Everyday zero-waste practices
These days so much in unfolding in my life that I didn't have time to reflect much on my everyday practices. After fighting violence at work for 2 months or so, I felt that the costs have become far larger than the benefits. I've been doing my sustainability practices routinely: my mind was so focused elsewhere that I forgot to celebrate successes. By success I mean lots of things, including doing something very small-scale well or better. This morning I looked around me and saw that I still use many zero-waste principles. I've tried living entirely zero-waste back in England for a while, but this lifestyle was time-consuming and many products were either expensive or performed much worse than more conventional natural products. In northern Sweden it was more difficult to practise zero-waste. For example, almost all the food, especially fruits and vegetables come from far-away and thus packaged in plastic. The city where I lived is small, so there is not a great variety of stores where one can buy zero-waste products. I find it much easier to find zero-waste items here in Copenhagen.
In Copenhagen I could get a solid shampoo and a bar of soap made here in Denmark. The solid toothpaste comes in biodegradable packaging. The lip balm is the one I've been using for a very long time now. It's packaged in paper and is made by a small Swedish company.
I still use cotton tote bags for grocery shopping (and generally) every day instead of handbags. I've been using reusable water bottles for many years. I believe that these practices are very common. Apart from that, I keep some glass jars and bottles. My partner repurposed a wine bottle to store cold water, and I like to keep our cutlery in a glass jar that was home to some pasta sauce.
Apart from avoiding plastic waste, there is also an aesthetic element. I still feel that talking about aesthetics is not widespread in sustainability circles, at least not in my field of degrowth/post-growth. Personally, I find simple items such as soap bars and glass jars incredibly beautiful. There is something timeless and calming about them.