I’m probably a lot further along in my ZeroWaste journey than most people, but I’d like to decrease it even more if at all possible. Hopefully someone here will have some ideas. :)

My non-recyclables are pretty much exclusively plastic that ends up in my trash.

They are always the same type of things:

• Crystal Light drink packets. I do drink tea as well, but this is just so convenient when I’m in a hurry to go somewhere. I just fill my water bottle up and go. I’d love to find something similar that doesn’t come with the extra food coloring and plastic waste (if possible).

• Plastic related to cheeses (like Gouda and Havarti). I wonder if stores will allow you to bring your own container. There has to be a better solution since cheese predates plastics. I already ask them not to give me a slice of plastic per slice of cheese at the deli.

• Plastic related to deli meats (for my kid’s lunches). This is the same issue as above.

• Thermal receipts (because they aren’t recyclable and you can’t return/exchange anything without them at the stores that I frequent. I found this out the hard way).

• Stickers that were on recyclable plastics or fruit.

• pre-packaged plastic bags for fruits and vegetables (ex: 3 pack of bell peppers, a plastic bag with holes for grapes…). I reuse them as trash bags, since none of the stores seem to accept them locally. Outside of growing your own, I see no way around this.

• Cat and dog 💩 - I know that I could technically compost this, but my property isn’t big enough and much of my garden is edible. Also switching to horse pellets as a cat litter isn’t easy for some cats. Changing cat litter is stressful for them. I have already done some experiments with this and it might work for me.

Does anyone have any ideas how I can lessen any of these types of waste?