Definition of term: Zerowaste is state where you create absolutely no discarded materials  from household or production activities, such as packaging, food spoilage or waste. In practice zero waste is very hard to achieve, even if you can buy products carefully and recycle or reuse everything. Zero waste starts through better design at the very beginning of consumer manufacture and ends with a responsible approach to reuse and recycling from producers, retailers and end users. We should think of zero waste as part of a closed loop system where every material can be recovered and reused again in some useful way. This follows the natuaral eco-system model that utilises biological decay to reduce all organic compounds back to basic carbon building blocks for reuse in the life cycle.

MyZeroWaste link: What is zero waste article

Link to Wikipedia: zero waste definition

Links to websites: What is zero waste The zero waste alliance

FAQs

How do you go zero waste if you  work full-time>

I find that recycling more and changing my shopping habits does not take much more of my time. It did when I first started, but how long does it take to rinse a can and put it into a container rather than throw it in a bin - 30 seconds?
How long does it take to crush a plastic bottle and put the lid back on - 5 seconds, perhaps
And how long does it take to put a newspaper in the papers collection rather than the bin - well, as long as it takes me to walk there.

The important thing i found was to set up a home recycling area that worked for us. Make it as easy as you can for yourself - a container for compost scraps where you prepare your veggies, a paper recycling tray next to your computer or in the lounge where you read your daily papers, tins and glass storage in the corner of the kitchen or buy the back door. Do whatever it takes to make your system efficient for YOU.

With food shopping, it’s good to plan your meals by looking at what you already have in. If you have meat that has just a day left on it, then buy some fresh veggies to go with it, but no more meat. If you have sad looking veg, then make some soup and buy some fresh bread - but no more onions and carrots.
If you have wilting fruit then make a smoothie or fruit pie and buy less next week.
plan this weeks meals around last weeks leftovers.

Taking reusable bags to the shop takes no longer than taking a free carrier bag or a plastic produce bag, it just requires prior thought.
Onya bags and the onya weigh can be a solution to this

How do you go zero waste if you do not earn much money?

Our efforts have not cost us hugely in terms of money. All of our recycling receptacles are old boxes we had in the house. I’ve bought three shopping bags, but you can make your own if you’re handy with a needle and thread.
Making yogurt, bread, cakes and ‘convenience meals’ can save you money. Signing up for a box scheme is cheaper than buying from a supermarket (as RIverford organics announced in the news this week), buying meat from a local butcher ensures better quality meat that does not go off……….
Viewing leftovers as ingredients saves a third of your food bill, if WRAP’s figures are anything to go by.

Visits to the recycling centre are incorporated with other errands so that they do not ‘cost’ in fuel.

Has it saved you money?

In some ways, but not in others. For example, using our local butcher means we can buy meat without packaging. He puts it straight into our own reusable containers. Buying a chicken (that’s what we feed the cat) from a butcher is more expensive than from a supermarket.

Yet, there are many more factors to ‘cost’ other than how much money we, as consumers, have to part with.

It’s ‘cheaper’ because my local butcher is closer than my nearest supermarket, so my fuel costs are reduced. It’s ‘cheaper’ for the environment because I don’t have any packaging to get rid of. It’s better from the point of animal welfare and you can’t put a price on that in my opinion.

Another thing about the chickens for the cat - they are delivered fresh and I cook one and it lasts her 10 days kept in the fridge. When I was buying a ‘cheaper’ one from the supermarket it would last 5 days if I was lucky before going off and needing to be thrown out.

Making things at home such as bread, cakes and biscuits can work out much cheaper. As does making yogurt.

Buying fruit and vegetables lose means you can buy exactly the quantity you want. They may not work out as cheap as a supermarket ‘Value’ pack, but if you have too much in the pack and it goes off before you’ve used it, then the overall cost can be more.

I work at the lower-rungs in a ‘non-eco’ workplace… how can we see our efforts at home filter into our work? For example, in the past my suggestions for phasing out styrofoam water cups have been laughed off by peers and deemed economically unfeasible by management.

Just do it anyway! Once upon a time we were laughed at for recycling tins and cans - it was a ‘fringe hippy’ thing to do. Now a lot of us do it. Likewise the shopping bags idea - once upon a time shopping trolleys came in brown PVC or tartan and were for Grandma’s only; now they are refered to as ‘Trolley Dolly’s’ and come in a wide range of funky prints.

Lead by example and just explain your choices if asked. You don’t have to change the world, just your own life if you choose to.

I live in urban (rented) dwellings: no garden, no animals, no culture/system of recycling in apartment blocks, not even a suitable space for a worm-farm! How can I go zero waste?

You can still grow things without a garden - sprouted seeds and herbs in the kitchen windowsill, tomaotes in a hanging basket and salad leaves in a window box for example.

You could try a bokashi system, but will need a friend or relative with a compost bin to donate your fermented goods. An avid gardener would bite your hand off for such treasures.
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VideoJug: What is ‘zero-waste packaging’?