r/ZeroWaste

Hi, this is a topic that has been discussed here many times but i haven't really found what i am looking for. I also apologize for my english as i am not a native speaker.

I am thinking of what to give my parents for christmas but it's hard. They literally have everything and the gifts i gave them last year weren't even used up until this point. My mom is a borderline hoarder and i dont want to contribute to this waste but i have to give her something. Coupons for massages/restaurants/selfcare won't work for neither of my parents. Baked goods aren't considered good enough of a gift in my household.

Does anyone have some tips?

Hi there, I'm having a wedding BBQ in a few weeks and there will be six picnic tables. I'd like to have 1-2 charcuterie boards per table and am trying to think of what I can put the snacks on instead of wooden cutting boards. I don't want to end up with 6-12 boards afterwards, plus they are pricey. I was thinking of some kind of sturdy bread I could bake on a sheet pan but this also sounds like a lot of work (plus I don't have AC so baking is almost not an option). Any and all other ideas are welcome. TIA!

My parents accidentally threw away a large piece of unused clean wax paper and then insisted on not using it even though nothing visibly stuck to it. As a concession I've decided to well, see title. I've decided to keep it in my workplace so I can think up some use at my leisure.

Avoiding direct food contact is the preference. It also has to be some practical use.

I was gifted a nespresso esque coffee machine recently and don’t want to waste it. My question is, is it better to buy compostable coffee pods or recycled ones. Unfortunately my area doesn’t have a compost bin and I know that compostables can often still build up in a landfill, whereas recycled coffee pods are already reducing waste. Which one is better overall?

I've been wanting to subscribe to their cleaning products and shampoo and I also love Hank and John green. But I wanted to probe to make sure there's nothing between the lines I missed.

Hello hello, I’ve been making the switch to reusable menstrual products gradually over the past year or so. I have a cup but it’s not my favorite, I prefer using reusable underwear and pads, but my biggest issue is that the pads never ever stay in place. Underwear is awesome and I have some pairs I love, but it’s a lot harder to change during the day than pads. I’ve tried a couple different brands and they all just bunch up toward the back of my underwear rather quickly. Does anyone have any tips on how to avoid this? Is it just me? Do I need to sew a snap onto my underwear (kidding mostly haha but who knows). Any thoughts appreciated!

ETA: YES they do all have snaps on the wings to hold them together. These keep them from falling off completely but do not stop them from sliding to the front or back.

Im trying really hard to declutter and its proving more and more difficult (now with a child too). I wish stuff i put on ebay/Facebook would sell or even the free listings would get taken but it ends up being admin heavy with back and forths and no shows. My local op shop/thrift store only takes very specific things. So I have lots that still has use in it but nowhere to give it. If i put it on the street council will put illegal dumping on it. Street libraries are full (i can only do so much driving around filling them up). My stuff is everything from small and big furniture to books, bric-a-brac, kitchen items, etc.

So, im at a point where I need to start using the recycling bin and landfill bin and im feeling extremely guilty. I dont want to "throw" things out :(

How do I make myself feel better about it? I cant just keep holding onto stuff we arent using/creating a mess/piling up.

Hey reddit! I am new to the zero waste movement and I am looking to reduce my overall plastic consumption. My partner and I have these great refillable glass soap dispensers that are made for liquid handsoap, but every eco store online only sells foaming handsoap refills. I would love to hear any tricks or brands you use for your handsoap?

(Yes I am aware bar soap exists. I just want to avoid throwing away a perfectly good soap dispenser. Thanks!)

I've been working with fiberglass and epoxy resins for my personal RC plane projects, but since I'm doing a lot of testing and prototype designs that get discarded during the design process, I feel increasingly guilty about all the waste and microplastics that come along with it. Unfortunately for the shapes that I want to make going with pure wood is just not an option.

I've been researching eco-friendly alternatives for making composite layup projects, and there are some for fibers (flax, hemp, etc.), which unfortunately have much reduced mechanical properties when compared to fiberglass, but still suitable for my use case.

However, I can't seem to find any decent alternative to epoxy resin that would make the final composite material naturally biodegradable, so using either of these fibers becomes a moot point. Closest thing I found was ecopoxy, which unfortunately is very expensive and almost impossible in retail quantities to get where I live (EU).

Can anyone suggest any decent alternatives that are fully biodegradable, affordable and have at least somewhat comparable mechanical properties to fiberglass+epoxy for wet layups? Anything better than paper+PVA glue is worth considering to me. I've found a research paper ("Preparation and characterization of jute fiber reinforced shellac biocomposites: effect of additive") that suggest jute fiber and shellac, which boasts quite impressive mechanical properties for such crude materials, but they used mechanical pressure and heat treatment to achieve that, which is not practical in home conditions, and I'm unsure of how much mechanical strength would be lost without it.

hello, where do you guys recommend going to look for compostable, but affordable soap saver bags? i don’t want to spend $5 a bag since they have to be replaced every few weeks to months.

asking bc i have bar soap that doesnt suds up enough and i often drop it. other solutions are welcome.

I work at a school and am apart of the Sustainability Group. We have convinced the higher ups to switch to a more sustainable toilet paper, with bamboo being the most sustainable option. Problem is, their frame of reference for price is the Amazon basics toilet paper. Recycled tp is more than that, and bamboo tp seems to cost the most.

Are there any brand that charge close to 60 cents per unit? Or brands that offer discounts for bulk or for a school?

I live in the UK and have recently moved to a new city, into a much smaller furnished apartment where limited space is a serious issue. In my previous apartment, I had two household bins, one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom, that are in perfect condition. My new place already has a massive kitchen bin and my bathroom is much too small for either of my previous ones to fit. I need to get rid of them and I don’t know how to besides selling them on Vinted (which may or may not work) or throwing them away (which I don’t want to do because they’re in great working condition).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to get rid of them without them ending up in a landfill?

Hello!

What are you guys using when cleaning your bathroom/kitchen/bedrooms/clothes/dishes with?

Usually I've bought the usual;

- wc-cleaner

- all around spray

- wetmops that comes in plastic packaging ready to use

- microfiber cloth etc.

- powder for washing machine

- tablets for dishwasher

But I really want to buy less, use less plastic, dont contribute to big corp and still hopefully find some healthier solutions that still makes things clean.

Since I don't know the chemistry of how things work, I struggle with knowing if for example just vinegar and baking soda actually will clean something like a toilet, or just act like a temporary bandaid, looking clean, but slowly making a bacterial bomb, if you get what I mean haha.

Thanks in advance!