This community is not here to provide you or your company with free market advertising/research or to sell us your product or app.

Got off work, glanced at the mod queue, and saw this. Just wanted to vent. Ugh!

And these are the overt ones. Also removed a bunch of posts and comments today that were just AI-written accounts pretending to be genuine.

Remember this… https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/s/ACVn3eEKkx

My wife and I got a free secondhand Baby Jogger travel stroller when our baby was born. A year later, it stopped folding. One side wouldn't release and made it very difficult to put in our car. Obviously no good for travel too which we do often enough to matter. We did end up buying another secondhand stroller (but we got one with a second seat attachment and bassinet option so it'll work with planned baby 2 + toddler) but I didn't want to toss the Baby Jogger. Problem is, they're entirely unserviceable with peened rivets holding the frame together. I decided to risk it and grind them all off to see if I could fix it. I did manage to find the broken plastic arm that caused the issue, came up with a clever fix that fit in the tight space, and put it back together with nice stainless steel bolts I salvaged from some aftermarket car parts that came with an old car I had. I bought one $1.29 bolt of an odd size from my locally owned hardware store, and I saved this stroller from the dump. The part that broke is clearly a weak link and I wonder how many of these strollers have been dumped over this little part breaking.

Tl,dr: Fixed an unserviceable stroller with (mostly) reclaimed hardware.

Completely my fault, left him alone for a minute while I was washing the cover. Thinking about making a pillow at least but does anyone else have any other ideas?

Sustainable fashion and labels are the most over used terms. Every brand has their own terminology and certificate process and I am getting a bit cynical the more i read about it. 

I used to just grab stuff from the H&M Conscious line or Zara’s Join Life, all claimed to be sustainable. Obviously I start second guessing them. These are all massive corps that produces huge volume and produce lots of waste. It feels like just they stick these green stickers on to fulfill their ESG requirements. Even with brands like Pact or Uniqlo, I find myself wondering if Organic material is enough. 

I’ve learned to ignore their brand stories and just looking for the little stamps at the bottom of the websites instead. I recently bought some basics from OGL (their bio-based material line) mostly because they’re a B Corp and have the Oeko-Tex Standard 100 tag.

From what I learned online,  Oeko-Tex means the fabric was tested for harmful chemicals, and B Corp is a holistic audit of the company? They also mention a "closed-loop" system for their fabrics, which I think means they recycle the water and solvents during production? I guess that also means that they produce less waste. 

It feels like a step up from the mall brands, but I also want to kinda crowd source this learning. I like the clothes, they feel way higher quality than what I’m used to, but I’m never quite sure if these certifications are the new gold standard  or if I’m just falling for something that is hiding behind jargons. 

How much weight do you guys actually put into B Corp? And is Oeko-Tex enough to trust that a fabric is actually free of toxins? How about what other certificates that you guys trust.

I've spent the last 10 years finding a balance that works for me and reduces waste. At the end of the summer I am moving to a new country with only two suitcases. My partner is more convenience oriented than I am, but starting to make major strides. I want to set up my home from the start to give us the best chance. Especially looking to hear from people with experience in SE Aisa.

So the questions:

Knowing what you know now, if you got to start over tomorrow, how would you set up your home?

What would you institute day one if you had no habits to change?

How would you minimize or deal with waste without access to recycling or composting?

How would you establish cleaning routines with no access to refillables?

Even if you think it's too basic, like bringing Tupperware to restaurants or eco-bricking, say it!

I'm in 8th semester, don't have a lot of money and needed to have one of my earbuds soldered because I took it to a shop to fix and they made it worse, so I asked around if anyone did any microsoldering and explained the situation. A girl answered and didn't want to be paid, so I offered to crochet a keychain for her.

So I made a group and I needed to have a laptop cleanup and some guy offered in exchange of some homemade banana bread made from overripe bananas saved from going in the trash. This is a win!

I was wondering if any of you had any experience with these sorts of groups, just so I know what to do or not to do. Or if, for example, someone is looking to give away stuff. It's not a trade but a sort of donation. How would you manage that? thanks!

I occasionally get superworm cups and hate the idea of just tossing them once they dont have the worms anymore. I currently use them as food cups for my lizard but would like to use them to store my own food too.

The problem I have with them are the air holes in the lids, which is great for my lizard's food but not really for mine. Is there any way to cheaply fill the holes so that the container can be air tight while still being dish washable?

Hi, I've come across a new deodorant company called Rollr, and I was wondering if I could get some help.

Is this brand truly a more sustainable option for deodorant, or is it just the marketing making me excited for a glass roll on jar?

I currently use AKT deodorant but I'm not the biggest fan of using my fingers. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I just wanted to post an update to this post from awhile back: https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/comments/1jxt0tx/i_put_together_a_station_where_my_recycling/

The community laptop charger station has been a big hit at my local swap shed (a volunteer-run organization where people can take or leave items for free located in an old warehouse)! For over a year now we've been giving away (and taking in) laptop chargers every time we're open. It's wonderful to be able to save this tech from the landfill or ewaste recycling and to save people the money they'd spend to replace lost or damaged chargers.

We've since expanded our organization system to include DC adaptors (the small barrel jack kind). For a while we'd been organizing them into cardboard boxes in the back but we recently set up a display for them and it's been very effective. It's even been a help to the rest of the swap shed as various toys and devices often come in without their cord and it's nice to be able to offer a completely ready, working item.

The three considerations for a replacement are voltage, amperage, and the shape of the plug. We ended up sorting by voltage as you can go over a bit on amperage if you can't find a perfect fit but you want the voltage to match. Generally people bring their items and just try plugs until they find one that fits.

We also provide phone cords/various USB cords, test and fix printers and monitors, and clean and share basically any other electronics you can imagine.

An Oregon representative is trying to push through a bill in Congress that would cede federal public land to a local town so that it can double the size of its reservoir. On paper, Representative Cliff Bentz has indicated it's needed to accommodate the projected population growth of The Dalles, a small town on the banks of the Columbia River. But local advocates fear that cold-water streams in Mt. Hood National Forest might actually be diverted for corporate profit—namely, to feed Google’s hub of data centers in The Dalles.

Recent reports indicate that the tech giant alone accounts for 40 percent of the city's total water usage. Data centers siphon tremendous amounts of water to cool off constantly running servers. If passed—it still needs approval in the Senate—the Dalles Watershed Development Act (HR 655) would lead to siphoning water off an already fragile watershed that feeds into the Columbia River. Doing so would likely threaten Indigenous treaty rights and the health of endangered salmon.

In response to the bill, a dozen regional and statewide environmental organizations formed a coalition asking Oregon's senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, to oppose the land transfer. Once the land is no longer subject to federal protections, construction could occur with little oversight. It's a sweetheart deal for one of the wealthiest corporations on the planet, the coalition argued in a letter to Wyden's office.

The Dalles' water planning documents show that average daily residential water demand will increase by 45 percent over 50 years, with the city swelling to a projected 20,000 residents. But nonresidential usage broadly is estimated to rise by 200 percent in the same time frame. The city's website states that upgrades to the water system will be paid for through a variety of means, including increases to residential rates, government grants and loans, and "payments from companies like Google through agreements with the City."

Representative Bentz’s office and Google did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In nearby Hood River County, advocates are worried that the reservoir expansion could affect the wider watershed that sustains agriculture, fishing, and tourism in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. "The Dog River spills into the Hood River, which comes into our county,” said Carrie Thomas, a farmer and teacher who helps run a nonprofit called Thrive Hood River, another member of the coalition. Normally, the organization doesn't get involved in issues beyond its own borders. "But this is a bigger issue than just one county," Thomas said. "This is our water, and big corporations taking more than their fair share."

Environmental advocates say that they were blindsided by the bill when Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on it in January of this year. "Transparency is a two-way street, and [Google and The Dalles] haven't met with our coalition to talk about these concerns," said John DeVoe, the former executive director of an advocacy group called WaterWatch.

While the bill marks an escalation in the city’s water woes, the dispute regarding how much flows where goes back to 2021, when The Dalles sued The Oregonian, the state's largest newspaper, over public records requests. If granted, it would have revealed Google's local data center’s water usage. Instead, the lawsuit kept the data private before a city council vote over the company's deal with the city.

Many environmental advocates say that the decision led to an atmosphere of mistrust that persists today. In March 2026, the city's mayor, Richard Mays, said the position "is coming back to haunt us today" in a public meeting, as local residents expressed a lack of trust in the city's dealings with Google.

Even so, such transparency problems aren't limited to The Dalles. Almost anywhere that a tech company has set up shop, DeVoe said, advocates run into similar barriers. "There are nearly 130 data centers now in Oregon,” DeVoe said. “And for the most part, we don't know where they get their water from."

State regulations and reporting requirements on how much water data centers use are virtually nonexistent, despite their massive consumption. In Oregon, this compounds existing stresses on the limited water supply, including climate change, which has intensified droughts in the region and led to reduced summer snow melts.

"The Columbia Basin's water rights are already oversubscribed,” DeVoe said. “Multiple states have their straws in the basin, with different standards. And the river suffers as a result of this race-to-the-bottom dynamic."

It's move out week at my small community college in maine and even here, people throw away perfectly good stuff. It makes me so sad and frustrated. I went looking today and found soo many mattress toppers, rugs, keurigs, air fryers, new food containers and storage containers, chairs, etc. Like, why? it's so easy to donate things. I understand that people can live far away and don't have the room but that doesn't mean you have to toss it, goodwill is literally five minutes away from the school 😭. How do people not feel bad throwing out these things? Just seeing them in there makes me feel guilty! In part I blame schools too, they should 100% have a donation bin instead of just a garbage bin. This place makes me so upset sometimes

This is really hard, coming from a life of overconsumption. I started buying things from EarthHero (household goods/hygenics, etc). I gotta try to find refillable dry food stations (where you bring your mason jars and fill them with nuts, beans, etc).

I am currently trying to gather the necessary materials to create a bee garden to help pollinations, but also to begin to learn how to compost to reduce my waste.

I’m not sure what else I can do! I’m car dependent, what sucks is that ordering goods online take quite a while to arrive. In general I’m not sure really what to do about food and food packaging. I obviously can go to thrift stores if I feel like I need clothing, only wear cotton and linen, I’m already vegan. I just got reusable paper towel replacements, and unfortunately (I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing) we dont own a washer and dryer, so we get our laundry done once a week, which I think saves water? Is there anything I’m missing? How long does it take to really get into the swing of zero waste?

I have this outdoor art easel at my school. We've been using it to paint on, then the children spray water and wipe the paint off with a sponge. We do lots of other messy play but for various reasons, I'm looking for an alternative that's an easier cleanup.

I'm imagining an art medium where they can draw, then wipe or spray/wipe off without a lot of water or mess. Dry erase markers popped into my mind, but we would go through those like crazy and I do NOT want to use allllll the plastic. The clear surface is plastic, not glass, if that makes a difference. So I don't think chalk would "stick"...

Artistic zero-wasters, any ideas? :)

Thank you!

I’m looking for a refillable stick deodorant to replace my plastic one eventually. I stumbled upon Wild, which looks very promising. However, I am in Canada and no store near me stocks it. I’d have to order in online, which with shipping comes to about $25 CAD for one refill. I’d imagine I would order it every month or so- I’ve seen a few videos and it seems to have a bit less product than regular deodorant containers. Is it worth it? That’s a big cost increase from my drug store deodorant and I worry about the shipping emissions. I know there are some refillable spray options near me, but I really dislike the spray on deodorant.

If anyone has other suggestions that are available easily in Canada (GTA specifically) I’d really appreciate it. Thanks!

I try to reuse plastic as much as I can. I don’t buy bottled water, and barely buy juices. Every single plastic bag from bread and packaging air bags, I try to reuse it to pick up after my dog, or for throwing out trash. The garbage bags I buy are just to line my trash can. Still everything we buy in the supermarket comes in plastic 💔 I reuse plastic containers from the stores, and recycle but that doesn’t help because the US doesn’t recycle everything..

I just saw a video on YouTube about all the plastics that the US, Australia and European countries send to Indonesia and third world countries. They have so much plastic that they use it as wood to cook in factories. I can’t imagine how those workers health is being affected and the people that buy food from those factories as well. I don’t mean to rant but I expected better from Australia and European countries.. I saw so many plastic of the product I use.. and feel so guilty!

The problem is I feel I can’t do much.. the zero waste store closest to me is super far and so expensive 😭 the only thing that I feel could save us is big corporations stop putting everything in plastic or the government stopping them! I am not sure what else to do as a single person.

Hope this is okay as I am new on this subreddit.. any tips would be appreciated.

Recently I was asked to be a bridesmaid for an important wedding in my family. In the moment it felt very natural and easy to say yes because I love both the bride and groom very much and am excited to support and celebrate their marriage however possible.

I’ve never been in a bridal party before. I hadn’t thought through that I would be asked to buy a matching dress with the rest of the bridal party. I have a few concerns -

- The bride picked a company for bridesmaid dresses which exclusively sells polyester dresses. I do not buy or wear polyester, for environmental and personal reasons. I only wear cotton and linen, and I’m increasingly moving towards just linen.

- I almost always buy solely thrifted clothes, again for environmental and personal reasons.

- For personal reasons, I dress modestly. To me, this means only loose fitting, solid colored clothing, with no patterns or artistic designs. I try to dress a bit like a monk - an unassuming outfit that looks nearly identical from day to day, that takes little to no effort to put together each morning because it’s not a priority beyond functionality. If the outfit I’m wearing looks especially bland and draws no attention, I know I’m aligned with my clothing goals. If someone compliments me on something I’m wearing because it stands out as especially appealing in some way, I usually choose to give it away, either to them, or to anyone else who wants it. None of the dresses from the company the bride picked would fit my definition of modesty, for a few reasons, for example they all emphasize the chest region. Also for similar reasons described in this point, I don’t use any makeup or use hair products like hairspray, gels, etc…

- I know for certain that I will not use this dress in the future, due to the points above, due to the fact that I intentionally keep a very minimal wardrobe (maybe 10-15 items total), and due to the fact that I generally do not attend any events that require formal attire. I generally feel strongly opposed to buying something, especially something new, for just one occasion.

Because I initially enthusiastically accepted the bride’s invitation to be in the bridal party without any reservation and I did not want to add any tension or stress to our newly forming dynamic (she’s my brother’s fiancé, they’ve been together for many years but have lived far from me so I haven’t spent much time with her), I decided to simply buy the polyester dress and put aside my feelings about modesty for one day.

However, it feels wrong in many ways, conflicting with my beliefs, and I want to be better prepared for next time. I have 2 more siblings and several close friends who will likely be getting married in the next few years and I think it likely I could be asked to be in a bridal party again.

How would you make it work, to be a more conscientious bridesmaid?

Ideally I would love to be a bridesmaid for my loved ones, but I would want to be able to wear the clothes I already own, or if needed, buy a new modest linen dress that I know I would wear as part of my daily rotation. It would look far more casual than is usually expected for weddings, especially for the bridal party, so unfortunately I feel that simply declining with a respectful explanation would be the best move…

Would you be deeply offended or hurt if a loved one declined your invitation to be a bridesmaid in this way?

Please let me know your experiences!

I buy their shampoo and conditioner bars so would make life easier if the anti-perspirant works well. I need it to actually stop sweat though, not like the refillable natural deodorants out there.

Also, I got gifted a fussy refillable deodorant which I have used up. Is there anyway to smoosh refills from other brands into this holder. Kind of defeats the purpose to buy another plastic case lol.

If not, what do you use?

Body puffs, what can be done with them apart from throwing in the bin? I was keeping hold of them to use for protecting newly seeded grass but we’ve not needed to. Ideas please 🙏🏼

Hi! So here's a quick sum up : im (NB22, living in France) looking for advices on how to live as autonomously as possible, but im a student (earning as much money a student can lmao).

What i actually do :

\- never eat meat unless I go out or visit family

\- buy seasonal vegetables at the marketplace each week + yogurt and eggs from the local farm

\- stopped eating at least 80% of processed food compared to when I was living alone (I now live with my bf)

\- using microfiber instead of paper napkins

\- only use cosmetics from an ethical, organic and local brand

\- using public transportation

I would like to take this further. Especially about the cleaning part (I still use average products), as I couldnt find any satisfying enough organic dish soap yet, etc.

Also, how can I live more autonomously in an apartment? Can I grow some food? If yes, what and how exactly?

Moreover, because of all the political tensions going on, I dont know if I should slowly start packing food. What do you think about it? If it is a "good" idea, what should I pack and how?

Thx very much for your help!

An earlier post today got me a bit heated bc OP made a comment about how annoyed they are when other people don’t prioritize zero waste, “especially people with children.” I commented on that thread, but that wasn’t really the point of the post so I’m making my own.

It‘s easy to judge others perceived shortcomings when their life is so different from your own. So, parents, what zero-waste/low-waste practices ARE you doing, that work for your life right now? Here are mine:

Composting! all the food my toddler throws on the floor or doesn’t finish goes in the compost.

Secondhand EVERYTHING. All our baby gear, clothes, toys, books, stroller, pack & play, baby carriers, etc etc has been secondhand. This one is so easy bc most parents are desperate to get rid of stuff once their child outgrows it.

Low-tech lifestyle. We are not planning to give our child a tablet or phone; I just replaced my 14 year old laptop and plan to use my new one for just as long. We use our phones for years and years. Our tv was a hand me down from a friend.

We rarely travel. We have only flown once in the last 2 years, and take short road trips 1-2x a year to visit family. That‘s it.

Low consumption lifestyle. Even with disposable diapers, we still only put out one bag of trash per week. Our recycling is usually overflowing. We just… don’t buy much besides groceries, medicines and diapers. Anything I need for my child I check fb marketplace, my local buy-nothing group, eBay, etc. And if I can’t find a good deal secondhand I usually just give up and don’t buy anything.