Anita Vandyke - A Zero Waste Life

a zero

waste life

in thirty days

anita vandyke

A Zero Waste Life: In Thirty Days

First printed in the United States of America in 2020.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be sent by email to Apollo Publishers at info@apollopublishers.com.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Text copyright Anita Vandyke, 2018.

Cover, interior design, and interior line drawings Louisa Maggio, 2018.

Interior watercolor illustrations Melissa Stefanovski, 2018.

Cover illustration by kirpmun/Shutterstock.

Hand-drawn lines by Marie Smolej/Shutterstock.

Author image by Joi Ong.

First published by Vintage Australia. This edition published by arrangement with Penguin Random House Australia Pty Ltd. Licensed by arrangement with Rights People, London.

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Print ISBN: 978-1-948062-60-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-948062-61-9

Published in compliance with Californias Proposition 65.

The wood used to produce this book is from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified

forests, recycled material, or controlled wood. Controlled wood cannot be:

illegally harvested

harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights

harvested in forests where high conservation values are threatened

harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non-forest use

harvested in forests where genetically modified trees are planted

contents

To my family,

who taught me to not waste my life.

introduction

This book is a practical guide designed to help you reduce your waste by 80% in thirty days. Its also a reflection on how I became an accidental environmentalist. It tells the story of how I went from being a maximalist to a minimalist, from hero to zeroto living a zero waste life.

I didnt grow up with a hippie mother or a passion for the environment, I was just a person trying to find happiness in all the usual placesmoney, power and status. But this triumvirate of success didnt provide me with the happiness that I expected. I was wasting my life.

But how did this journey all begin? What is living a zero waste life? Ill start from the beginning. My aha moment as Oprah calls it.

It all started with a simple no. Standing at the supermarket checkout, the cashier looked at me and asked, Would you like a plastic bag for that? Itll be an extra 15 cents. A plastic bag for 15 cents? Sounded like extortion to me. I had just quit my job the previous day and I needed to make ends meet on one income. That first no, based on economics rather than environmentalism, was over two years ago, and since that day Ive said no to plastic bags over a thousand times. Ive also said no to disposable coffee cups, fast fashion and excess consumerism. And in saying no to all this, Ive actually said yes to a whole new life. That first no led me to a zero waste life.

How did I end up here? I thought, while crying at a dining table surrounded by my mother-in-laws Royal Doulton porcelain figurines. It had been another terrible day at work and Id come home to an evening sorting the many boxes of stuff wed brought with us to my in-laws house, where we had recently moved in an attempt to pay off our debt. The dam had burst and I didnt know how to stop. All I could think was how did I end up like this?

On paper my life was the epitome of success. I was the one my parents didnt have to worry about: the daughter who graduated high school with a near perfect UAI (the Australian equivalent of the GPA), had a well-paying corporate job and the latest Givenchy boots in my closet. It was a supposedly picture-perfect life.

My parents brought me up believing that money was essential to happiness. Poor immigrant workers who never had any money, they saw it as the solution to all their problems. So I did what many a good, first-born daughter of a Chinese-migrant family has done and worked hard, got good grades and then a high-paying job. I climbed the corporate ladder, foregoing my passions, hobbies and creativity to chase the Great Australian (and American) Dream.

By age twenty-six I was a manager in a large engineering firm, earning more money than my parents ever had. The day of the broken dam fiasco was just another day at the office. I remember sitting in that Board Meeting on Level 6, looking at my boss, my bosss boss and the big boss, thinking, Is this it? Is this who I will become in five, ten, fifteen years time? I realised then that if I kept going down this path, all my hopes of living a life that was truly mine, one that wasnt bound by golden handcuffs, would be lost forever.

A more profound question followed: What did I want to do with my life?

These questions haunted me and when the doubt started to make me miserable, my husband looked me in the eyes and said, You have to quit your jobits killing you. Of course, being the practical, money-driven person I was, I had a dozen excuses. We needed to pay the mortgage. We couldnt afford to live on one income. We needed the money. But my husband was adamant. I knew then that if I didnt do something about my everyday misery, I risked losing him.

I quit my job the next day.

Since that day, my life has transformed. By embracing a zero waste life, I have been able to go back to university to study full-time to become a doctor, Ive moved out of my in-laws house into a 635-square-foot apartment and Ive dedicated my life to something greater.

Working in the corporate world didnt reflect who I was, but that doesnt mean its not right for everyone: you certainly dont have to quit your corporate job to live a more eco-friendly life. But you do have to find what works for you. Living a zero waste life means more than just a plastic-free dietit gives you the freedom to live in alignment with your values. To live a life based around service, community and respect for the planet we live on. It has allowed me to not waste my life.

There is a stereotyped image of the quintessential environmentalist: a left-wing hippie who doesnt wear deodorant and lives off-the-grid. But I want to introduce to you a new kind of environmentalist: the everyday activist Being an everyday activist is about valuing small and consistent actions, the compound effect of which can not only reduce your waste but also enrich your life. I want to show you small changes can make a big cumulative difference.

Zero waste is the ultimate goal, but theres no need to feel daunted. Quite simply, zero waste living is about leaving a gentler footprint on the planet. Thats it.

This is an interactive book that gives you the power to be an activist in your everyday life. I have chosen a thirty-day timeframe, as research has shown that it takes approximately thirty days to develop a new habit. My engineering brain has hacked each day to make it as simple as possible. Cumulatively, the daily tasks transition you into living a zero waste life. Your journey comes in two parts, and focuses on four stages of changethink, do, reflect and review.