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Green Intent: 4 Reasons I got into low-waste living

Last updated on April 15th, 2022 at 11:36 am

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xpxMXXJqDo

I have a lot to say when it comes to why I’m so into minimalism and low-waste lifestyle. So, I narrowed down to 4 main reasons:

  1. The exhaustion from having to deal with stuff – Even though we’re not into home decoration, we did have some decoration items and furnitures. Each year, we’d have a big home cleaning day once or twice a year. I felt like the more stuff we had at home, the more difficult it was to clean and the more time we spent cleaning them. I never enjoyed home cleaning days becauseIt was exhausted and made me dream of having a very small house with no decorations. That’s the earliest time of my life thinking about minimalism as a kid.

  2. Plastic bag situation – Back then when I was old enough to understand that plastic is almost impossible to decompose, unless we wait for like a thousand years or longer, right? So there was a specific moment when I went to a market with my mum and saw a shop that sold plastic bags. Like food packaging bags for restaurants that are single-use, and I had this frustration. I was wondering where this plastic goes once we use it. Do these bags become trash in the end? And if so, why do keep using them? It made me very frustrated and sad and thought to myself that there must be a better way to do this. There must be a way not to feed our environment with this amount of trash every single day.

  3. Documentaries and media about global warming – I believe this is the reason for a lot of people who got into minimalism/low-waste/zero-waste living. I couldn’t really pin point which documentaries that affect my perspectives on this, but it has happened gradually for the past 2 decades. Watching how our planet has been impacted by human behaviors especially the way we consume and the way our economic system is built around that is miserable to see. Therefore, it motivates me even more to be less trashy and make more conscious decisions about my own consumption.

    With all these reasons combined, I shifted so many daily habits. For example, I always carry my own water bottle and coffee mug while on-the-go, I use my reusable shopping bags every time when going to the store, and I barely shop for new clothes, accessories, or cosmetics. It sort of became my nature, things that I can do effortlessly and feel damn good when knowing that I didn’t make any trash today.

  4. Moving to study in Seattle, US – Here’s when things got more interesting. I have been exposed to extremely contradicting situations. On one hand there are big rich companies that bring prosperity to the city, to the country, and improve people’s lives by creating jobs, giving a bunch of benefits, and bringing in even more investments. But on the other hand, as they create this overconsumption culture, it’s so devastating to see how much trash is created and how many natural resources and environment are destroyed by that culture.

    But, I’m still very lucky that I live here and I’m not alone. There are people who want to change this system and take serious actions on it in various ways. It gets to the point that it becomes a stronger ecosystem. And by ecosystem, I mean, there are more resources that simplify our low-waste lifestyle than other cities in the US. Some examples of the resources are package-free food stores, bulk stores like Scoop Marketplace, mobile refill store like Out-of-the-box van, or Blue Daisi Consulting (sustainability consulting for small businesses), or Seattle Zero-waste group, a group that connects like-minded people together and this is just to name a few. Therefore, I’m more hopeful and inspired to keep doing what I do, try to do them better, and even want to contribute my skills into driving these positive changes more in the future.

    So, there you have it. 4 main reasons why I got into sustainability and want to work in this field. I’ll be happy to read your comments or questions or both. Thank you for watching Green Intent. Will see you next time!

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