/r/ZeroWaste

Photograph via snooOG

We are responsible citizens who try to minimize our overall environmental impact.

Being "zero waste" means that we adopt steps towards reducing personal waste and minimizing our environmental impact.

Our community places a major focus on the 5 R's: refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, and rot. We practice this by reducing consumption, choosing reusable goods, recycling, composting, and helping each other improve.

We also recognize excess CO₂, other GHG emissions, and general resource usage as waste.

Just getting started? Check out our wiki!

Posting Rules

We have a Discord - join us!

Current Weekly Threads

Related Subreddits

Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

/r/ZeroWaste

1,074,545 Subscribers

11

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — November 26 – December 09

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

5 Comments
2023/11/26
14:00 UTC

18

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — November 12 – November 25

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

25 Comments
2023/11/12
14:00 UTC

18

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — October 29 – November 11

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

18 Comments
2023/10/29
13:00 UTC

11

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — October 15 – October 28

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

20 Comments
2023/10/15
13:00 UTC

19

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — October 01 – October 14

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

18 Comments
2023/10/01
13:00 UTC

19

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — September 17 – September 30

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

14 Comments
2023/09/17
13:00 UTC

40

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — September 03 – September 16

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

39 Comments
2023/09/03
13:00 UTC

24

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — August 20 – September 02

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

12 Comments
2023/08/20
13:00 UTC

45

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — August 06 – August 19

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

21 Comments
2023/08/06
13:00 UTC

42

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — July 23 – August 05

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

17 Comments
2023/07/23
13:00 UTC

28

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — July 09 – July 22

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

36 Comments
2023/07/09
13:00 UTC

259

Comments are reopened, but only to subreddit regulars.

As per our last post, we had to close comments for a while recently due to bot activity. We have figured out a way to prevent the bots from commenting, but because it can't really tell who is and isn't a bot, it means that new users will also be unable to comment. Sorry about that, but there's not much we can do about it. Our anti-bot bot is shutting down, and the bot we use to automatically ban users who use karma-farming and scam subreddits has been offline for a month. Reddit still does not provide any tools to deal with these issues, besides the very imprecise one we are currently using to restrict comments.

If you'd like to participate in a space with fewer issues with bots, and less social media company bull****, please join us on our Lemmy community.

163 Comments
2023/07/06
00:23 UTC

1,107

Unfortunately, due to bot activity, we have to close comments.

Hi everyone. Really sorry about this. There's currently a plague of bots going around Reddit promoting TEMU by making spam comments on posts to try to drive traffic to their profiles. I just finished removing several dozen, but according to SpambotSwatter they are currently submitting comments at a rate that has led to a 200k+ backlog in their spam detection system. Because these can't be detected by AutoModerator, the fact that our normal bot for banning users like this is down (possibly forever,) and Reddit doesn't provide any other tools to help with this kind of influx, we will have to close the subreddit to comments until Reddit provides us with tools to deal with this wave of bots.

In the meantime, if you'd like to partake in discussion, please visit our Lemmy community.

1 Comment
2023/06/29
16:40 UTC

37

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — June 25 – July 08

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

44 Comments
2023/06/25
13:00 UTC

817

Thanks for voting! By popular demand, this subreddit will remain Restricted.

Poll post

It was close, but it looks like by a small margin, the majority of users don't want to allow shitposting. For this reason, /r/ZeroWaste will remain Restricted for the moment. Discussion megathreads on 4–5 topics will appear this weekend, once we have the time to program them.

And as always, if you have a lot of free time and like to do thankless labour for free, please modmail us and apply to be a moderator!

0 Comments
2023/06/23
12:28 UTC

264

Help determine the future of /r/ZeroWaste!

Hello, all. Hope you enjoyed the week break from Reddit! In case you missed it, we were participating in a "blackout" in solidarity with thousands of other subreddits in protest of Reddit's recent policy changes that disproportionately impact visually-impaired users and threaten the free and open web.

We're ready to open again, but not without some changes. You see, the entire mod team is losing access to the tools we use to keep this place free of spam and hostility because of these changes, which means our capacity is severely reduced. In order to ensure that we don't get overwhelmed by spammers and trolls during the work day, we need to reduce (the second of the five 'R's) the volume of posts.

Also, we noticed that this subreddit had kind of gotten away from its roots, and we wanted to take action on that. We've got two proposals for how we can achieve both the goal of reducing post volume and getting us back on track towards zero waste:

  1. We set the subreddit to Restricted — meaning that anyone except those who have been verified to actually produce zero waste will not be allowed to post — but have regular discussion threads for various topics in which all users may participate. This would help motivate users to become actually zero waste.

  2. We allow all users to post, but only photographic evidence that they are not creating waste at this exact moment. For example, a photo of an empty trash can or toilet. (Discussion threads would also be available.) This would mean that more users could participate, but also still promote zero waste.

Please let us know your opinion by voting on the comments below!

2 Comments
2023/06/19
18:43 UTC

20

Deo recommendations?

I'd like to switch to ecological zero waste deo. So far I've been sticking with market deos as they're toxic enough to get rid of the smell and able to stop my arm pits being wet all the time. I sweat way too easily, to the point it's a bit embarrassing sometimes. So, do you have any recommendations that would fit my needs? I've tried using mineral deo and it didn't work well enough. All advices welcome, I'm even willing to give DIY tricks a go if you assure me they'll work well enough. Which deo are you using and how well it works?

Also, the deo stick by Wild looks appealing to me. Do you know if it's as good as marketed?

29 Comments
2023/06/11
17:11 UTC

575

Use the leftover fruit from making simple syrup to make a delicious flavored milk! I present strawberry syrup and strawberry oat milk 🍓

I followed this strawberry syrup recipe (https://www.fifteenspatulas.com/strawberry-simple-syrup/), increased by 50%, then blended the leftover strawberry compote with 2 cups of oat milk.

I’ll use both in my next few matcha lattes this week and the syrup in some strawberry lemonade I plan on making for a picnic.

What tips do you have for using up the “leftover” bits of fruits & veggies?

36 Comments
2023/06/11
15:08 UTC

11

Random Thoughts, Small Questions, and Newbie Help — June 11 – June 24

This is the place to comment with any zerowaste-related random thoughts, small questions, or anything else that you don't think warrants a post of its own!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have and we'll do our best to help you out. Please include your approximate location to help us better help you! If your question doesn't get a response after a while, feel free to submit your question as its own post.


If you're unfamiliar with our rules, please check them out before posting here.


Are you new to /r/ZeroWaste? Check out our wiki for FAQs and other resources on getting started. If you aren’t new, our wiki can also use help and additions! Please check it out if you think you could improve it!


Interested in more regular discussions? Join us in our Discord!


Think we could change or improve something? Send the mod team a message and we'll see what we can do!

18 Comments
2023/06/11
13:00 UTC

70

Ok legit question - what do we do with sex toys we bought and didn't use?

Like. You can't donate them. You can't legally sell them. No idea if anyone recycles them. Any advice?

36 Comments
2023/06/11
09:09 UTC

957

Refugees in Jordan and scientists from the UK are growing fresh food using old mattresses. 🌱

37 Comments
2023/06/11
07:41 UTC

241

UPDATE: old jars+lids for storing dried goods

Thanks a lot to everyone giving me an advice on my last post! Today i sorted out our spices, herbs, nuts etc. I am writing labels right now before i forget what i put inside... Have a wasteless weekend everyone!

21 Comments
2023/06/10
16:29 UTC

34

Is there or why is there not a service that goes and collects edible food that restaurants and stores are going to toss?

Not sure if it is the right subreddit. I don't get why that food isn't collected and given to homeless shelters or something like that. Does anyone know details about why that isn't done? I know "capitalism" is the general reason

47 Comments
2023/06/09
18:12 UTC

15

U.K. Zero Waste Notebook/ Diary Options?

Hey. I’ve been wanting to get a good quality a4 notebook and planner for a while but I’m really struggling to figure out what the most environmentally friendly/ zero waste option would be best.

I love the idea of something like Filofax, where you can buy page refills, as that eliminates the need to repurchase the diary itself. Although it doesn’t look like filofax use particularly sustainable practices (they do have an eco range which seems substantially better environment wise than their regular range).

I don’t know of any brands that specify in high quality actually environmentally friendly stationary. I find sometimes more ‘eco friendly’ paper is thinner and more flimsy, which then counters how eco friendly it is if you can’t use it for what you intended.

I guess another alternative would be finding secondhand notepads on Vinted/ charity shops etc? But then for me finding one I like from the random secondhand shop selection is quite rare, but maybe that’s something I just need to embrace in my 0 waste journey haha.

Thoughts?

21 Comments
2023/06/09
10:12 UTC

601

Corporations after green-washing their latest product.

16 Comments
2023/06/09
06:42 UTC

7

PET granules in HDPE recycle molds

There are a lot of videos online on melting hdpe and making new objects in molds.

Does anyone know if it will work to add in PET grinded up pieces inside the hdpe melted mold?

3 Comments
2023/06/09
04:48 UTC

71

Shout out to Dental Lace (floss)

If you floss (and if you don’t you should!) the company Dental Lace makes some great silk floss that comes in a refillable glass container. I’ve been using it for over 3 years now and just wanted to give them a shout out in case anyone is looking for good floss.

The floss is a little thicker than regular floss but you get used to it pretty quickly. It lasts a long time and I floss every single day. It feels good to keep plastic containers out of the landfills :)

If you haven’t tried zero waste floss yet give it a try! Any other brands you guys like?

23 Comments
2023/06/09
02:53 UTC

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