The Beginning of my Zero-Waste Journey

Hi Everyone,

Happy Monday!! I hope everyone is taking a deep calming breath, holding a hot cup of tea and getting ready for another week of social distancing activities.

As the owner of Perrier Planning, an eco-friendly wedding and event planning company, I live a pretty sustainable lifestyle. I am my brand, and as I teach my clients ways to lower their carbon footprint, I also practice those things in my own life. I drive a hybrid car, buy mostly organic foods, support local businesses, have a bamboo toothbrush and always bring my reusable cup when I go out for coffee.

Photography – Simply Lace Photography

Now, as I sit at home day after day during this pandemic, I have started to think about my lifestyle choices more. I have never thought of myself as an overly wasteful person, but that is also because I have grown up in an American based society where wasteful is normal. I was raised to put plastic wrap on my food before putting it in the microwave. I was raised to donate my jeans when I ripped a hole in them and then go buy a brand new pair from American Eagle. I was raised to clean off dirty surfaces with lysol wipes. BUT, just because I was raised like that doesn’t mean it’s right or that I need to keep up those habits.

We have the ability to change our actions and our choices.

I feel so grateful that I live in a country where, as a woman, I am free to make my own choices, even during a pandemic. Everyday I get to decide what to eat for breakfast, I get to decide what brands to purchase, and I get to choose who to love.

I want to give back to the world because I have been given so much. So I made a very big decision last week. A scary decision. A decision that will make my life more challenging, but for the better. I am going to start working towards living a zero waste lifestyle here in Toronto.

As soon as I made the decision to try and emit all waste from my current lifestyle, I was both excited and scared. The first person I told was my husband Will, and he said “So this means you are going to force me to go zero waste too?”. I was hurt. I didn’t get any applause or “way to go babe”, instead I got annoyance. Putting aside my feelings, this was a very good lesson to learn right off the bat. Will’s reaction was normal, he thought I was challenging his lifestyle choices.

This is what I explained to Will:

I am not trying to push my ideas or lifestyle choices on anyone, I am simply offering up food for thought. I want to show people that there are different ways to make purchases, buy food and decorate our homes. I am doing this because I feel like it is the right step for me, in my own life. Zero Waste is a goal, not a fixed reality, since humans create waste just by breathing, drinking water and eating.

Zero Waste = The art of living without creating trash. We aim to send nothing to a landfill. We reduce what we need, reuse as much as we can, send little to be recycled, and compost what we cannot.

Want to follow along with me and find out how I plan to slowly transition over to a zero waste lifestyle? Every week I will be doing one (or more) things to transition towards this goal. I will be posting in this zero waste journal to share my triumphs and failures with you all. It’s not going to be easy, but I am up for the challenge.

I hope this journal inspires you to do the impossible and follow through on those things you thought you would never accomplish. And maybe, just maybe, you will end up making a few sustainable swaps to your current lifestyle 😉

Warm hugs and lovely wishes,

Holly