How 'simple, little changes' helped an Island woman ditch plastic

A P.E.I. woman who's taken steps to eradicate as much waste and single-use plastic from her life as possible is hoping the province's plastic bag ban will encourage more Islanders to reduce the amount of trash they send to the curb.

Megan MacKenzie changed the way she was living about two years ago to be more environmentally friendly, and, specifically, to use less plastic.

"I kind of looked at what I was doing and realized I was contributing a lot of trash to the world," said MacKenzie. 

MacKenzie's switch started with using a reusable silicone menstrual cup instead of disposable pads and tampons.

"It was amazing and I loved it," she said. "And then I started to think how could I do that in other areas of my life."

'Made a huge impact'

MacKenzie advises doing a trash audit, which means going through all your garbage to see what you're discarding. For her, it was paper towels and plastic produce bags from the grocery store. 

"So I looked at, what are some things that I could do to replace those things with items that won't end up in my trash can?" she said. 

For example, she uses her own jars and bags for food, uses a biodegradable bamboo toothbrush and a solid bar of shampoo. She even uses silk dental floss in a refillable container instead of plastic.

Rather than buy a case of beer she will get growler bottles refilled at the store, she said. 

"It's really simple, little changes that I've made that have made a huge impact on the amount of waste we're throwing in the garbage," she said. 

'Such a great move'

MacKenzie enjoys sharing her advice but doesn't want others to feel like she's critiquing them. She said she just wants to spread the word that it's not as hard as people think. 

"I think in a lot of ways moving toward a less-wasteful lifestyle is actually a lot easier," she said.

"I really enjoy not having to take out the trash as much," she added. Instead of filling a waste bin every two weeks, now it's only half full before it's picked up curbside. 

MacKenzie is writing to P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan, who is also her MLA, to congratulate him on the province's plastic bag legislation. She'd like to see even more restrictions on excessive packaging, and she'd like to see industry lead those changes. 

"I'm delighted, I think it's such a great move." 

'Saving a lot of money'

A bonus of being more environmentally-minded is saving money, she said. 

Her menstrual cup cost about $40 and she'd spend at least that much annually on menstrual products, she said.

Reducing waste can be a daunting prospect, and MacKenzie says it's best not to try to do it all at once. The best time to replace a product in wasteful packaging with something with a smaller packaging footprint — shampoo, for example — is when you run out of it. 

"Baby steps, finding those little projects you can do," she said. 

There are things MacKenzie admits she doesn't want to give up that do have quite a bit of packaging — like potato chips — but she does what she can to limit her waste. 

"I don't aspire to be zero-waste — what I'm aspiring to do is make the switches when I can switch to reusable things," she said. 

More hints for low-impact living:

• Take along a mesh or other reusable bag for grocery store produce, nuts, pastry and bread.
• Buy in bulk and bring your own containers.
• Bring your own containers to markets and ask vendors to fill them there. 
• Buy local to reduce carbon footprint of transportation.
• Use cloth napkins instead of paper. 

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