This blog was my original inspiration for going zero waste myself. Bea Arthur writes and maintains the blog about her family's journey to zero waste. She provides a multitude of ideas, recipes, and tips, as well as gives voice to the frustrations many people run into while becoming zero waste.
I started following this site after reading Erin Doland's book Unclutter Your Life in One Week. I found the book to be a comprehensive solution to my long-time pack-rat tendencies, and I enjoy reading the blog to keep myself motivated and inspired. If you're struggling with clutter at all, this is the place to go. I include it on the list of zero waste resources because it's so much easier to work towards what you want when you don't have a million little distractions nagging at you, which is essentially what clutter is.
After researching the harmful effects of plastic, Beth Terry decided to make her life plastic free. On this site she tallies her plastic waste, looks at plastic alternatives, and offers solutions to plastic problems. While she doesn't seem to be zero-waste, she has addressed a very important part of the zero waste lifestyle, which is eliminating plastic usage by employing reusable items or alternative strategies. A lot of our waste comes from single-use items like take-out cups, breakable items like plastic water bottles, and unrecyclable items like PVC plastic; which is why I find Beth's plastic free life motivating and inspiring.
I go here for any makeup, toiletry, or personal care item I need but can find in a waste-free option or just want to make myself. Leslie Martin runs the site to compile and test beauty recipes for her readers. She makes experimenting fun and comes up with all sorts of novel ideas that would never occur to me (powdering my face with eggshells? this oily girl loves it!). Best of all, when you make a product yourself, you know exactly what you are washing your face with, spreading under your armpits, and running through your hair.
So you've read Cruchy Betty and now need to know where to buy kaolin clay and Shea butter in a responsible zero waste manner. Don't have a health food store around you? Have a health food store but everything is covered in plastic, outlandishly priced, and comes in ant turd-sized portions? Go here to order everything a zero waster could want in home beauty production, bulk herbs and spices, essential oils, and "herbal sundries"
Formally titled "Composting Will Save the World", this excellent blog is run by moi, and goes over every possible way to compost anything that can be composted, including humanure, oil spills, and menstrual blood. If you want to go zero waste, you almost have to compost, just because city composting systems won't yet take everything that can be composted, and so many areas don't even have composting systems to begin with. You didn't thing I'd list a bunch of zero waste resources and not toot my own horn, did you?
We all need to laugh, this blog helps us do it. When eco-anxiety (or any anxiety) overwhelms, go here for a quick laugh.
See the description for The Bloggess.
It would be great if we all had time to sew, craft, and create our way into a unique, zero waste home, but that's not possible for every problem and every person. So to make up the gap, there's Etsy, the site that brings homemade goods to the larger market of the internet. Go here for produce bags, hand-sewn clothing, secondhand goods, wooden kitty litter boxes (yes, really), and homemade soaps when you don't have the time or inclination to make your own. Ordering from Etsy promotes reusability, local economies, and individuality. I find that this is also a good place to go when trying to find the perfect gift for someone who isn't quite as crunchy green as you are. There's all kinds of jewelry and art on Etsy as well, and it isn't too hard to find stuff made with re-purposed or recycled materials. That way everybody wins.
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