Composting kitchen waste turns it into fertilizer, reducing waste, eliminating the air pollution that would have resulted from incinerating it, and enriching the soil.
 

The homes of “zero waste” practitioners really aren’t so very different from those of everybody else: they just tend to be cozier and tidier. But the self-­confidence and sense of abundance with which they view life can help the rest of us appreciate how wonderful life is.

We arrive at Lü Chia Ling and Hsiao Chun Yen’s cat hotel and pet shop early one Friday morning. The couple are ardent proponents of the zero-waste lifestyle, and implement its practices throughout their daily lives. They brush their teeth with baking-soda toothpaste, use a bidet and towels in their bathroom, enjoy breakfasts of homemade yogurt and home-brewed black tea, and bring their own bags and containers when grocery shopping, packing their purchases into them loose. Lunches are also homemade, and prepared with environmentally friendly ingredients.

Their cat hotel sells cat food without packaging and cat litter in refillable containers. Lü and Hsiao also take glass bottles to a farm to be refilled with milk in the evening, and then wait for online buyers to collect their purchases after work. Afterwards, the couple cook dinner for themselves and enjoy it together. They complete another zero-waste day with a shower before bed that uses a homemade lemon-based liquid soap.

Taking the leap

Lü was a shopaholic before embarking on her zero-waste life. For example, when taking overseas vacations, she would arrange for purchases to be delivered to her hotel even before she even departed, and would then buy so much while abroad that she would have to pick up an extra suitcase to get it home again.

She underwent a complete turnaround after being introduced to the zero-waste lifestyle. Her change began in late 2016 when she read a friend’s Facebook post about packing a breakfast purchase in a container brought from home. She happened to be eating her own breakfast at the time. Looking up and seeing the single-use utensils covering her own table, Lü was struck by the amount of waste arising from this one meal and couldn’t help wondering where it all went. When she later took part in a beach cleanup on Penghu and saw for herself the massive amount of trash on the shore, she resolved to adopt a zero-waste lifestyle.

At first, she and her husband argued about their transition to this new life. Since her husband was embarrassed about packing purchases into their own containers, she bought every­thing herself. She also went to the market with her parents, packing up their purchases in containers she brought along. She felt that this was her responsibility: “Since I was the one who wanted to reduce trash, I couldn’t force them to do it for me.”

Hsiao recalls a vendor giving him additional salty deep-fried chicken when he brought his own container, and says such perks made him more willing to embrace the new lifestyle. Lü also switched their cats to a raw-meat diet, which eliminated cat food packaging and improved their cats’ health. She also sought out litter made from wood pellets that disintegrate when wet, and then composted the used litter along with her kitchen waste to return it to the earth.

The power of a group

Seeking to introduce more people to the zero-waste lifestyle, Lü formed an online group called Zero­Waste­Life, leading friends to joke that she’d founded a reli­gion. The zero-waste movement doesn’t necessarily regard plastic as the root of all evil. Instead, it focuses on reuse as the key to the waste problem. This emphasis on reuse is why Lü encourages her “congregation” to give possessions they don’t use to others who will. She’s even set aside a space outside her shop for people to leave items they’d like to exchange so that they don’t have to spend time setting up face-to-face meetings.

She resolved the problem of packaging for fresh milk by finding a farm willing to use and refill glass bottles, and then persuaded interested customers to join her in making group buys. Lü has arranged more than 80 group buys of milk since the first in 2018, keeping more than 1000 two-liter plastic bottles out of the waste stream. 

She laughs when recalling how much time she used to spend thinking about how to make more money, and the various pet products she sold to achieve that end. Now that she prioritizes zero waste, she encourages her customers to consider whether they need things, or simply want them. Lü is happy and at peace with running a business that takes the environment and her own quality of life into consideration. Besides, the lower cost of a zero-­waste lifestyle means that she doesn’t need to spend as much time making money, leaving more time for studying the things she loves and leading a richer life.
 

Zero-wasters Shang and Yang heeded their inner voices, setting aside the pursuit of materialism to build the life they truly wanted.
 

Being who you want to be

We next visit a 30-square-meter studio apartment so small that we can see the kitchen, living room and bedroom from the entrance. The open-floorplan space is ­immaculately tidy, and dotted with well-cared-for plants and family photos. This zero-waste apartment is the home of husband-and-wife doctors Shang Chieh and Yang Han Hsuan.

Shang first encountered the zero-waste lifestyle as a young medical intern watching the cycle of life play out in sickrooms. Her typical workday was filled with an unending procession of medical reports, and espe­ci­ally busy days left her feeling empty inside. She then learned about zero-waste activist Bea Johnson on the Internet, and went on to read Johnson’s book Zero Waste Home. The lifestyle it depicted offered her a sense of purpose, and she decided to switch her focus from mater­ial things to experiences. As she explains: “[Experi­ences] offer a more lasting happiness than the pursuit of material things does.” She says her original motiva­tion for taking up the lifestyle was environmental, but she discovered that the practice made her a better, happier person. This prompted her to approach Johnson about the Taiwanese publishing rights to the book. She then pitched the idea of a Chinese-language version to local publishers, and completed her own translation of the book while also keeping up with her internship.

Shang began her own zero-waste journey while translating the book, gradually adjusting her habits to in­corpor­ate practices like using her own bags and containers when shopping, and switching to reusable feminine hygiene products. Yang recalls that their method was to pick a few things that they felt capable of managing at that time, and then gradually introducing other practices. “For example, I drink coffee and was willing to give carrying a reusable cup a try because it would save me the trouble of having to throw a disposable cup.” He says that applying zero-waste principles to all of their basic needs at once would have created too much stress.

Dialing back to just “needs”

Shang and Yang’s lives have changed a great deal since first encountering the zero-waste concept in 2016. They married, moved into a new home, experienced a death in the family, had a baby, and have begun raising their child. Throughout, they’ve set themselves the challenge of creating no trash. For example, they worked hard to make their wedding a zero-waste event: Shang wore a single wedding dress throughout the festivities, while Yang donned an old suit that he’d paid NT$250 to have altered; they asked everyone who came to bring con­tainers for banquet leftovers; and they gave guests net bags filled with locally grown fruit as a wedding memento.

The couple don’t insist on producing zero waste, but instead try to greatly reduce the amount of waste they create by buying only what they absolutely must. For example, when they had their baby at home, they chose to use towels in place of what would typically be a large number of disposable postpartum pads. Many people feel that trying to implement a zero-waste lifestyle while raising a child is just too much trouble, but Yang says, “Going zero-waste isn’t the hard part; raising a child is.” He says you just have to think carefully about what you need, and how much of it. You can greatly reduce your resource usage by choosing reusable items and by buying second hand whenever possible, or, with some ingenuity, making things for yourself.

Happiness is simple

While the couple are both doctors, one of Western medicine and the other of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), they live in a surprisingly modest home, renting a studio apartment that meets their actual space needs and has convenient access to transportation. They applied the same kind of clinical evaluation to how they hang and store their clothing. It ended up taking them two months to find just the right solution: a clothing rod and a cab­inet frame with mesh drawers. For decoration, they also have a lovely tree branch that they found by the roadside, cleaned up, and hung from the wall. Basically, they’ve taken a step-by-step approach to creating a cozy home, and found joy and satisfaction in the process.

Shang also chooses to leave some appointment slots at her TCM clinic open to keep time free to write. This year, she published Dwelling in a Waste-Free Apartment, describing the couple’s waste-free journey. The book also challenges readers to minimize their waste by going through a whole day using handkerchiefs, tote bags, and reusable utensils, tumblers and containers instead of disposable alternatives. But she doesn’t recom­mend rushing out to buy those items. Instead, she suggests that those who don’t already have them check first to see if friends or family have some that they ­aren’t using. You never know what you might find!

“You can take baby steps along the path to a zero-­waste life at any time,” says Shang. “You’ll become more confident as you go.” She adds that the practice isn’t only for people who are committed to saving the en­viron­ment. It’s also good for those hoping to experience the pleasures of a simpler life and be a better person.