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This article was originally published in Newsweek in January 2020
Before shopping, Sylwia Sikorska already has a stuffed canvas bag. “I’d like some oatmeal,” he says, handing the jar to the seller at the stand where seeds, groats, spices, and dried fruits lie in large sacks. – And raisins – he hands over a smaller jar. – This gentleman knows me, I come here often and I don’t have to explain anything anymore. The plums end up in a plastic box, the broad beans in another, the tomatoes loose in a bag, although the seller wanted to pack them in a plastic bag. The raspberries are already poured into a paper container. We leave the bazaar, not a single plastic bag or unnecessary tray in our bag. These – as they call themselves – zero-waste people, mean zero waste, i.e. without garbage.
It is not known how many of them there are, they are scattered throughout cities, towns and villages. Singles and with families. Vegans and meat eaters. They have one thing in common: they try to live in such a way as to leave as little waste as possible.
– Perhaps living completely without waste is a pipe dream. However, the path to get there is so addictive that once you get on it, it is difficult to get off it. And even if you stray from the path, after a moment of reflection you get back on track – assures Katarzyna Wągrowska, author of the recently published book “Zycie Zero Waste. Live waste-free and live well.”
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“It just stunk,” Agata Bloswick from Krakow says bluntly about her beginnings. Together with their family, they produced six bags of garbage, which sometimes had to wait two weeks for collection from their home by a waste collection company. – We wondered what we could do to make them less common.
– I became a zero-waste person out of laziness – admits Sylwia Sikorska. – I just can’t stand garbage, messing with the bin, taking it out, the smell of the garbage can. I thought I’d do anything to worry less about it.
For starters, she stopped buying water in plastic bottles. She bought a metal one into which she simply pours tap water. Then she took out an old metal razor from her husband. She was afraid to shave, but the thought of using up dozens of disposable razors was even more terrifying.
You become a zero-waste person in installments. The first stage is the simplest and most spectacular. When going shopping, you have to take your packaging and, of course, a large canvas bag to put everything in. Cheese? Never packaged, always in its own box. Cold cuts? Into your container. sauerkraut? Into your own jar. But this is only the beginning.
– I asked my mother-in-law to sew me bags from old bed linen. I felt a bit stupid to break down and ask them to put the carrots or onions at the market not in a plastic bag, but in my bag. But to my surprise, no one protested, Sylwia recalls. Katarzyna Wągrowska has different memories, as a large retail chain refused to pack meat into her own container.
Zero-waste proponents say that what matters at this stage is your reflexes and how you start a sentence.
– You can’t say: I’d like a kilogram of plums in this box, because the seller will automatically tear off the bag and load the fruit into it. You have to say: “I would like a kilogram of plums in this box – and hand it over immediately” – Sylwia Sikorska reminds me.
Agata Bloswick sees the habits of sellers on the example of her husband, who is an American and speaks little Polish. – He knows and accepts zero waste principles, however even when she goes shopping with his own containers, he often returns with disposable packaging. The sellers are simply faster than him, Bloswick laughs. She also says that her husband found tasty beer in returnable bottles. – When we come with empty ones for exchange, the saleswoman looks at us like we are beggars – he jokes. – Because who in Poland returns bottles? The poorest. It’s a pity, because glass is best suited for recycling.
The next stage is to search for stores where you can buy products by weight. Why pay for groats in a half-kilogram bag when you can ask for groats in your own bag. In some stores, you can also buy coffee straight into a jar, instead of buying it in a package made of aluminum foil and varnished paper.
– I am looking for goods that do not have additional packaging. So I will choose paper in pieces, not 10 rolls packed in a plastic bag – says Dorota Czopy
The next stage of initiation is home. Here, the zero-waste possibilities are almost limitless. – At the beginning you realize that all this chemical and cosmetics in your bathroom is unnecessary and only a source of waste – says Agata Bloswick.
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– No more spontaneity. If you want to produce less waste, you need to plan. Already at home, you need to know what you want to buy – Gęca sums up his experiences.
Zero waste is addictive and makes you compete for less and less waste in the bin. But each of my interlocutors is ready for compromises.