Sonoma families attempt zero-waste lifestyle

The year was 2010 when Katherine Llodrá and her husband packed up their three young children – ages 4, 7 and 9 at the time – and left their Sonoma home, to spend a year in Valencia, Spain. They used the opportunity to purge most of their household items and each took only one carry-on piece of luggage for their time abroad.

“Pretty quickly, we couldn’t even remember the things we had left behind,” says Llodrá about their adventure. “It became about the experiences. We found that Europeans live in a way where everything is smaller. They have less stuff, smaller homes. They go to the markets every day – the meat market, the fish market, the bakery.”

Along with this lifestyle shift, Llodrá noticed another glaring difference between her new neighbors and the American life she had been accustomed to – less packaging and less waste.

As the family embraced a new way of life, she noticed they were spending more time drawing, writing, journaling and reading.

When they returned from Spain, Llodrá remembers feeling “richer and freer without all the stuff.” She started thinking of ways to minimize and keep from accumulating.

A 2017 study by the American Association for the Advancement of Science found that, as of 2015, 9 billion tons of plastic have been created since it started being mass-produced in the 1950s. Of those 9 billion tons, half was made in the last 13 years, and only 9 percent of the total produced has been recycled.

The average American generates 4.44 pounds of trash each day (up from 2.68 pounds in 1960) according to the EPA. That means, every person in the United States, on average, produces more than 1,600 pounds of garbage per year. More than half of which ends up in landfills.

Through a combination of tactics, “zero-waste lifestylers” aim to send as little waste to landfills as possible. Instead of sending trash to the dump, they refuse, reduce, reuse, recover, recycle and “rot” (another word for compost).

Katherine Llodrá would proudly count herself in the zero-waste camp. And, until recently, she was very much in the minority.

Only in the last two years has China, the biggest consumer of discarded waste, stopped taking the world’s plastic trash, according to Scientific American. Since then, Vietnam and Thailand have said they will block all imported plastic waste in the next few years. Other countries, lacking effective recycling plants are closing their doors too; tightening-up their rules, and sending back containers of recyclables that have been improperly commingled with waste.

As these countries have started to refuse the West’s trash, the zero-waste movement has begun making its way into mainstream awareness.

Add to that, the ever-increasing reports of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the “trash vortex” - a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean -- and the world is starting to take this movement seriously. As awareness increases at the international level, it’s no surprise that locals are beginning to take notice and action.

Sonoma resident and owner of Plain Jane’s Consignment Store, Janie Raymond, first met Katherine Llodrá about 10 years ago. The memory sticks in her mind because Llodrá refused to take a bag after making some purchases at the store. “Not many people were doing that at the time,” recalled Raymond.

Raymond, who hosts regular events at the store, invited Llodrá last month to give a workshop on reducing waste in our everyday lives. The two-hour workshop covered topics ranging from proper recycling practices, to less waste in the kitchen, to decluttering our living spaces.

“What happens when you go through this process is you end up loving the items in your home more,” said Raymond. “You’re going to end up with fewer, nicer things.

“Before you buy something new, see if you can find it used,” she suggests.

Rosemary McCarthy of Sonoma, who attended the workshop, said that afterward she walked into a grocery store and noticed “so many of the items covered in plastic, even vegetables.” McCarthy said she has started making small changes, like buying eco-friendly bamboo toothbrushes and purchasing a stainless steel bento box that can be used for leftovers when she eats out at restaurants.

Local businesses are doing their part to support the zero-waste movement too. Friedman’s Home Improvement has receptacles for recycling batteries and light bulbs, while Whole Foods accepts corks and even plastic bags.

Brian Jones, store team leader of the Sonoma Whole Foods, described how eco-friendly practices are a part of the company culture. “We have what we call GMAG – Green Mission Awareness Group, where the company relies on individuals and teams at the store level. The large compactor out back is for composting and then we have smaller containers for recycling and waste.”

Jones said that the store has an extensive food donation program, where a variety of nonprofit groups pick up unused and soon-to-expire foods and produce every day.

“Customers are encouraged to bring their own containers from home to use in the bulk section. We weigh them at the customer service counter and create a ‘tare weight’ to deduct at checkout,” said Jones. “We have reusable bowls available in the hot bar and salad bar, as well as reusable flatware.”

New business owners, Jenna Maze and Jen Petrovic of Purely Sonoma, will be offering a refill station for beauty products, as well as a selection of glass and aluminum packaged items for sale – better alternatives to plastics.

“We need to rethink the way we shop,” said Janie Raymond of Plain Jane’s Consignment. “Being business-minded aligns with these values.”