This requires some creative thinking about what items will best reduce the amount of items we throw away. While I’ve been here, I’ve kept up some of my habits from home to reduce the amount of plastic I use, but also started some new ones. Last month, at my university there was the first annual Eco Festival. They held talks about how to reduce one’s waste and workshops to make reusable items like customized cloth shopping bags or mesh produce bags. This gave students the opportunity to acquire these items for free!
Russians also have many eco-friendly habits, like using reusable bags and saving jars from food to fill with homemade jam or pickled veggies! I reuse my jars for homemade pasta sauce or storing tea.
All over the world, we are drowning in single-use materials. We create a lot of things just to use them once and throw them away. These things can stay in landfills for millions of years before they decompose! When you think about the amount of time we use something for compared to how long it will be trash, it makes these items seem very illogical! During my university’s Eco Festival, I learned about different ways of reducing waste. For example, rather than choosing between different types of single-use items (paper vs plastic bags), choose a multi-use option: a cloth bag. Next, if you have something that’s broken (like a vacuum cleaner), try to get it fixed rather than throwing it away and buying a new one. Many people in Russia, in addition to the US, don’t think about these situations, and we need to!
