Someone on a community group described her journey in zero waste as "swimming the other way" rather than going with the flow of what everyone else is doing, which was consuming massive amounts of chemicals and plastics. She instead was living life more green and with an emphasis on less waste.

My own journey to zero waste started from minimalism. And to be honest me and my husband we never really thought much about the way our lifestyle was influencing our environment.

It wasn't until I started watching documentaries about the topic that inspired me.

Also moving multiple times across the US, and having to pack and unpack everything we owned, really showed how much we were consuming.

Life was not simple and it made me unhappy, so we needed to make changes.

However making changes can be tough, especially when the majority of society isn't thinking about it. It's not to say they don't care, it's just so easy for people to stick to the normal flow of things, like using single use plastic items versus reusable items.

But, change can only happen if we think outside of the box.

For me, we started off by reducing our shopping, and then later on by meal planning, and composting, and eventually focusing on chemicals in our products and our consumption of plastic.

Eventually, we will find ways to multipurpose our household items, and find a balance with consuming things we like that are not yet plastic free to influencing others around us to do the same. Or at least think more consciously about how they are consuming.

Swimming up stream is not easy, but apart of our instinct is for survival, and if we want to survive the next generation in a healthy clean planet, we should just keep pushing against the tide until eventually we make it to the place we want to be.