Towards a Zero Waste, Minimalist Lifestyle!

A quite number of things had happened to me this year.

First of all, I had been reading a lot of interesting books, and to this date, I had successfully managed to read a total of 22 books of various genres. 

Earlier this year, I decided to change my life for the betterment. Less anxiety and getting worried about the unforeseeable future, more towards improving myself in every aspect!

My first recommended book would be 'The Little Book of Ikigai', which is much better than the blue Ikigai book (of which I had forgotten its exact title). I read the former twice, and for the second time, I highlighted and jotted down the important points onto my notebook so that I could refer to it once in a while. 

Since then, I had been very interested to know about the good things about Japanese culture (not all eggs are rotten- referring to my previous post about 'The Importance of History') and so, I went on a shopping spree on the online website Kinokuniya, and had bought a number of books pertaining to ways of how to be happy and such. 

At the same time, I had been introduced to 'Marie Kondo' from the Netflix series 'Tidying Up with Marie Kondo'. I bought her first book from Kinokuniya website before watching two episodes of the series. I also bought 'Goodbye Things' by Fumio Sasaki from the same website. Reading these books inspired me to declutter my room and it took me several days to do it, of which I was successful! I managed to throw away 5-6 green garbage bags! It felt weird at first, being in a room so bright and sparse. I even felt alone, as I was so used to being surrounded by a lot of things, which might contribute to a mental clutter within me. But I later got used to it. I even loved the spaciousness of my room. 

Last December, I came across a video on facebook saying that instead of always opting for the 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' options, the first thing you should do is to 'Refuse'. That's right, when you refuse something, there is less demand for it, and when there is less demand, then there will be less production of say...plastics! 

That video struck a chord within me, and off I began searching for articles and videos relating to 'saving the environment' until I ventured upon a TedTalk video by Lauren Singer and the word 'zero-waste'. She kept several years of trash in a small mason jar! That's wicked! How on earth did she manage to do that?

Since then, I had followed her on Instagram, and also followed a number of instagram accounts about those who are practising 'zero-waste'. 

This 'zero-waste' thing is so refreshing! 

I think, minimalism and zero-waste have so much in common. In fact, they coincide with each other, they're practically similar. 

The less things you own (minimalism), the less waste you produced! 

What I understand about minimalism: 

Surviving with what you have. Not wanting more. Compressing everything into one single device. Fumio Sasaki gave the example of 'iPhone'. I don't know, I don't own an iPhone. Still surviving with my less than RM1000 cracked screen Huawei smartphone which is a birthday gift from my parents in 2016. I don't want any new phones. Now that's minimalism, isn't it? 

Ideally, your whole belongings should fit into one suitcase (doesn't matter which size, only one, the smaller the better), and that you can bring it everywhere you go. 

Less belongings-less tidying up to do, less worried about theft/robbery. It makes you free! 

Get the gist, don't you? 

What I understand about zero-waste:

First of all, it's impossible to lead a completely zero-waste lifestyle. Like my friend said, when you peed, you already produced a waste product, LOL. 

Ever felt guilty of looking at the amount of trash you produced everyday? I know I do. 

Ever felt guilty of taking out the trash every 2 days? I do. 

Ever felt guilty of looking at the amount of plastic bags you saved just because well...you can do so many things with that plastic bags (like lining your bins thus producing more trash) until those plastic bags kept on accumulating until they disintegrated and could no longer be used? I do. 

Zero waste movement is more towards reducing your waste. You do that by substituting with other stuff that do not contain plastics. As plastics take thousands of years to be completely disintegrated and even then, those microparticles would seep into the earth, be released into the sea, making its way into the guts of those marine life, of which those marine life would be consumed by us? We ingested what he had thrown. 

First of all, refuse plastic bags at the supermarkets. Bring your own reusable bags. 

Use steel/bamboo straws instead of the plastic ones. 

Bring your own containers for take-aways. 

Sure, sure...Plastics could be recycled. But NOT ALL plastics are recyclable! For example, the cling wraps and other soft plastics. Even biodegradable plastic bags take about 5 years (or more) to biodegrade. 

Even the plastic products that are recyclable would be recycled again and again into lesser quality products until they are no longer recyclable! 

So, I am trying my best to practise zero waste here in GM. There is no zero-waste shops here. But I bring my grocery bag and steel straws set everywhere I go! I brought my own containers to the canteen and I began to substitute tissue papers with cloths and tea towels! 

It's hard, but it's a form of jihad, to save the environment. And Allah looks at your efforts. 

How to practise a zero-waste minimalist lifestyle? 

It's easier to practice minimalism, I guess. 

Stop buying new stuff! 

I managed to do that, for a month, LOL. Then I caved in for that red Kate Spade bag. 

Okay, no more bags! 

Even our Prophet Muhammad s.a.w practised minimalism. I read that he only possessed two cloaks, among others. That's how zuhud he is. 

And start by refusing plastic bags! Refuse to use plastic straws. One person could change the world, and that person is you! Just by deciding to use steel straws, you already save a turtle from having a plastic straw stuck into its nose. 

A zero-waste, minimalist lifestyle. That's the lifestyle I aspire to achieve, insya Allah.

I'm gonna reread Fumio Sasaki and Marie Kondo's books. This human needs to be consistently and constantly reminded!