she needs something, she shops thrift stores or consults her neighborhood “buy nothing” Facebook group. “We bring very little in but constantly have things going out,” she says.
“By doing these things I feel a lot better. I feel like I am taking control of the situation in the best way I can. Ecological anxiety is real. Since I have started making all of these changes, I feel like we’re doing what we can as a family. That helps a lot.”
Reduce Your Waste
Erica Wells offers these tips for moving toward a waste-free life.
- Buy items in bulk or in larger quantities to reduce packaging waste.
- Ditch disposable napkins and paper towels for cloth alternatives.
- Buy more local products, shopping farmers markets, to reduce packaging and transportation costs.
- Bring your own bags and containers when you shop. (But be aware that many stores are not currently allowing this due to COVID-19).
- Talk to your family about gifts, which can easily get out of hand with kids. Ask for experiences instead of stuff.
- Join a local “buy nothing” group on Facebook. These groups have a mission to “Give, receive, lend, share and show gratitude in hyperlocal gift economies, where the true wealth is the connections between real neighbors.”
- Trade disposable razors for one with replaceable blades.
- Instead of liquid soap in plastic containers, use bar soap.
- Plan your meals and learn how to cook.
- Create a go-pack of cutlery, a cloth napkin and a reusable cup (Wells uses a Mason jar) to use if you order food out.
- Invest in a reusable water bottle to avoid disposable plastic water bottles.
- Borrow books from the library.
