Meet the eco-family who goes weeks without throwing a single piece of trash thanks to epic amount of recycling and savvy shopping.
41-year-old Esther Peñarrubia encourages her two kids to make crafts and drawings from old bits of packaging so that nothing ends up in landfill.
Over the past two weeks, Esther has only been forced to discard a balloon from a party, the backing from a sheet of stickers, an old T-shirt she used to clean shoes, and a broken toy.
She began minimizing her family’s wastage when she moved house and decided that she would leave all single-use items behind.
The mom-of-two, who lives in Girona in Catalonia, shunned cling film and tin foil, and decided to buy everything she needed in bulk or from second-hand shops.
She said: “There are already reusable items that we would have to buy once, so it would be a waste of time and money buying the single-use ones.
“It’s cheaper and you know that the item will continue being used instead of being set aside – so it’s just perfect!
“Each of us play a big role in taking care of the environment.
“It’s enjoyable to try to help rather than just keep complaining about the current situation.
“Moreover, you don’t take out your rubbish quite so often, because you don’t generate it! “
Any kitchen leftovers go into the compost bin, and glass containers are washed up and repurposed for something else.
This means that the family only send a piece of rubbish to landfill every two weeks on average.
She tries not to buy any plastic at all, but when she does, like in the five-litre bottle of olive oil that lasts a few months, it gets thoroughly washed and recycled.
Her five and seven-year-old children know to draw and make crafts from scrap paper packaging, before that too is recycled.
After watching a TED talk in November 2015, Esther realised that her lifestyle was called ‘zero waste’.
For cleaning products, like washing up liquid and detergent, she walks or cycles to a bulk supplier once every two months to buy up to 4kg worth.
She buys fruits, vegetables and bread from local suppliers in bulk on a weekly basis.
The family also grow their own tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, and herbs in the kitchen garden, and have orange and mandarin trees outdoors.
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Esther has also found herself in a community of friends who trade items with each other that they need, like furniture or plates, communicating in WhatsApp group chats.
When her children were young, Esther would use reusable cloth nappies instead of disposable ones.
While this would result in her putting on a wash three times a week, she would rather that than them go to landfill.
She said, “We tried to use the minimum possible and inherited some toys and baby equipment from friends and relatives.
“If we really had to purchase anything, first we tried at the second-hand market or on free apps.”
Now, Christmas and birthday presents are wrapped in a reusable cloth rather than wrapping paper.
Mom Esther said, “They know that if a new toy enters our home, another should go to another family’s house, so we try not to accumulate a lot of stuff.
“We avoid toys or other material made out of plastic and choose cardboard, wood or metal, instead.
“We haven’t got a TV at home, so at Christmas time they aren’t exposed to toy adverts on a daily basis.
“When they ask for a new toy, we explain to them that depending on the material we would think about it, and if it’s plastic they understand that we won’t like it.”
They also tend to organize family activities as gifts, like a cinema trip, or buy them second hand items.
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To help educate her kids, Esther takes them out on nature walks to the forest where they pick up rubbish as they go.
“They use their little gloves and enjoy this activity, because they know it’s better for the environment,” she said.
They also take books out at the library on climate change and plastic that they read all together.
Esther thinks the challenging part of her life is convincing others that it is achievable, as people often assume the swapping to reusable products is expensive.
She said: “If you think and organize your buying habits, consume less things and from better quality, choose reusable alternatives, buy everything you can in bulk and from the second-hand market—then it’s not more expensive and you can save money.”
Esther, who has a PhD in agricultural engineering, finds that it is often simpler than people think.
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She said, “Zero waste culture doesn’t only comprise of the reduction of our waste, it involves a more conscious lifestyle and way of consumption.
“There are plenty of local enterprises that produce under more sustainable, ethical and social criteria.
“Think and get informed about who, how and where your food, clothes and other items have been produced.”
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