Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are seven ways to focus on zero waste, and work toward making small but rampant changes during this pandemic. 

• How can donors support zero waste changes through charitable giving? Are there opportunities in your area to make these changes? 

•  Read more about focusing on the zero waste movement during coronavirus. 

It may feel like the whole world is regressing toward single-use plastics, but the waste-free movement is far from dead.

There are a lot of eco-friendly practices that I'm not allowed to do right now. Thanks to the current pandemic, the reusable container policy at Bulk Barn has been temporarily suspended. Reusable grocery bags and bins aren't allowed at the grocery store. Whenever I place an order at a local store, it comes swathed in disposable plastic. The province-run beer store isn't accepting beer or wine bottle returns. My town's recycling program was cancelled for several weeks, with all blue boxes going straight to landfill, and everywhere I go I'm handed single-use antibacterial wipes, something that I always avoided (and railed against) in the past.

I understand that drastic times call for drastic measures, and that many people are facing much bigger challenges, so I go along with it. But every time I use a wipe or a single-use grocery bag, I feel my soul shrivelling a little bit.

She goes on to offer a list of zero waste alternatives to common household products. It is encouraging to see, a reminder that we can fight back against the rampant waste in small ways. It also got me thinking about zero waste in terms of what we can do now and what we will have to work toward later, once this pandemic is over. There's a proper time for everything.

  1. Make your own cleaning products.
  2. Reduce food waste.
  3. Establish a zero waste beauty routine.
  4. Choose grocery packaging wisely.
  5. Fight back where you can.
  6. Resume the zero waste fight.
  7. Keep making stuff yourself.

Read the full article about working toward zero-waste by Katherine Martinko at TreeHugger.