How to unravel the habits of a lifetime and go zero waste

You probably think it’s quite hard to do, and you’d be right, Kate Hughes explains just how unprepared she was and what you can do to avoid the pitfalls

There’s a lot to think about when you decide to remove all waste from your life (Getty/The Independent)

We went “zero waste” overnight. We stopped using throwaway, single-use items and started using reusables for everything we brought into our home. In hindsight, it was a slightly stupid, instant, all-or-nothing decision.

Buying food that isn’t wrapped in plastic was one of the hardest changes to make and it’s fair to say we were spectacularly underprepared for the implications.

We were total wannabe foodies who enjoyed cooking but had fallen into the classic pasta sauce rut. We could make square meals from scratch but it was easier on a wet, dark Wednesday evening, when the kids were already climbing the walls, to grab something conveniently packaged that might pass for a healthy meal if we squinted.