Eco Warrior: Kathryn
While all our blogs are about warriors in the zero-waste scene, our next warrior has gone through larger storms and is a true warrior, she fought breast cancer. Kathryn a professional performing artist started her zero-waste journey as a consequence of the tumors that was discovered in her breast when she was in college. This made her question what she’s putting on and in her body. She learned many of the products we use in everyday life like beauty products, cleaning products, and plastic contain endocrine disruptions which interfere with how our body regulates our hormones. To fight her battle, she started making her products from scratch to control what was in them and to avoid plastic. Kathryn realized that the same things she was changing for her personal health, were also problems for the health of the planet.
Biggest change? Her life was now easy and simplified life can be!
A lot of people think that a zero-waste lifestyle is more time consuming or hard and it's neither of those things. It's all about building habits, and once those habits are in place, you don't even realize you're doing anything differently.
Kathryn likes to call it the big 4 – the easy steps. she recommends that everyone:
- Says no to straws
- Bring a reusable bag with you for your groceries and produce too.
- Bring a full reusable water bottle with you when you're out.
- And recommends a double insulated water bottle because it doubles as a thermos so you can avoid disposable coffee cups too.
However, there are always 2 sides to every coin, she definitely thinks it's a bummer that more people don't have access to package free food and composting services, and really hopes that changes.
One thing she always has on her is simply her water bottle, always hydrated!
One tip to start the zero-waste journey? Try her 31-day challenge!
Website: Going Zero Waste
By: Harsha Patil