Welcome

   
Hello everyone,

  My name is Matilda and I live in Cork, Ireland with my 4-year-old daughter Mila and her dada, who funnily enough happens to be my boyfriend, Alan.
We live, work and go to school in what is possibly the best city in Ireland.

    For a good while now I have been fascinated with Zero waste movement.And this blog is mostly about just that.Zero waste and "converting" myself into a zero waster.
I first came about this brave new world a year ago.
I always liked to think I was environmentally conscious, but I don't think I did much about it.
For example until a year ago I was grand with plastic everything, thinking sure you can just recycle it later and they can melt it and make it into something else plastic and just keep doing that over and over again.Or that I didn't even think to check what all the chemicals I use for cleaning do to the earth once it's gone down the drain or what they even to to me and my family directly.
I think having Mila was one of the triggers that made me think twice about what I was doing and how my actions were affecting the planet and others on it.

   Now I'd like to note, that I am only starting off, with baby steps. What I've realized is that I'm going to have to find some sort of a balance. If I was living alone, the process would probably be easier, or at least faster, the only person I have to convince would be myself, but living with another adult and a 4-year-old is a different story.I'm not going to not buy her the my little pony toy because it's wrapped in a plastic bag, nor force my boyfriend to brush his teeth with homemade toothpaste if he doesn't want to, (getting him to use a bamboo brush was a task in itself already), I just hope that some of my actions towards being more environmentally conscious will eventually rub off on them too and they will want to make the switch themselves.

    As shallow as it might sound, I came across the zero waste lifestyle through a cute secondhand dress I spotted on instagram. The wearer was @stevieyaaaay whose advice and tips on zero waste,    I' ve been following since.The other person I found on youtube looking for a alternative toothpaste recipe is Lauren Singer from @packagefreeshop.

    Funny story on the side,when I first mentioned zero waste to Alan and how I've been reading about it, he stopped me before I could even go into detail and went off on this half-rant, why women have this fascination with being skinny and why do I want to lose weight, and how can one even have a zero waist.I couldn't stop laughing.I explained that it's WASTE not WAIST and it made a bit more sense to him then.
   
We are not vegan, or vegetarian, although our meat consumption is fairly low. We live in an apartment block, that unfortunately doesn't even recycle.I have started to separate glass and  what I don't need myself I take to a local health shop that gives it to it's customers to use in buying bulk products.And with reducing our plastic use,hopefully it won't be too big of  a struggle to start separating all the main recyclables myself and taking them to one of the collection points in town.
 
   I had several reasons why I wanted to start this blog: I am hoping it will spread some consciousness all around to anyone who chooses to read this, I am hoping that people with more knowledge would come and share their's and I also thought this is a good way to keep myself in check and see the process of becoming zero waste.

    In my next post I will share the little changes we have already made, how hard or easy they were and what switches I hope to do next.