How easy or difficult itis to change your habits!

Plastic is really a miracle material. In my many years of living independently, I have used a lot of plastic. Earlier I was not bothered about my purchases. If I was thirsty, I would buy a plastic packaged water bottle from the store. If I was shopping for groceries, I would use the plastic bags the store offered me. If I wanted a snack, I'd buy one pre-packaged meal, ready for me. 

If I had parties I would buy the disposable plates, spoons etc available at the supermarket for my convenience.

I have also grown up in a city in India with no experience of the outdoor life or nature. So shopping for functional things was natural. No thought, only convenient consumption. 

So needless to say this HABIT was a difficult one to BREAK. But when the realization came I knew I had to do it. Sometime back while doing a course on REIKI, I had learnt that if you repeatedly do a particular thing for 21 days then it becomes a habit. I decided to apply it. There are plenty of replacements for all these plastic items. In fact, these replacements existed well before plastic came along. My reusable water bottle replaced my need for buying plastic water bottles. I have cloth bags that now replace the plastic bags when I shop. And snacks are now carried from home before stepping out, in a steel box or a cloth bag. The solutions were already there. What I needed was a way to remember these solutions.

Getting into a new habit of remembering, was the bridge I needed to cross. The way I overcome it was by planning in advance. With no habit of prior planning, I went to weekly planning. Whatever was needed to be done in the week was listed down and then I had to find ways to do it without creating any waste out of it. This continued for few weeks until it turned into a habit which I was immensely happy about and gives me great satisfaction. The lesson I learnt during this process was going ‘plastic free’ or ‘zero waste’ is a lifestyle change that will take time. It’s a journey. Take it day-by-day and be proud of the little things you do, as this will help build your confidence for the bigger steps. You don’t need to go out and buy all the zero waste products! Look around your home first, see what things you can upcycle and creatively use what you already have.

HAPPY UPCYCLING!

-Anupama Gokhale