Lauren Singer’s interest in environmental sustainability began when, as a teenager, she read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, the classic book that documents the devastating effects of pesticides on ecosystems. “The book opened my eyes to how powerful — either positively or negatively — human actions can be on the rest of the planet,” Singer says. She took Carson’s lessons with her to New York University, where she majored in environmental studies. But she was frustrated to discover how many of those insights were lost on her fellow students. One of them, for example, always brought her lunch in plastic clamshell containers, ate with plastic utensils, drank from plastic water bottles, and threw everything away when she was done. “Here we were, …show more content…
She started bringing her own jars to the grocery store and filling them from the bulk-section bins. She also began buying her vegetables and fruits from the “package-free” farmers’ market, all of which offered some unintended benefits. “By eliminating foods wrapped in packaging, I found that most of what I had been eating were food products and not actual food,” she says. “Eating fresh vegetables and fruits has left me feeling much healthier — mentally and physically.” Her sustainable-living focus gradually grew into a broader eco-friendly lifestyle that others began to notice. “I didn’t really talk about the changes I was making when I started,” she says. “Over time, people would ask me questions when I’d bring my Mason jar to the coffee shop, for example, and I realized there was interest in the information.” These conversations led Singer to launch a blog, Trash Is for Tossers, which offers DIY product recipes as well as a plethora of tips for those looking to minimize their waste. She’s also not shy about debunking various myths about a zero-waste lifestyle, including the notion that it’s an expensive