Genius Hour Zero Waste

For my second Genius Hour, I chose to study a topic about living a zero waste lifestyle. In fact, my research question was: How does living zero waste change our lives and Earth to the point that it impacts both of them making them healthier?

I decided to investigate about this topic because I had watched many interesting videos by an expert on zero waste named Lauren Singer on ways to reduce waste, where trash ends up, and after a while, I started to get very hooked to this topic. Another reason I decided to investigate about zero waste is because:

(imgflip)

There were some basic things I knew about this topic, but overall, I was very impressed with the new things I learned.

The first thing to learn is the 5 R rules of living a zero waste lifestyle:

(Ramos)

While looking at an awesome zero waste blog called “Going Zero Waste” by another zero waste expert, Kathryn Kellogg, I learned the most productive ways to reduce waste at home:

  • Compost 

    (Ramos)

Composting is combining organic matters together for a period of time in a way where it’ll decompose to create great soil. Some composable things include egg shells, non-plastic tea bags, toilet paper cores, leaves, cereal boxes, fruit scraps… As a matter of fact, 25% of the things we throw away is compostable, including the organic matters discussed above. There are many types of composting such as digging a hole (easiest way), worm box or Vermicomposting (special machine). But it doesn’t matter which way you do it, you’ll be helping the ecosystem greatly by composting!

  • Reusable bags & jars

Bags– Although there are many places were plastic bags are not allowed, there are still many places where plastic bags are  given to you every time you buy something, specially in Africa. That’s why, instead of spending money on buying plastic bags, and then throwing them away, buy a fabric bag, and use it as many times as you want without polluting the earth and oceans. Keep at least 5 fabric bags from every size in your car and door knob so every time you leave home, you have reusable bag in hand.

(Pixabay)

Jars– As for the jars, it only comes in handy when buying at special shops. In fact, in some food shops you need o bring your own reusable jar because these shops have long tubes with ingredients such as beans, pasta, candy, where you open the tube, and fill your jar with as much quantity as you want, then, you pay depending on the size of your jar. This is a great invention because you take as much quantity as you are going to spend and no plastic is wasted on packaging.

  • Create your own DIY products

Making your own DIY products can be a great way to reduce waste, mostly because you avoid buying all those containers where make-up or shampoo is stored. Creating your own DIY products isn’t only great for the environment, but also for your health, because you use natural products and you know what you put in them.

  • Use Multitaskers

Instead of buying a thousand bottles of different shampoo for the hair, try using less because once you use all the substance inside the container, the bottle will end up as trash in the ocean for sure. And, soap is soap, so using one type of shampoo for body, hands and hair will work great anyway. Ex: Kiratine- it is used for the hair, but can also be used to moisturize the lips and it can be used as lotion.

  • Keep it real!

Do whatever you can to reduce trash!


How to stop consuming waste while buying:

  • SECOND HAND

    (Pixabay)

Second hand is super useful and while buying clothes, furniture, objects and toys. The reasons are because:

  1. You stop being a consumer
  2. You reduce waste – buying something that has already been used gives it a new opportunity before being thrown away.
  3. You become community friendly – the money goes to NGOs or to organizations that need the money, not to really rich people.
  4. It is way cheaper!
  • FARMER’S MARKET

    (Flickr)

Buying food is the way that we consume the most waste due to almost everything in the supermarket being packaged. However, the farmers market is a place where food is sold without any plastic covering them, just like in the picture: If people bought often from the farmer’s market or shops with dispensers, a lot of waste wouldn’t be used and thrown to the ocean.


Now, the question is, why do we need to care about trash?

We’ll, it’s simple, because it is all being stored in the same planet as we live in and it is affecting the life of all human beings. In fact, when we throw all of those big plastic bags full of trash we have been accumulating into the big container, very little gets recycled, while most of it goes directly into the ocean polluting it in many different ways. After it is in the ocean, it divides up into five different gyres; a whirl of water in which waste accumulates and stays there for a very long time. The biggest gyre is in the Pacific Ocean and it affects a hundred thousand of sea animals per year.

As a matter of fact, the 7 things that often end up in the ocean are:

(Ramos)

What I have learned will help me as a person in the future because while living in Senegal, some of the things I can’t do such as going to ecosystem markets or ride a bike to go to school, or recycle paper when trowing it away, however it just makes me more eager to do these things when I go back to Spain, because here I can’t do them because of restrictions. Also, I have started to realize that little things make a change too, so even if it is saving paper, or accumulating less or getting rid of the stuff you don’t really need, I am helping the environment.

Also, this project has tough me to educate my family, for example, with my sister, I made a nest for birds to eat different seeds out of an egg carton. What I learned honestly helps everyone; the community, animals, myself and the world. If we created less trash, we would breath cleaner air. If we created less trash, hundreds of thousands of sea animals wouldn’t be sick per year. If we created less trash, the north pole wouldn’t be melting as much!

I am not really sure what I will learn in my next Genius Hour project, but I would like it to have something to do about fashion / sewing or how to become more flexible. I know my next project has to be something that helps the world, but I’m not really sure about that yet…  :l

(Waste Shifter)

Images Cited

Jakbraun. “Second- hand-lettering-dresses”. Pixabay, June, https://pixabay.com/en/second-hand-lettering-dresses-2353682/. February 28. 2018.

Waste Shifter, “Human Foortprints”. Twiter,  7 december 2017, https://twitter.com/WasteShifter/status/938704684000464896. 10 March, 2018.

Sheffield, Allen. “Dallas Farmers Market 2”. Flickr, July 10, 2011, https://www.flickr.com/photos/awsheffield/5932294914. February 28, 2018.

Van, Alex. “Food M M Candy Candies Children’s Sweets Colorful.” Pixabay, 16 Jan. 2014, pixabay.com/en/food-m-m-candy-candies-246221/.

Leo, Killer Di. “Rising Sea Levels, Pollution, Overpopulation…” Imgflip, Meme Generator, imgflip.com/i/tf2fx.