Is the Zero Waste Lifestyle Only for the Privileged?

I expect if you have made it to my blog post you have perhaps wondered if zero waste lifestyle is for the privileged and you’re here out of curiosity. Or maybe this peaked your interest because like me you’ve wondered why eco-friendly and zero waste items usually come with such a big price tag!

As long as we follow the first rules of reducing what we buy, reusing what we have and finally recycling everything we can. Then the zero waste lifestyle does not have to be for the privileged only.

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Is Zero Waste For The Rich

For a long time I’ve noticed that when I look for something with less packaging or generally an eco-friendly version of an ordinary product it’s usually double the price. For example in the UK we have zero waste stores in most counties which usually involves a bit of travel to get there and as they have to make their money: rice, pasta etc is all priced a lot more per kg than supermarkets.

The Comparative Cost

Now when I say that these items are more accessible to the privileged, I don’t mean this in a derogatory way. Only that for people living pay-check to pay-check spending all their money on pasta or a fruit and vegetable box for example, is just not a possibility.

Recently I bought some bamboo makeup brushes and they’re really nice, however they cost around £20 for the set. Plastic makeup brushes of a similar set can be as cheap as £5 on Ebay, especially if you order to be delivered from China.

It’s not just the odd item either. I personally love stainless steel or glass sandwich boxes, as stated in my eco-friendly items blog post. However they are so expensive when you consider that you can get a cheap sandwich box from any supermarket for under £5.

Fruit and vegetables

Another thing that I’ve recently been frustrated about is fruit and vegetable boxes. In the past I’ve had to stop ordering a fruit bag and vegetable box from a local supplier because I was paying a lot of money out of our food budget on the fruit and vegetables and still having to top up from the supermarket because they just didn’t supply enough.

Of course the downside of buying the fruit and vegetables from the supermarket is that it comes in a lot of single use plastic such as bags and even trays a lot of the time.

Fortunately, I have managed to find a medium vegetable box and a fruit bag from a different supplier which is much more affordable. I do still top up from the supermarket but this definitely has helped me reduce waste.

These are just some examples that I have noticed the difference in the cost, I’m sure if you think of it there are lots more examples of sustainable products that are much more expensive than their non-sustainable counterparts. This does make some of the aspects of a zero waste lifestyle, more attainable for the privileged.

Despite this however, I don’t think zero waste is just for the rich. It just means that you have to think more about each purchase and buy less in general. Reusable items save so much money long term so often pay for themselves quite quickly.

Sometimes zero waste has the appearance of being more for the privileged when actually even those living frugally can also live more sustainably.

Companies and Green Washing

I think in recent years the terms ‘zero waste’ and ‘eco-friendly’ have become quite trendy and a lot of companies have switched onto this and they use this in their marketing to make us believe that they’re doing great things for our earth and environment.

It’s very easy to get caught out with companies who throw around these terms in their marketing when they’re actually not being completely honest about what they do.

In case you don’t know what green washing means, it’s when a company gives a false impression or provides misleading information to consumers to convey that they are more environmentally conscious than they are. Companies could state that their products are made from recycled materials or have some sort of energy-saving benefit when they are actually exaggerating the claims for their own benefit.

A brilliant example is the brand Love, Beauty and Planet which does vegan and cruelty free shampoo and conditioners. They use recycled packaging for their plastic bottles so on the first glance you might think their eco-friendly. However, I have recently found out they are actually owned by Unilever which is a big company which owns a lot of different brands. Unilever are not an environmentally conscious brand and they are not doing good things for the planet.

Another example is you can buy a lot of bamboo toothbrushes now but some have plastic bristles. Which obviously means that when you throw it away the bristles will never fully biodegrade so the company is tricking you into believing that you are doing some good by buying their product. These bamboo brushes (And Keep Affiliate Link) have plant based bristles.

I did also read a while ago that as bamboo reusable coffee cups are very popular at the moment some are actually made out of plastic with a bit of bamboo mixed in to give them the grainy effect. It does pay to make sure that what you are buying is actually 100% bamboo and compostable not just biodegradable.

It’s the same with skincare (although not green washing as such), I’ve realised that companies will market something as a Retinol cream for example but then when you check the ingredients it has the smallest amount of retinol actually in it. It’s so important to check labels and make sure you know what you’re buying.

If you’d like to know more about Green Washing check out this post which helps with How To Spot Greenwashing.

Reduce Reuse and Recycle

This phrase is pretty well known already in the zero waste sustainable circles, however if you aren’t aware of this phrase read on and I’ll explain.

I will declare straight away that I am not perfect. I’ve been on my journey to a zero waste lifestyle for years now and although a lot of things I do are excellent and have minimal to no waste, eg cloth sanitary pads and menstrual cups. I do still produce waste and I’m not ashamed to admit that. I don’t very often eat out but if I’m stuck somewhere and I need to eat, I will grab something to eat regardless of the packaging.

I just don’t think it’s particularly helpful to look at people who have their small jar of waste they’ve collected for the year and comparing yourself to them. When you have a family or housemates for example you can’t always get them on board with your zero waste lifestyle. I would never dream of stopping my son from spending his pocket money on Lego, even though I do dislike that a new set of Lego always has so much plastic!

I mean seriously, why is it plastic covered in bags of plastic!?

Reduce

The idea of reducing what you buy is really the key in my opinion. It is sometimes said that a zero waste lifestyle goes hand-in-hand with minimalism. That is probably not strictly true so don’t quote me on it, however just generally reducing what you buy is one of the best things you can do to help our planet.

In western society it has sadly got to the point where consumerism has people being wasteful with food and belongings. In my second-hand clothes post I discuss how I don’t buy into fast fashion and only buy what I need for myself and my children.

I buy second-hand first in general if I do need anything and just generally try and avoid buying things that we just don’t need.

Reuse

This doesn’t seem to get mentioned very much but reusing things is a great way to repurpose what we have. I love the below picture of growing plants out of old milk bottles rather than buying pots. I’ve also seen pins on Pinterest where people use toilet rolls as seed starters for plants which is a great tip as you can just then plant the toilet roll into the ground after as it will just eventually biodegrade in the soil. My son saves ours for craft projects.

Glass jars are also great for storing food and pretty much anything like craft supplies.

Old wrapping paper, magazines and newspaper can be reused as well to wrap gifts and even old toothbrushes can be used to clean those hard to reach places in the home.

Recycle

I guess this might seem an obvious one for the environmentally conscious but recycling what you can is a great step. Although as mentioned in my reduce plastic waste post, the problem with plastic is that the thin single use plastic can’t be recycled and most of the trays and yoghurt pots aren’t currently collected at the curbside (not in the UK anyway).

We collect up our trays, cartons and yoghurt pots and take them to our local recycling centre a few times a month. It’s not perfect but this is what we do at the moment. Of course, everything else glass jars, cardboard and food waste gets collected weekly from the curbside.

When I think back to prior to curbside collections, my mum used to always save up our recycling and take it all to the recycling skips on the back of her bicycle. The recycling at curbside is so convenient when you think of what my mum used to do and I’m very grateful for that.

Recycling isn’t always perfect however, if things aren’t cleaned properly it can be a problem when it’s get to the recycling centre at the other end. To be honest I’m not sure what proportion of the recycling collected actually gets recycled but I try and buy what I can in glass and tins because the process for recycling these, is much simpler.

Is Zero Waste A Privilege

As mentioned the price tag for a lot of zero waste/ eco-friendly items is generally higher. I think it’s important to understand that not everyone will be able to afford to do any of these things due to that. I don’t judge other people on what they can and can’t do for the environment. Not everyone will be as privileged as me and of course in turn, I do not have the same privileges as others.

Electric cars

I am privileged enough to have a car but I do not have an electric car because they’re just too expensive. Even a second-hand electric car costs around £9000 – £10000. I don’t like to have debt at all and if I’m honest on my families low wages I don’t think we would be approved for finance for a car anyway. If the price of electric cars comes down a lot, or my families situation improves then we have discussed that this is something we would like to purchase.

Money

So if you have a car, getting to the zero waste stores or a wholefood store generally shouldn’t be a problem store, however you will generally pay more per kg for the bulk items such as chickpeas, pasta and rice.

I’ve noticed even food items such as condiments are more expensive when they’re in glass.

Even clothes bought second-hand can be more expensive. When you think that Primark sells T-shirts and vests for £2 how can thrift stores and sustainable clothing companies compete with that? It has to be the people with the money and those that care about the environmental impact to be the ones willing to spend that little bit more on clothes.

It’s really a tough situation when you think about it, I’m not a materialist person by nature so I try to avoid buying things unnecessary anyway. However I really struggle when I have to consider my options for buying zero waste things, like the fruit and vegetable box I mentioned before. I want to choose the better environmental option every time but my family is working class. Our budget just doesn’t always allow for that sort of cost each week.

What Is A Waste Free Lifestyle

Now onto a much more positive note I want to give you some ideas of little things that we do that are cheaper and work much better for our family.

In the US it seems like there’s a lot of zero waste products available in TJMaxx so if you’re on a budget check out this post for more information.

A waste free lifestyle which could be reducing your household waste to as close to zero waste as you possibly can. This could mean by considering every single purchase that you make very carefully. If you can’t reuse the packaging or recycle consider if it’s something you really need or if you can live without it.

Alternatively you can start with the below simple tips to reduce your waste on some basic items to get you started.

Food

Although tinned cat food is slightly more expensive than the cheap pouches that you can buy. I find this much easier to factor into our budget. As it’s tinned, the process of recycling is much better and I feel happy spending that extra £2.50 each week.

As previously mentioned condiments in glass are slightly more expensive but as we’re talking pence I always buy these rather than the plastic versions. I do understand that people on a very tight budget who are not as privileged as me may not be able to absorb this cost and that’s ok.

If you have a bread machine or the time then making your own bread is relatively easy. It only costs around 40p in ingredients to make a small loaf so you do save a bit of money and you avoid the plastic packaging that goes along with bought bread.

Another trick you can do if you can’t make it to a bulk store is buy bigger packs of pasta etc at the supermarket, if it’s available to you. It’s much cheaper when you buy in bulk and then you’ve only got one single piece of plastic to throw away.

For storing food of course those glass containers or stainless steel are lovely, however they are not necessary. If you have plastic containers in your cupboard it would be far worse for the environment to throw them out anyway. We use plastic containers to store things like chickpeas, chopped tomatoes etc. I just make sure I don’t reheat in the containers because there is a risk of the plastic leeching into the food.

Water bottles

Don’t go out straight away and ditch your plastic reusable water bottles if you’ve decided to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Stainless steel water bottles aren’t cheap. We use Klean Kanteen bottles (Affilate link) but they’re quite expensive, even a child’s one is £16. That being said, if you do have the money they are worth the investment and they can take a bashing without leaking.

Straws

I think it’s normal to get caught up in the zero waste movement, I know I’ve bought things we haven’t necessarily needed. For me stainless steel straws was one of my purchases several years ago that I don’t regret as such but I definitely don’t use them very much. I do force myself to use them for shakes and smoothies now and my son likes to use them so it’s not a waste. However if you don’t ordinarily use a straw, don’t go out and buy them because they are just not needed.

In summary, although I think some products are more attainable for the more privileged, any sustainable choice you make does matter. It’s worth researching a bit more for cheaper alternatives for products and most of all – the best thing you can do for the environment is use what you have. If you’re interested in learning if zero waste is possible, click here. There are also some barriers that stop people from living sustainably.

If you like the idea of saving money check out my friend Savvy In Somerset, her website has tons of tips for saving money and making money!

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