For this month’s Sense & Sustainability, The Nanjinger spoke with Nanjing-based, Rachel Niesen, advocate and long-time dedicator to the zero-waste movement who also runs the website, EcoLaowai, dedicated to conscious living in China. Top of the agenda; common misconceptions about what it means to live a zero-waste life.
Living a sustainable lifestyle has more shades than the untrained eye can decipher. Niesen broke it down to, “It simply means making small changes to your lifestyle”. But what do “small changes” look like and how can we manifest them into creating a life we can proudly claim as zero-waste? Niesen walks us through some of her favourite swaps; frustrations and tips that serve as a warm blanket to the skepticism in our shared interest in zero-waste living.
Committing to sustainable practices encompasses more than just being sustainable. It’s a slow process of learning through acquired knowledge and trial and errors from adopting new habits; all with the effort at being conscious. The key is patience. “I’ve gone through waves of living sustainable”, recalls Niesen. She highlights the highs and lows of her own journey, sharing how her conscious efforts were routinely distressed with anger and frustration, often towards corporations and governments for their involvement with giant polluters that affect the environment. “Simply because I educate myself a lot about sustainable living, the climate catastrophe; there were some very negative points in my life in regards to sustainability.” However, despite the effects of being aware of the environmental damage we participate in, staying positive is key to staying afloat in our own journeys. “If I could change one person it’s the most exhilarating thing.”
Information on sustainable swaps overflowing in articles, blogs, videos and through social media can seem intimidating, immobilising us to make effective, permanent changes and solutions to the problem; unsustainable waste. No matter how many swaps there are to aid us in our own journey in the movement, merging into sustainability is not always a smooth process. Even for someone like Niesen who first went vegetarian at the age of 7, the journey to zero waste was a long, slow one. Only becoming aware of her waste in college and a year later adopting zero-waste alternatives in her home. One piece of advice Niesen voiced in our interview was this, “Simply start small”; something as simple as starting with one space in your household is suffice to effectively join a movement that works to enrich our lives and our planet.
In addition to the hundreds of online blogs on sustainable living, we can find tons of information on saving money on a waste-free, sustainable lifestyle too. Niesen, as well as famed zero-waste guru herself, Bea Johnson, demonstrate how sustainability is something that can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter where they fall on the income spectrum.
When we put into perspective the savings of only swapping plastic water bottles for a reusable version in China, we can calculate as much as ¥4,000 per year; a staggering amount that can be used somewhere more useful, rather than ending up in a landfill or ocean somewhere.
During her first year attempting zero waste and while on a low and limited college budget back in the U.S, creativity definitely surged in the Niesen household. “When we didn’t have paper towels, we instead used towels for cleaning or wiping up spills in the kitchen.” This budget-friendly swap along with opting out of purchasing Ziploc plastic bags and managing a compost bin not only saved Niesen money, it also made her more aware of wasted food, consequently spending less on food that would otherwise get thrown out.
Johnson, who essentially founded the Zero-Waste lifestyle phenomena in 2008, claims zero-waste living has helped reduce her household costs by a staggering 40 percent. Through educating the masses on the 5 R’s of zero-waste that Johnson lives by; Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot; and demonstrating what that actually looks like, Johnson has begun a movement that is now very well into fruition, the Zero Waste movement.
Such a movement is very attainable here, in China too. When asked about its feasibility, Niesen responded with, “It’s actually been fairly easy for the most part”. Niesen dedicates to only shopping at zero-waste stores as she mentions The Bulk House and others that are easy to find on Taobao.
Tooth paste tabs, refillable floss, to-go cutlery set, reusable bags to replace plastic Ziploc bags such as stasher bags, produce cotton bags, bowl covers in replacement of cling wrap and tin foil, to-go collapsible cups and containers and a compost bin, which evidently ends up in her small garden laying just outside her Nanjing apartment, are just a few of the favourite swaps Niesen abides by for effective zero-waste living.
Apart from doing what she can by carrying reusable essentials she deems perfect for her day to day within the city, it isn’t always enough to avoid acquiring plastic. “They want to give you the plastic even if you don’t want it. So, you kind of have to forcibly be like ‘no, I have my own bag and I’m going to use it’”, says Niesen about her experience with vendors in Nanjing. Reminding the shops you go to for your daily fuels is something we should acknowledge as important to sustainability in a city that loves her plastic.
However, we can’t always avoid plastic and satisfy our cravings simultaneously. Niesen, for one, loves her bubble tea that she gets weekly from her local vendor. “At this point he knows that I don’t want it with a straw and I don’t want it in a plastic baggie.” She takes the defeat of acquiring plastic via the disposable cup but she acknowledges the good she is also doing, “I like to think that I’m doing at least one good thing and that I’m not getting the straw and the plastic baggie.”
Everyone struggles throughout any new and old endeavour. As we educate ourselves and become aware, change follows. If ever you are feeling overwhelmed or that your efforts go unnoticed and don’t make a difference, Niesen’s reassuring words serve us well to keep us motivated, “There are so many changes in the world that have come about by one small thing and this zero-waste movement is just the same. One small thing really does make a difference.”
