Day 0 - The starter pack

Zero Waste challenge
We present here Day 0 of our Zero Waste Challenge. Jas (The Ginger) and Morgana (The Vegan) are undertaking the Zero Waste Challenge: finding ways to refuse, reuse, reduce, and recycle as much as possible in their lives, and ask you to join them on their journey.

Jas did scouting so she knew it was best to always be prepared. That’s why she carries a pen knife. This is just one of the things we pack into our zero-waste starter kits so we’re always as eco-friendly as possible.

Our kit includes:
1) A reusable bottle: This is an essential item of the kit. A million plastic bottles are purchased around the world every minute and recycling efforts cannot keep up with this crazy consumption. Most of these plastic bottles end up in landfill or the oceans where they have a devastating impact on wildlife and ecosystems. But there’s no need to be a part of this trend. Carrying a reusable bottle around with you everywhere means that there’s never any need to buy a new one.The Dutch already have this down to an art. Literally everyone has a version of the dopper, including half the Kinder office.

2) Tupperware: Oh, Tupperware. What a glorious invention. Carrying tupperware around with you is the equivalent to wielding a weapon against food waste. Roughly one third of all food produced each year- approximately 1.3 billion tonnes- gets wasted, and a lot of this is down to individual consumers. Enter Tupperware. These beautiful square plastic boxes (bonus points for metal ones) mean that you don’t have to carry your lunch around in disposable sandwich bags and, if you’re not Morgana and actually have some spare dinner, you can save the rest for later! Viva the leftovers.

3) Cutlery: In a similar vein to Tupperware, carrying cutlery around means that you’re always ready if there’s any food going begging, and you can prevent any potential waste. Here at the Kinder Office there’s always hope that there will be some uneaten food that will be ours for the picking. So pack up your knives, forks and spoons, folks! Just remember to take them out of your bag again if you’re going anywhere with bouncers.

4) Pen-knife: Jas swears by her penknife, even during the times when people judge her for pulling it out at dinner parties. How else are we going to pull that corkscrew out? (Here’s a video of how to do that with your shoe). She had her first one confiscated by the American Embassy (long story), but her second one has lasted her two years, and is with her 90% of the time. They don’t have to be ridiculously expensive - and due to fabulous swiss engineering, even the basic ones have at least 5 items that would otherwise be separate. As it does everything, it cuts down waste on everything. Never buy a pack of nails files again.

Feel weird having a penknife on you? Buy the credit card one.

5) The canvas tote bag: You’re out, and you remember that you need to pick up something. Before you know it it, you have another plastic bag in your possession. Despite the fact that this keeps happening, you keep ending up with new plastic bags... A canvas bag in your handbag/ backpack at all times is surprisingly versatile. We like it because, as a cotton material, it doesn’t make noise in your bag when you’re retrieving other things. Small wins.

So there’s a reason this is just our starter-pack. While we think we’ve covered the basic essentials, over the course of our 30-day challenge we will evaluate how effective our tools have been in helping us to achieve zero waste. We will add updates to this post as we discover what we think is useful to have in your bag when you are living zero-waste.

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This article is part of our brand new  Zero Waste challenge.

Bye for now! 

More about: waste / challenge / Plastic-free

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