Paige and Maren Carter understand that the choices they make as human beings can have an impact on the Earth. For that reason, they have chosen to follow a “zero waste” lifestyle. Maren said they made their decision because “We saw that there was an issue with how we are treating our planet. We wanted to make an intentional change to do what we can—even if it’s something small, changing our everyday lives—to protect the planet. We wanted to try and live intentionally, and show other people that it’s totally possible to live like that.”
Paige explains that the overall idea is similar to hiking, where hikers are encouraged to “leave no trace”—but with zero waste that concept is applied to everyday life. “That means trying to not buy things in packaging, paying attention to what you’re throwing in your garbage—what you’re also throwing in your recycling—doing your best to minimize that. If you go zero-zero-zero waste, that means none. However, that’s not reasonable for almost any person.
“It’s really trying to follow the pyramid. We talk about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle a lot, but also include Repairing—your clothing, repairing the things that need repair--before you throw them away. And composting; we put Rot in there. And trash being that last resort. It’s like, ‘We’re not going to do this.’
“For us that means not buying any of our food in packaging, or almost any of our food in packaging. Trying to buy clothing at thrift stores, or from sustainable companies who we know are seeking out organic or regenerative processes with their manufacturing and with their growing of their crops for the clothing. Overall, paying attention to what we’re throwing away in the trash and then saying, ‘Oh, I throw away a lot of this…maybe Kleenex. Maybe I should try to switch to a handkerchief instead of using throwaway Kleenex.'”
The two have very few exceptions to the no waste rule. Maren explained that they even get their toilet paper as compostable tissue paper. “It’s something that does not come in packaging that we would have to throw away, which is awesome. But vegan butter…we can’t find that in anything that is compostable and we have yet to figure out how to make it. There are certain things that we have learned how to make, but that is one thing that we are not going to give up and that we have yet to learn how to make. It’s just too tasty. But most things…like tortilla chips...we stopped buying tortilla chips. But hopefully at some point we can find a Mexican restaurant that will let us put it in our own package and bring it home. That would be great. But certain things like that, we’re just kind of like, ‘hey, we’re just going to pass up on it for right now.’”
Both admit that passing things up can be hard. “Pasta,” laments Paige, “that was a big one. Maren just got a pasta maker for Christmas, so we’re making our own pasta, and we just had pasta yesterday. But we haven’t had long noodle pasta since, like, July. You can get penne, or macaroni—a few different pastas at different co-ops; there’s a couple different kinds—but no fettuccini or spaghetti. It’s just so tasty also. I think it breaks in transit. We don’t buy it because it’s not in bulk.”
“All of our groceries that we do buy are in bulk,” Maren explains. “So any flour or pasta or dry grains we're all finding in bulk. And then produce that is not in packaging.”
In the full interview below, Maren and Paige explain how they got started last summer, and how—even before they compost—they do their best to reuse the “whole life” of their food, including things like wilted spinach and peelings or stalks. They also talk about the foods they make from scratch themselves, including snacks, to make zero waste life more convenient day to day. Finally, they offer some tips for those of us who would like to start reducing the waste we create.
The switch to a low waste lifestyle has given both Maren and Paige a different perspective on the way most of us live. “I think the thing that I notice the most,” said Paige, “just in general, is single use coffee cups, and how easy it is to bring your own mug. And water bottles. Those two. When you go to Target and you go into the water aisle and there’s plastic water bottles wrapped in plastic wrapping…and water is so accessible here! I wish we could make that change. And so I keep talking about it and trying to talk about it in a way that’s like, ‘Did you know you could do it this way?’ rather than ‘You have to do it this way!’ Because I think people respond better to kindness.”
Maren’s website with her blog is here.
(Disclosure: Maren and Paige Carter are daughters of KAXE/KBXE Producer and Volunteer Coordinator Brett Carter.)
