10 Ways That Living Low Waste Has Helped Through Lockdown
These things have reduced our impact and saved us money over the past 3 years. During the lockdown, living low waste allowed us to be resilient and adaptable.
1) Having a bread maker meant fresh bread over the 5 weeks.
2) Growing greens in the garden allows us to have fresh veggies without having to go to the supermarket regularly.
3) Frozen meals allowed us to have a varied diet.
4) A cupboard full of ‘ingredients’ like bulk dried food including lentils, beans, quinoa and pasta saved us supermarket trips.
5) We don’t produce much recycling so didn’t have to stress when the council announced they were sending recycling to landfill. The main thing we produce is cardboard and so tear it up and put it in the compost.
6) We use reusables over disposables where possible so didn't run out of things like razors or sanitary products. We use family cloth (for #1) and so we were not worried about running out of toilet paper.
7) Our low waste tasks became educational tools for our daughter. For example we used baking as a measuring exercise, we turned the compost and checked on the worms and we picked apples and stewed them for apple crumble.
8) I consider myself low maintenance – I don’t wear makeup, don’t wash my hair (see this blog for more info) etc. I didn’t feel unkempt over the 5 weeks.
9) I buy birthday and Christmas presents for people when I see things in second hand stores that they would like. This stockpiling paid off as my daughter’s birthday fell in the period of lockdown.
10) We try to be resourceful, using what we have and generally only buy what we need. This low consumption lifestyle meant that we were able to continue projects around the house and didn’t have shopping withdrawals.