my trash can sits there, you know, they won't take it back. They charge you for it anyway. But they don't have to pick anything up because I don't have enough trash to put my cat out. I have a quart glass jar that I keep on my kitchen counter. And in about four or five days, I'll have half a dozen items possibly in there. One of them is a plastic ring off of my milk jug glass and glass milk do you have to rip off this little plastic ring that goes in there? I don't know what to do with that. It's not recyclable. Other than that I find a use or a place to recycle everything.
Just how much waste do you create in an average day, week or month? You might be surprised in the impact of that waste on our environment and ourselves is not always so clear. This is random acts of knowledge presented by Heartland Community College. I'm your host, Steve fast. Today we're talking with an advocate of the zero waste lifestyle. She'll tell us more about how she got to that point in her life, and how she encourages others to join her in creating as little waist as possible in the way she lives her life.
Hi, my name is Linda Stroh. And I am mostly a retired registered nurse. But I am a 2003 graduate of Heartland Community College and a 2006 graduate of ISU, I teach some classes, mostly on zero waste and zero waste living through the Continuing Education Department.
When you say zero waste living, what does that mean? Zero Waste
living simply in a simple definition would mean living a life that avoids consuming things that will end up in the landfill.
And how did you get on this path to learn about zero waste living?
I'd like to think that I've always been on this path. But unfortunately, I'd been led astray like a lot of us, I think has through marketing and things. But I grew up on a farm. And we were sustainable. Before that was even a term. We had no garbage. We found a use, we repaired things, we reused things. We had chickens beef, a garden, and it seemed as though nothing came in plastic. And I do talk about plastic quite a bit because of its detrimental effects to our health and to the environment. Because it just never goes away. It has polluted our Earth quite a bit.
Now what some people might say is Oh, but so much plastic is recyclable. So isn't that a solution?
I would not call it a solution. Now I think we've been misled. Recycling of plastic was a concept created by guess who the plastic companies back in the 70s. It is a very old, outdated concept. And recycling does have its place in zero living. However, I teach the five R's and the first art would be refused. So the best thing to do regarding plastic is to refuse it in the first place. It's toxic to manufacture. It's toxic for people to handle. And it's toxic to recycle. But if you choose glass or metal, then is recyclable an endless amount of times, whereas plastic is not. It is not recyclable after two to three times it still ultimately ends up in the landfill.
So how do you teach people to start this approach to the event? Do you want them to evaluate everything that they have currently and think about the way that they approach these products? Learn more about what isn't is not having a long term impact? How do you get started, as far
as teaching, the people that sign up for for class through continuing education at Heartland Community College are already somewhat on a journey or have interest in reducing the amount of waste because a couple years ago, I just I looked at my life and just not in one day, it was kind of a growing concern that I was having, looking around at my life and everything I was touching and using from cosmetics to storing my food to eating things out of my food and everything else in between was plastic. And I knew that you know growing up in a life without plastic, I just knew that it wasn't right. And having the background of a registered nurse I'm well aware of the harmful chemicals that are in plastics that have driven up our disease rate. Breast cancer rates have gone up in the last 20 years with coincides with this huge, massive increase of the rate of plastic production somewhat on their journey. And I think that that defines a lot of people is that they want to do more. They know we need to do more, but they don't know what to do. And so that's where I come in. We talk about detoxing your house room by room. We define zero waste and what people's idea and what their goals are our eyesight resources, credible resources about what plastic has caused, you know, as far as our health concerns in the environment, and then I teach about the five R's. That's the foundation of the class.
Many people will just go to whatever grocery store big supermarket is in the area. And everything there is not necessarily set up to avoid plastic or to avoid, give people options. So what are the first, maybe some micro decisions people have to make,
there's a learning process that people have to learn and be armed with, when they go shopping. And my and once you learn those different consumer habits, it's very easy to make better choices. I don't shop at the major typical, huge stores unless there's a particular item, you know, I make my own laundry soap I borax, the old borax powder has been around for a century or more, they sell that at a big chain. So I only go with that particular item that you know is on my list. I buy milk in glass bottles, I have my class and the students leave with a wonderful packet of resourceful information, giving actually specific brands and where you can buy things. And I, I stress buying fresh, because it's non packaged. The packaging is really what is creating this humongous amount of trash, even just for one person, one person's household, the amount of trash that we're up to is 4.9 pounds per day, which is about double what it was 30 years ago. And this packaging, mostly plastic, and a lot of it is not recyclable. So if we don't create it in the first place, I'm gonna choose not to purchase those things that are in packaging, because that's using up an enormous amount of our worldly resources. You know, water trees, just a lot of things that were in the overused category now to where we've got to slow down our consumption.
What about eating out versus cooking yourself? Does that have an impact, I know eating
out, I do eat out. But I don't accept a plastic straw, there are certain things that I don't accept, and I haven't accepted for for two years, since I completely, I haven't accepted a plastic bag for two years, a plastic straw, and I don't purchase single serve plastic drinks. If I want a single drink it I'll choose an aluminum can. But as far as dining out, I don't ever except a plastic straw. If it's in the bag, I tell them, please remove the straw, I don't use a straw. And I take that little moment there to pass along a little bit of education. It's bad for the environment. And most people know that anyway. But people need to know and we need to educate other people about there's actually people living that don't use plastic straws and things. And hopefully, since I've been doing these classes, and maybe through your podcast and through different articles in the limited pantograph. And I'm reaching out all that I can because it's it's a lifestyle, that's actually very doable.
Let's talk a little bit about the expense. Because I think one of the things that drives people towards a lifestyle that does have a lot of processed products is that it's convenient, it is often quite cheap. What is the real expense? And is it more expensive to live a zero waste lifestyle than it would be to not
it is less expensive, you can save about 40% or more on your annual household expenses to go zero waste. And that brings me to another point is that that is a big myth. What people think is that you know, because I do support the organic industry, I do buy organic fruits and vegetables when that item is available. And organic cotton pajamas, you know, things like that. I just feel that it's healthier. And when it goes to biodegrade at the end of life that produces and puts you know less fewer toxins, you know, back into the earth and things but by avoiding all the horrible processed foods, or I should say drastically cutting down on the processed food only buying what you need for the next few days versus you know, we we tend to shop as though we're not going to have access to food for a year. You're over shopping. So there again that first R is refuse, do I really need this item? And more than likely until you get kind of adjusted and get a new mindset. It's probably going to be no I take my own bags, cloth bags I have two different kinds of bags that I go shopping with speaking particularly grocery shopping, and I only buy fresh fruits and vegetables. Rarely do I buy canned or anything like that. So that when I get home I have no A plastic I've got no waste. And I take two different kinds of bag one is a mesh, cotton washable bag for, you know, some wet vegetables and that type of thing. And then I take a muslin cotton washable bag tube that doesn't have any holes for my bulk items not buy in bulk. But from my bulk bins, the gravity bands, the scoop ends. If I'm going to make some cornbread, you know, I'll just buy a few scoops put a few scoops in my bag, they might last me for a time or two fixing cornbread. And then when I get home I stored in glass. But I don't have to buy one pound or five pounds or things like that. And so it's it's fresher, gets bought more often.
So how long did it take you to start to really get your mindset change from a personal journey perspective? How long did it take you to, to think about what you really needed or didn't need or see how you could take those steps to where you ended up. Now
it is a process. Because products change your recent wine resource list changes. I tried to keep that up to date. But I would say that a couple of years ago, I just I'd had enough honestly, with the plastic and the amount of trash and I started reading every book I could on the subject of the detrimental effects of plastic and zero waste. Like I said, it's a journey. But you can save a lot of money by not over shopping. That's the big thing right there, I make my own cleaning products, I scour my sink and my toilet with half a lemon or baking soda rather than this high priced. I don't need any drier substances, I don't need all these extra things that are just polluting our water and our Earth. They're just making these big companies just richer and richer. And you know, I think back of what my grandmother used to do and what we used to do on the farm, you know, we used old bow towels, we cut up old cotton towels, and that's what we use for rags. And I don't buy any paper products, I don't buy any plastic products.
So when it's our rich day, if they pick it up at your house, what is it like for you,
they don't pick it up in my house, I have no trash can, I have a quart glass jar that I keep on my kitchen counter, so you can get it down to a court. And in about four or five days, I'll have half a dozen items possibly in there. One of them is a plastic ring off of my milk jug that i i buy glass and glass milk, you have to rip off this little plastic ring that goes in there. I don't know what to do with that it's not recyclable. So I know that's going to end up in the landfill. I do take a couple of things that my doctor recommends that is kind of wrapped up in a foil type thing those are watered up and put in there. Other than that I find a use or a place to recycle everything. Now I do buy potato chips, some snacks, I tried it you know, obviously cut down from you know for health reasons. But you can even recycle your chip bags and your candy bar wrappers at the Subaru dealership and normal or Subaru has always been kind of eco on the Eco minded, eco friendly type thing. And that is on what is called a Terra recycling. It's a nationwide movement where different businesses can sign up to take oddball things that are recycled may be things that aren't picked up at your curbside or at a drop off location. And they take care of that it does cost them money. There is a fee for this business to do that. But I just think that's a wonderful thing, because that's about what I got down to in my household is what am I gonna do with this chip bags? And then I found that out.
So what are those actually made out of, you know, the little shiny,
it's got to be some form of of a plastic. So you know, some kind of a cellophane or a plastic or something. So, for me, I do probably still have a couple of things that I could do better. But I feel like I do so much in so many areas of my life and going back to the trash can. I don't have my trash can sits there. You know, they won't take it back. They charge you for it anyway. But they don't have they don't have to pick anything up because I don't have enough trash to put my cat out there. It just isn't there. If I eat out my trash days where I purchased it from.
But I know that you have a class about gift ideas. Yes,
it's called Zero Waste gifts. You walk away with a lot of the same wonderful resources as my main Zero Waste class. But in a nutshell, we cover gifts is another area where okay, we're giving a sparkly card that can't be recycled that's toxic, bad for the environment. It just seems like so many of our options now are just junky, poorly made items that are going to end up in the landfill sooner rather than later even that you couldn't even repair you couldn't fix you couldn't reuse. So this class is about learning how How to Shop and be a better consumer and buy better and buy less. So we'll be creating different baskets for maybe one for female, one for male, one for food, food items, and then another one for some kitchen items. I really armed them with a lot of information and they were, where they come in. And when I first meet them where they feel like they don't have any options, but you have to break the cycle of your regular shopping routine. And I arm you with lots and lots of different ways that you can shop and people would rather have a well made less toxic, I think gift and it's where it's might be a little unusual for the average and normal shopper and certainly healthier for yourself and healthier for our planet.
A couple of things that we've talked about extensively is recycling what is kind of more useful to recycle and what's not. We talked about refusing to buy things that are going to contribute to the landfill and contribute to the problem. What are things that people can reuse or using a different way so they are not purchasing them over and over or they can maybe get more life out of something that they do have that eventually might need to be recycled?
Well, I kind of like to flip through the five R's here. The first one is refuse of course, that's the absolute most beneficial one. The next one is reduce. Let's reduce the number of items I went through my clothes closet and reduced the number of synthetic clothing and things because it's synthetic polyester clothing is the same as a plastic dish or plastic bowl that will never biodegrade, never broke down. The next R is the reuse. The next one is recycling the next one's rot. But let's go back to reuse for a moment. And you know, you can reuse, for instance, okay, common ground grocery and downtown Bloomington. They sell local honey. And they have a huge, I believe it's metal can and you can bring in your glass jar. And they'll refill it for you. So that's an idea of reusing. And then I have a white oak rain barrel, it's a huge whiskey barrel. Because I don't like plastic, there are plastic ones available. So I reused I kept the rainwater and I reuse it to water my plants and my flowers, and that type of thing. So there's a lot of ways that we can reuse when you buy better things, you reuse them over and over again. And most times it will last you your whole life.
If you have the space, I imagined that you probably do some composting with the little amount of waste that is created. Is there anything that people need to know if they've never composted before to start composting in a actually effective way?
Well, actually, since you mentioned that it's a ways off. But next April 12, I will be having a composting meeting or class here at Heartland Community College. But that's not till April 12. And that would be the last are of the five our plan is wrought. When you're buying better things, you're able to have things right. And not just food, not just food waste, if there's a toothbrush, that is has a wooden handle, and natural bristles, not synthetic bristles, you'll see all types of things out there that you know, one thing is okay, but then, then the other thing is not what you want to buy, you can do it right in your garden. And that's the easiest way and do it right into the soil. It's not rocket science or anything, you just need a little green and a little brown and you know, like a banana peel or something like that. I've got a couple of places in the corner of my garden where I dig in every few days, I just I turn it over, dig down, turn it over, it's easy. When you do go on the journey of zero waste and continue on and really get more serious about it. You know, buying items with less packaging, you're going to end up with a lot more compost, because you'll be prone to buying more fresh fruits and vegetables. And that's quite a bit of waste. But not everybody has access to their own soil, nor do they want to. But the ecology Action Center has I've not seen it but you can sign up and enquire with them in normal about how they have a drop off a compost drop off. Also green top grocery on Washington Street in Bloomington. When you go in the door there they have three different bins, one's for landfill, a One's for recycle and one's for compost items. And so I don't put meat and fish in my compost because I don't want unwanted friends and critters, you know, coming into my property, but they will accept I'm not quite sure what they do with it. They maybe they go to a commercial compost. That's another thing that some of the schools are doing is to go through a commercial compost and they do it on a huge scale. And I think it's just wonderful that larger entities are doing this because they've got quite a bit of food waste, you know, unfortunately and so if we can turn that back into soil and reuse that, that is a completely sustainable biodegradable process and that's what we really need to get back into.
You mentioned the ecology action center right here in the blue to normal area, are there any other organizations you'd recommend that people reach out to or seek resources, if they want to try to engage themselves in the zero waste lifestyle.
And there are wonderful books out there. And I've got a couple that I recommend on my resource list. One is you can live without plastic. That's by Kate Nelson. And she is a young girl living on a beach in Australia. And as a young person, she kind of came to the same conclusion, you know, that I had that there was nowhere on earth that is lacking of plastic pollution. She knew that there was a better life out there. There is another book then after you learn about all of the toxins and there are many. The next one when you really get to reducing the items in your home and making healthier choices and is zero waste home by BIA Johnson. She's it's an excellent book. And I've read a lot of books, and got on a lot of websites, but those are two excellent books. Another online presence is the E W. G, the Environmental Working group.org Ew g.org. They are involved in participating on a government level too. They go after the some of these chemical companies and they will send me petitions Do you want to ban this this and if I do, they make it very easy. Just click click click they need more names on those on those lists. Another one is the plastic pollution coalition.org. Another group that is a nationwide tool to get on and there are a lot of people very serious. They take this plastic pollution very seriously. If I just encourage people to come to my class, they can email me it's a lowercase L L dash Stroh, S T R O H L dash stroh@hotmail.com. I do speak to smaller groups and larger groups for that matter. I've been to ISU with a couple of groups there I speak to I've been to smaller towns, and I'd be more than happy to come and speak to your group and to give you more ideas. And there's so many ways and so many things easy, easy, easy things that we can do really to better our life and our planet. And I'm also I have a YouTube video too. Okay, well, how do people find this just under my name, Linda Stroh zero waste. And thank you for this opportunity.
Linda, thanks so much for coming in and talking to us today. Linda strode teaches Zero Waste living zero waste gift ideas and other classes for Heartland Community Colleges continuing education departments. If you're interested in other interviews about sustainability, lifestyles, or other topics, subscribe to random acts of knowledge on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you heard this. Thanks for listening
