Bare Necessities: How To Live A Zero-Waste Life - Book reviews - Filled with activities, insights, recipes, tips, and how-to guides, it is a must-read for anyone wanting to make a difference.

        In India, around 1 crore marriages happen in a year. 1 crore marriages are a huge number. It is being said that the value of the food being wasted comes to around 1400 crores.

 

       On one side so much, food is being wasted. On the other side 20 crores, people go to sleep on an empty stomach because of a lack of food.

 

       And around 80 percent of Indian farmers are extremely poor. This might feel contradictory and you might feel that something is wrong.

 

       This is because around 40 percent of the food items produced in India are wasted. This is not only the leftovers that you throw as waste.

 

       The wastage while farming, packaging, transportation, and the food that reaches your table. The food that you cook and eat and the waste due to that.

 

       Around 40 percent of the food is being wasted in this long process. If we can manage this waste many people will be able to eat and sleep without hunger.

 

       The food that we eat whenever we feel hungry. Is produced by a poor farmer. On one side, the farmlands, and natural resources like water and land are being heavily polluted by a popular cool drink company.

 

       We are all aware of this. In a population comprising 4 continents and 37 countries, the topmost pollutant of our environment is such cool drinks companies.

 

       In case you are wondering how to stop such a huge mafia. Stopping them is extremely difficult. Instead of expecting them to stop, if we can stop certain things.

 

       And change our ways. We can contribute towards bringing a major change. Just like how you work from home, there’s a “Save the Earth from home” initiative. First, let’s look at the small changes we can bring about in our daily life.

 

       To avoid wasting the products and the items that we buy. We have to be very choosy about things that we are buying.

 

       We have to limit the things that we buy. The first step is being aware of the food items that we are buying. For example, in case of seasonal fruits and vegetables, grows very well in the farmlands.

 

       If we opt for hybrid varieties instead of these natural food items. If a particular item cannot be cultivated naturally and requires the help of fertilizers and pesticides.

 

       This process involves a huge cost for the farmers. Growing natural fruits and vegetables will be good for our land. When we grow hybrid varieties, the health of our land is spoilt.

 

       Opting for fruits and vegetables available locally and seasonally is a good thing. For example, we always have special food items for festivals.

 

        All the sweets and special items prepared for a particular festival will be based on the fruits and vegetables available for a particular season.

 

       If you start eating traditional food which is prepared locally. This will be a big help for our farmers and the lands that they own.

 

       Recycling items which we buy in small sachet is very difficult. If you are going to use the items regularly buying in bulk is a better option than buying in small quantities.

 

       Concerning items with a longer shelf life that you can keep in your kitchen. Instead of buying them from the supermarket in small quantities. You can buy them in bulk from wholesale markets.

 

       Some brands often give us buy one get one free offer irrespective of the quantity. Or they might give us discounts and offer if we buy items for a certain number of rupees.

 

       If brands entice you to buy their small packs in large quantities. You can very well avoid those brands.

 

       In case a star or a celebrity is accused in the Me-Too Moment. Or if the star is a cheater. Or if the star or celebrity acts in a controversial role. We decide not to watch their films.

 

       Because they hurt our sentiments. We want them to be banned from acting too. On the other hand, our drinking water, farmlands, and the air that we breathe are being polluted by big companies.

 

       When such companies urge us to buy their products. Showing our opposition is a must. What type of companies should we avoid?

 

       Companies that promote plastic containers through their buy one get the offer. Companies that produce small items in large quantities.

 

       Companies that entice the consumers through their advertisements to buy small quantities in bulk to get something that cost more.

 

       In case the company doesn’t care about our environment, then we have to decide whether to support the company or not.

 

       Companies that use wax to make the fruits look good and use film-like packaging. Can be avoided because if the packaging is thin then recycling becomes very difficult.

 

       We don’t need fruits that are made to look enticing through artificial means. We can buy local fruits from our farmers instead.

 

       The small damage to the fruit and the way it looks doesn’t matter at all. It is actually very environmentally friendly. These are the things you have to keep in mind while shopping.

 

       So, we do all such checks to buy things for ourselves. With respect to things that we use at home. Instead of using plastic items, we can use steel which will actually last longer.

 

       Even the bottle that we use to drink water can be steel. If it’s a plastic bottle, we might not be careful and lose it because there is always the option of buying another one.

 

       But, steel bottles are costly, so we tend to be extra careful. So, you can opt for such environment-friendly options.

 

       We get a lot of eco-friendly bags these days with multiple compartments. Even if we don’t carry bags to shops, we are actually given degradable bags.

 

       But, we don’t know whether these bags are completely degradable. Carrying a bag with you wherever you go is actually very good.

 

       Though the bag might not look trendy, it is actually good for our environment. We have already talked about using steel boxes to carry our food.

 

       Besides this, the waste that we get because of cooking in the kitchen will segregate in the kitchen.  The food items that we cook, cut, throw away and the food that becomes stale.

 

       We throw all of this into the dustbin. Segregating this waste instead of throwing it away is an art. We will look into composting in another blog post. This book “Bare necessities” tells us how to live a zero-waste life.

 

       This book also gives us a detail about how to reduce waste generation in our daily lives. Personally, the makeup products that we use, shampoo, powder, soapbox, etc...

 

       The plastic waste that we generate. The different ways to prevent and reduce waste from all of this.

 

       Our shirt, a piece of clothing, or a pair of jeans requires large quantities of water. Often tend to go out of fashion in today’s trend.

 

        The book tells us how to be fashionable without generating waste. How to produce soap in our homes? The chemicals in the soap that we use, in the liquid used to wash vessels. In the washing soap will all become waste.

 

       This waste will get mixed in the groundwater and will once again come back to us. This book tells us how to reduce such chemicals. There are lots of ideas and recipes in this book.

 

       This book is a guide on how we can be a lesser burden to this earth by generating lesser waste. This book has a lot of exciting ideas.