 Many families are taking a look at their garbage cans and realizing they are filling up way too many bags of trash, but they don't know where to start. So I'm really excited to introduce you to my friend Jessica at Baby Steps to Zero Waste. She's going to share her journey of turning her family into a zero waste family and what you can do as well. Here she is. Hi, my name's Jess. I'm the creator behind the Instagram page Baby Steps to Zero Waste. I live in Montreal, Canada with my husband and my two small children. And today we're going to be sharing some of our tips for going zero waste as a family. We've been living a zero waste lifestyle for about three years now, but before hearing about the zero waste movement, we were dragging a big trash can to the curb every week. After seeing several documentaries, we were worried about what kind of world we were leaving for our kids and we wanted to do better. So we made a New Year's resolution and by slowly incorporating small changes into our lifestyle, we were able to go from having that big garbage can a week to this little can a week. These days, most weeks, the amount of garbage that our family of four generates can fit into this small can. So zero waste will look different for every family, depending on their situation or their location. But today we're going to share some of the things that work for us. When we first began, we did a trash audit, which is just a fancy way of saying we looked in our trash can to see what was in there. We realized that most of our garbage was food waste and food packaging. So we stopped buying pre-packaged meals and snacks and now we buy loose fruits and vegetables and we also opt for bulk things that we can find easily available in bulk like seeds, nuts, raisins, things like that to snack on. And instead of buying packaged meals, we cook a lot of our stuff from scratch. So this change was a little bit overwhelming at first, but we try and get our kids involved. So we're always in the kitchen all baking and cooking together. It can be really messy and annoying at times, but I try and look at it as quality family time that we're spending together. And also it's a great opportunity for my kids to learn how to cook. We also stopped buying disposable plastics like Ziploc baggies or cling wrap. And now when we're out on the go or for school lunches, we pack up all of our food into cloth bags like these or containers. I use these ones for lunches for my daughter. I love them because they have lots of different compartments and then it's one dish to wash at the end. So these types of things can be washed and reused over and over again. Another tip is if the weather allows it, try and grow your own food. So kids love to dig in the dirt and learn and watch, see how things grow. We live in the city, so we don't have any land, but we're able to grow things like cherry tomatoes, herbs, things like that, in pots on our balcony. And we also joined a community garden. So during the summer, we can grow some of our own fresh produce and it's package free. Like I mentioned, the next most popular item in our garbage can was food waste. So we started composting. Now our compost is nothing fancy. It's just our old garbage can with holes drilled into it. But eventually our city started a curbside compost collection as well. So just this very simple change of composting helped us reduce our waste by about 40 percent. One thing we were noticing was perfectly good food ending up in our compost bin. And I'm going to blame that on my picky eaters. So we started serving our kids smaller portions and we allowed them to go back for seconds or thirds or even fourths if they were still hungry. And we also offered a variety of healthy options during the day so that they could kind of pick and choose what they wanted to eat. So just by doing those two little things, we were able to reduce the amount of edible food waste ending up in our compost bin. My next tip for families who are wishing to reduce their carbon footprint a little bit is to buy second hand. So nearly all of the toys, everything in the house, really, and all the clothes that we get for the kids are either bought or given to us second hand. So not only does this reduce the demand for new goods, it also saves things from ending up in landfills and it saves us a lot of money. If we do buy new, we opt for ethically made clothing in natural fibers or for toys we try and favor plastic free open ended toys that will provide many years of fun for our children. Our kids are older now, but when we first started going zero waste, they were babies and they were going through a ton of diapers. So disposable diapers usually end up in landfills where they can take hundreds of years to break down. So we opted for cloth diapers. Do you remember wearing these? So not only did this really reduce our waste, but it saved us a lot of money. And at diaper changes, we would rinse them under the sink or tap or we would use a cloth wipe. That eliminated the need for disposable wipes. If you're thinking about cloth, diapering your baby, I would suggest finding a really good wash routine and to hang your diapers in the sun to dry. The sun is like a magic stain reducer. If washing your diapers is not your cup of tea, then there's cloth diaper services that will deliver clean diapers to your doorstep and take away the dirty ones and they take care of all the washing for you. Now, while cloth, diapering our babies, we also stumbled upon a technique called elimination communication. I'm not going to go into all the details about that because it's a whole other video. But basically when we noticed our babies had to go pee or poop, we would hold them over a toilet or bowl and let them go in there instead. So whether or not you choose disposable diapers or cloth diapers, this can really reduce your amount of waste and dirty diapers. We found a tricky time to be low waste as parents was during birthdays and holidays. So to prevent us from accumulating unnecessary things, we asked our family members to give experience gifts or activities or simply just to give the gift of their time. So for Christmas this year, our kids got snowboarding lessons. They went bowling for the first time with their auntie. They loved it. And for their birthdays, they got swimming lessons and dance lessons. So we find these types of gifts really enrich our children's lives. They create memories and also long, long lasting skills. And whenever we attend these types of celebrations, we always grab our party pack. So this is this is our party pack. Inside it has plates, cups, cutlery, cloth napkins for sticky hands. And this allows us to reduce waste not only at home, but when we're outside on the go and skip any disposables, which might be used at our friends or family's events. Another challenging area for us as low waste parents was crafting and art supplies. So kids need to create. It's essential for their development. But when you're using things like pom poms and glitter, it creates a lot of waste. So we turn to nature for our art supplies. We use things like pine cones, flower petals. We make our art project with that and then we can return it back to nature. Another great place to search for art supplies is your recycling bin. So we use scrap papers for cutting and drawing boxes and toilet rolls to create all sorts of things. When our kids were babies, we would fill a bin full of lentils, rice, or even just plain water, throw in a couple of spoons, and it made a really great sensory activity for them. How that our kids are older, we are teaching them to crochet, sew, build and repair. Not only are these useful skills to have, it provides them a bit of a creative outlet as well. My last tips for families wanting to go zero waste is to get outside and get involved. So whether you live in the city like us or if you live in the country, nature is all around us, full of wonders for us to enjoy. And I truly believe that kids who are outside, experiencing nature, fall in love with our planet and will want to protect her. Also, I think it's so important for kids to realize that they're part of a bigger picture. You know, we're all connected and our individual efforts can only go so far. It's going to take all of us working together to bring about big changes. So get involved in your community, organize a cleanup, get the kids participating, explain to them why garbage and plastic is a problem. This also helps them explain to others why their family might be doing some things differently. When we first heard about zero waste, the lifestyle seemed impossible and really intimidating for us to do as a family. When we first started, we had a seven month old baby, a two year old girl, and life was pretty hectic already. But we found by slowly incorporating changes, making one baby step at a time, we were able to get pretty far. So I hope this inspires some other families. I hope this inspires some other families to incorporate some eco-friendly changes in their own lives. And if you're curious about our journey, you can follow us on Instagram at baby steps to zero waste. Thanks so much for having us and thanks all to you for watching. I hope that you got a lot of education and inspiration out of that video. If you did, check out her blog, Baby Steps to Zero Waste, which is in the description and make sure to subscribe to this channel where there is a lot more great information to come. Also, comment and Jessica will answer some of the questions and like this video to help it reach more families. I love you all very much and see you again real soon.