As the COVID-19 virus eats into our grocery and other supplies, perhaps it’s time, while we cool our heels at home, to reconsider our consumption.

In ‘Waste Not Everyday: Simple Zero-Waste Inspiration 365 Days a Year’ Erin Rhoads provides tips for every day of the year of ways towards making simple lifestyle changes so that our impact on the world is less about waste and more about meaning.

Today, as we are encouraged to stay at home, and perhaps ration our consumption a whole lot more, it is worth looking at the framework she proposes in her book, including the tenents we all know:

• • • • • • • reduce
            • reuse
            • refuse
            • recycle

There are several others she proposes (her list includes 11 steps) but it is the order of her framework that matters.

You’ll note that recycling is towards the end. This is because the act of recycling is not the way to fix the problem: instead it simply delays items … from ending up in landfill. (From the introduction of Waste Not Everyday.)

There are lots of simple ideas in this book like, buying your fruit and vegetables loose – and then making sure you display them to ensure you eat them, supporting local growers markets and choosing seasonal foods. There are many tips and recipes for things like cleaners, shampoos and weedkiller – all better for the environment than most commercial varieties.

However, much of the book is to make us pause and think. Do we need more? Is there a better way? Can I repurpose something? Use it longer? Repair it?

A timely page I opened to today said:

# 162 Don’t let scary statistics weigh you down: channel energy into changes you can make in your home or community.

At this time of change in our world, it certainly can’t hurt to look at some of the 365 options Rhoads has gathered together in this book – and start to make a difference – a genuine impact on the future of our planet.

# This is also available as an ebook from many sources – an even better option?