The Zero-Waste Lifestyle

AMY KORST is a teacher and blogger who launched greengarbageproject.com along with her husband to chronicle their experiment in living a zero-waste lifestyle. She has been featured on CNN and in USA Today and the Guardian, among others. Amy has a Master Recycler certificate and is a frequent speaker for local environmental organizations. She lives in Pacific City, Oregon.

A practical guide to generating less waste, featuring meaningful and achievable strategies from the blogger behind The Green Garbage Project, a yearlong experiment in living garbage-free.Trash is a big, dirty problem. The average American tosses out nearly 2,000 pounds of garbage every year that piles up in landfills and threatens our air and water quality. You do your part to reduce, reuse, and recycle, but is it enough?In The Zero-Waste Lifestyle, Amy Korst shows you how to lead a healthier, happier, and more sustainable life by generating less garbage. Drawing from lessons she learned during a yearlong experiment in zero-waste living, Amy outlines hundreds of easy ideas-from the simple to the radical-for consuming and throwing away less, with low-impact tips on the best ways to:• Buy eggs from a local farm instead of the grocery store• Start a worm bin for composting• Grow your own loofah sponges and mix up eco-friendly cleaning solutions• Purchase gently used items and donate them when you're finished• Shop the bulk aisle and keep reusable bags in your purse or car• Bring your own containers for take-out or restaurant leftoversBy eliminating unnecessary items in every aspect of your life, these meaningful and achievable strategies will help you save time and money, support local businesses, decrease litter, reduce your toxic exposure, eat well, become more self-sufficient, and preserve the planet for future generations.

Acknowledgments                                                                                       Foreword by Bill McKibben                                                                      Introduction: Trash, Trash, EverywherePart 1: Getting Started                                          1. A Trashed Planet                                                                              2. Planning to Go Waste Free                                                              3. Reduce and Reuse                                                                            4. Recycle                                                                                               5. Organic Waste                                                                                   Part 2: Trash-Free Challenges                            6. The Zero-Waste Kitchen                                                                 7. The Zero-Waste Bathroom                                                             8. The Zero-Waste Bedroom                                                              9. Zero-Waste Cleaning                                                                       10. Zero-Waste Kids                                                                               11. Zero-Waste Travel                                                                            12. The Zero-Waste Workplace                                                            13. Zero-Waste Holidays and Special Occasions                              Part 3: Next Steps                                                      14. The Global Zero-Waste Movement                                              Epilogue                                                                                                        An A-to-Z Guide to Recycling (Just About) Anything                          Further Reading                                                                                           Bibliography                                                                                                 About the Author                                                                                        Index