To be quite honest I never had a passion for saving the Earth. My first memory of this includes sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress on the top bunk in a room with three other girls, on an island far away from the main island of Singapore, and watching others pick up trash–I was nursing a cold during that trip, and so was under my teacher’s supervision. The refrain “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” stuck though.

As I worked in a publishing company, I began to research more and more into a greener lifestyle, and adopted the things I could afford–mostly organic shampoo by Avalon Organics, eating more organic fruits and vegetables (although that was more of vanity as I’m still on a mission to see a six-pack, one day) and trying to use less (mainly because as a writer/editor, one’s eyes cannot be bigger than the stomach–one would definitely go hungry).

It was in 2016 that I embarked on a more minimalist lifestyle and tossed a lot of my material possessions, although admittedly I just left them in the bulk disposal in my apartment building, thinking one of the domestic helpers might have a use for some of the things. Some clothes I donated to H&M’s recycling bins.

This year (2017) I chanced upon one of Refinery 29’s videos, where the editor Lucie Fink tries to go five days without producing any trash, and one of the people featured in that video was Lauren Singer, of Trash is for Tossers. I was inspired, and started following more zero wasters on Instagram, while also simultaneously Googling ways to embark on this in my country, Singapore, and this site, http://www.zerowastepretty.com, is its offshoot.

Full disclosure: I will be posting some zero waste beauty options on the shop, as an Amazon affiliate so I will get a cut of what you pay for the products. I will also update regularly on the various ways I’m trying to cut down on waste, but it’s likely not to be a perfect journey (and it’s unlikely I will ever reach the goal of having all my trash in a single jar).