WHY FOCUS ON OUR HOUSEHOLD WASTE?
Our impact on the environment goes well beyond the waste we see in our home. Our transportation, the energy that fuels it and the emissions it releases, greatly impact the environment. Our savings can impact climate change. Our Internet searches, emails and cloud storage have a huge carbon footprint (yes, the Internet and its supporting tools are quickly becoming one of the world’s worst climate offenders ).
Although this website is focused on household waste, we are not saying that it is the only thing to do!
Yet, reducing your household waste can already have quite a significant impact on the planet, well beyond your home. Reducing the number of bins each week will impact the whole production and transportation value chain that led the items into your home: it will reduce the material, water, energy that you do not see but has been used to produce these items.
We will work not only on buying less but also on buying better, and these more eco-friendly products will also reduce the waste that goes down your sink, your shower, your dish washer and toilets. Refusing, reusing and taking care of our items will also reduce the microparticles that are never fully filtered by the water treatment plants and end up in the ocean and ultimately, in the fish we eat.
Reducing your household waste puts you on a journey towards reducing your impact on the planet. And when you are part of a community of people doing the same, it feels a far less tiny, lonely, perhaps pointless journey and becomes far bigger and more satisfying.
Our individual choices do matter. They save energy and resources. They build companies’ incentives to be greener. They inspire other people to do the same. They make us feel good. Taking action to be more sustainable in our everyday life is absolutely worth doing.
The way we consume reflects but also reinforces our priorities. If you embarked on a waste-lite path, you want to make it easier for you to sustain it, for others to join in, and it makes you a more credible advocate for change.
This website focuses on household waste, but we also included a section in Internet and the last section includes ideas of what to do beyond the bin bag.