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Zero Waste is a social movement that minimizes waste for the environment to reduce the use of disposable products and recycle resources and products used in everyday life. The person who first started this movement is Bea Johnson in the U.S. Bea Johnson, a San Francisco-based blogger and author of "Zero Waste Home" and "The Zero Waste Home," began reducing wastes in 2006 after reading a book and watching a documentary about plastic. Bea Johnson recorded this process in her blog and The New York Times reported this, which drew worldwide attention. Bea Johnson's Zero Waste practice can be summarized in 5R.

It is virtually impossible for our daily lives engaged in social and economic activities to be completely free from waste. However, we should distinguish the needs from waste and can no longer put off preventing overproduced waste. Now that we need to move on to reducing unnecessary waste, here are the 3 ways to practice Zero Waste.

STEP 1 Start By Subtracting, Not Adding
Bea Johnson, who led the Zero Waste movement, cited the most basic practice in the 5R movement is  "Saying No." It involves saying no to all free items such as disposable spoons when ordering delivery food, straws from cafes, plastic bags used in marts, and business cards that can be stored on mobile devices. It is also Zero Waste's first step to use the used products until they become zero and replace them with eco-friendly products. It is also a good way to recycle existing items you had. If you decide to use a shopping bag instead of a plastic bag, you can use your existing eco bag or cloth bag.

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STEP 2 Plastic-Free Bathroom
The space at home where plastic is most frequently used is the bathroom. It is also the easiest place to reduce plastic. The toothbrush, which is used unconsciously three times a day, is also made of plastic. Assuming that you replace toothbrush once every three months and that there are 51 million Koreans, it is estimated that the annual quantity used is a whopping 204 million toothbrushes! Globally, 90,000 tons of 4 billion toothbrushes are emitted annually, and that is a huge amount indeed. An alternative product to solve this problem is a bamboo toothbrush. Plastic toothbrushes take more than 500 years to decompose, but bamboo toothbrushes take 3 to 6 months to biodegrade and circulate back to nature.

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Moreover, body wash, shampoo, toothpaste, and cosmetics are also items where we can be ‘PLASTIC FREE’. The easiest way is to buy bulk products and reuse plastic containers by filling only the content! This is also why "Refill Station Shop" has recently emerged as a trend. If you want to go further and practice Zero Waste Life, start by replacing bathroom/kitchen items with solid-type products. For example, use a shampoo bar in the form of soap instead of a liquid shampoo, a solid chewable toothpaste instead of tube toothpaste, a shower ball made of hemp or sponge instead of a plastic-fiber shower ball and a multi-use cotton pad instead of a disposable cotton pad.

STEP 3 Go Out Saying No to Disposable Products Using Multi-Use Products
If you go grocery shopping at a mart or a market, instead of plastic bags and plastic items, take "Reusable Bags" of various sizes where you can put the grocery. It is useful for buying fruits and vegetables except fish and meat. If a dirt gets on it, shake it off and if it's contaminated, wash it and it's done. Also, when packing food or drinks, instead of using disposables, you can go for multi-use containers made out of stainless or glass container including tumblers.

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It is okay to say that it is burdensome and difficult to practice Zero Waste from the beginning. Anne-Marie Bonneau, a vegan life-oriented cookbook writer and creator of YouTube @zerowastechef, said, "We don't need a handful of people doing zero waist perfect. We need to help them do it perfectly." We all can start with "Less" Waste, by reducing wastes and not making things into wastes as much as we can in our daily lives, and move towards "Zero" Waste. All we need is the courage to give up the convenience of plastic and bear the inconvenience.

By Freelance Editor Ji-Hyun So