An Almost Zero Waste Life by Megan Weldon
Learning How to Embrace Less and Live More

Looking for ways to minimize your waste and make the earth a better place for all? This book definitely has many ideas to help you whether you are a novice or have already been working on this for awhile. Sure, I have seen many of the ideas before and even started to collect ideas but this book has most of those ideas in one place simplified and easy to understand. Not all of the ideas will be useful to everyone but any little change any person makes will improve the environment for everyone.

What I liked:
* The recipes for everything from cleaning products to makeup
* Ideas on how to cut down waste in the kitchen
* Gift ideas including how to wrap items without paper
* Use of cloth and recycling of cloth for many purposes
* The layout and design of the book
* The many ideas collected in one resource
* That the book covered issues like parties, holidays, children, pets, housekeeping and more in regard to decreasing waste.
* The nonjudgmental way the subject was presented

What I did not like:
* Knowing that many of the ideas will not be easy for me to implement where I live
* That this information arrived when I am in lockdown during a pandemic

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I recommend it to others? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group – RockPoint for the ARC – this is my honest review.

4.5 Stars

An excellent introduction to zero waste, with many (realistic) steps both big and small. Megean Weldon is good about reminding you that every step you take matters, and you don't need to take them all at once.
She covers every room of the house, and specific areas such as kids, travel, pets etc. At the end of the book is a great 30 day challenge, although it is a bit repetitive if you have read all of the book (but it would serve as an excellent reminder).
My one criticism is that Weldon really doesn't consider people who aren't able-bodied. While she is good abut recognizing that not everyone can do everything, I would really have liked her to recognise that a lot of the suggestions in the book are only an option for people with certain privileges such as being able-bodied, living in areas where it is safe to cycle, having a local zero waste shop etc.
All in all I do highly recommend it though, take what you can use and leave the rest.

Great book! It nicely covers the topic of zero waste. I love the design. The book is divided into sections – different rooms and occasions. There were suggestions in the book that I already know and use, but I found a few new ideas that I have to try out.

I like the recipes, meal planning ideas, and recipes for DIY cosmetics and cleaners. I like that the author gives tips and suggestions and doesn't persuade you that you have to do something. Zero waste life is not easy. It can be very stressful sometimes - the author admits that.

3.5/5 stars

I hadn't heard of Megean Weldon, the Zero Waste Nerd, prior to reading this book. I really enjoyed the illustrations; they are bright and cute. Weldon doesn't shame her reader for having things in their homes, like plastic bags and disposable razors. She also doesn't suggest people throw these things away and immediately buy green options. She's a realist. Use what you have and when you need to replace something then buy the green version.

Weldon went places in her book that most sustainable living books don't go. Cloth diapers, reusable baby wipes, and alternatives to toilet paper! Oh, she went there. There are a lot of common sense suggestions, and a lot of it I've heard before, but I enjoyed her approach. I'll be recommending my library purchase this book. (Update: my library purchased 5 copies of this book based on my recommendation.)

review to come on MySplendidMess.com
review to come on goodreads: luv4pez

This was such a fun and beautiful book to read! I love to think about ways to reduce my waste and support the environment. This was a simple, easy read however very informative with plenty of tips that seem easily attainable. I look forward to trying some of the beauty tips and loved the zero waste gift ideas. I highly recommend this lovely book!

Thank you, Quarto Publishing Group and NetGalley for a digital ARC!

A great place to start for living a life that produces less waste. The author is down to earth in perspective and her suggestions are realistic and easy to follow.

A really great introduction to zero-waste philosophy with a lot of helpful tips! It can get a bit repetitive since the main theme is "reduce, reuse, recycle"—but that's a lesson we all need to get hammered into our heads.

This book is a useful guideline to understand how much everyone can do at home to reduce waste. Given your own circumstances and financial options you can pick and chose as much as possible. Of course, not every idea is applicable to everyone's situation and the book is explicitly directed at American readers who seem to need to catch up a bit on a generally more sustainable lifestyle. Is that so? I don't know.
Some suggestions in the book seemed a bit strange to me, but I live in Germany, so maybe they just don't apply. Others are impractical, if you do not live near farmer's markets or have to order stuff online. Sustainable products often cost twice as much as the plastic stuff. This has become a huge market, everyone wants to profit from it.

As the book says, not every suggestion is meant for everyone. But to just take a step back and think twice before you buy stuff or before you throw it away is the first step we all need to take. After that, do some more. This book might help you to see where to begin. There are more possibilities that one would assume.

This book has some good ideas and tips on creating less waste in your every day life. It certainly makes you think about how much you use every day. The only downside for me is because I'm based in the uk some of the items are applicable here.

Practical and helpful tips to lead a more sustainable, almost zero waste life. The suggestions work for a variety of lifestyles and budgets. I particularly enjoyed the ideas around food waste, such as cooking with scraps, and using food as a fuel energy source.

Two years ago, a friend and I became obsessed with lowering our trash output. We spent a lot of time discussing options and ways to reduce our household waste. She was determined to live a waste free summer. I was less determined, but very supportive of her goal. When I saw An (Almost) Zero-Waste Life, I decided it was about time to explore a waste-free lifestyle again.

Weldon decided to embark on a zero-waste lifestyle after walking through her neighborhood, cleaning up trash as an Earth Day project. She expected to fill a small bag, instead she filled multiple trash bags, which helped to kick-start her hard look into her waste lifestyle.

An (Almost) Zero-Waste Life is an amazing beginners guide to transitioning into a zero-waste lifestyle. The book is filled with great information about non-wasteful alternatives in all areas of the house. It also has great tips for incorporating zero-waste into your holidays, your life with children, shopping and travel.

Honestly, even though An (Almost) Zero-Waste Life was filled with great information and a ton of awesome recipes to help you along your zero-waste path, it did all seem a little overwhelming. I don’t think that has anything to do with Weldon’s book. It more has to do with the fact that we’ve been trained to go for convenience and changing that mindset is going to take work. Sometimes even hard work. I think the way to combat that would be to use the 30 step challenge that Weldon included. (A great tool, btw!) I’m going to try to pick one step per month and work on trying to implement that one change per month. Maybe I can even get my friend to join in on the challenge.

If you’ve been toying with making some changes to your environmental impact, I’d highly suggest giving An (Almost) Zero-Waste Life a read. There are going to be things you’re not going to want to try, but I can guarantee that you’ll at least find a few ideas you’ll be excited to get working on!

I have read almost every single book out there on zero waste at the moment so while there is not much left for me to learn, there are definitely books out there that are better than others. This book is so fun and the drawings and layout of the book is a real plus. Without even considering the actual information contained in the book it is beautiful to look at and really easy to read.

The content is very well done as well. Though this may not be the most in depth book it is written in a way that is easy to digest as well as flip through to a specific section if needed. The addition of recipes (both food and DIY) are helpful so that you don't have to look those up separately and the sections are practical and helpful. While some of the tips are very well known to me at this point I felt like they all fit well into the book and would be a great starter for someone new to their zero waste journey.

I love this book! It’s helpful and encouraging. There are times when you read books like this and immediately feel like you don’t measure up. Like you aren’t or haven’t been doing enough. I never got that feeling, I felt like I could do one of these zero waste tips and I would have made even a small impact. I do a lot of these things now, and love reading ways to up my contribution in living a more thoughtful, waste free life.

I have to admit I went into this book with a bias. The past couple of years, I have been on the constant lookout for ideas to alter my regular habits to make a difference (environmentally). Since I had time on my hands, I looked up a lot of small things and a couple of big changes that I could implement. 

I have been dragging a cart full of glass bottles to a zero-waste store to refill my soaps and bulk groceries. I have switched to soapnut for my regular laundry and with all of this, I am well versed in this lifestyle even if I do not use all that information in my daily life. I am only describing all this in detail only because this knowledge meant there was little that was new in this one. This is a useful book for those beginning this journey. It lists ideas in beneficial ways that will stick to your mind and ease the transition. It has recipes for some do-it-yourself products which eliminate waste by repurposing it as well as finer details on reducing waste in general. All in all, it has good ideas but quite a few of them are already well practised by many. Those who are just thinking about investing time and effort into reducing waste (like a friend I spoke to last weekend mentioned wanting to do) will find this as a simple and helpful push in the right direction.

I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is solely based on my reading experience and my prior knowledge of the Zero-waste lifestyle.

Some nice information that one may see in other sources and may see for the first time here. Goes into different rooms of the home and get a 2-week meal plan.

If I’m honest, I was underwhelmed by this book... despite my deep interest in the subject, I was not the target audience here. My main qualm was the lack of detail throughout. A few examples: Why is plastic something we should avoid? How did it develop into the massive global waste crisis that it is today? When talking about low-waste practices at the grocery store, what do you do if you come equipped with your mason jars all tared out but at the register the cashier can’t or won’t subtract that weight after they’re full of product? Essentially I feel like the message was positive but overall way too oversimplified, and too many of the details got glossed over completely. The author makes a point early on of stating that “it’s not about being fancy, it’s about being resourceful”, and yet the stylization of the book focuses so heavily on its Pinterest-perfect idealized zero-waste lifestyle photos. I felt there was way too much disconnect here: I’m being encouraged to cut up my old ratty t-shirts to use as un-paper towels and then right next to that paragraph I see a perfectly styled glamour shot of some commercial-grade bamboo cutlery, a commercial-grade zero waste “starter kit”, and a perfectly matching set of fancy glass good storage containers. The photography here feels way too fancy for the overall message of the book. I think this would be a nice resource to use as an introduction to low waste thinking to someone who fits into a pretty specific demographic: mothers who have a limited level of climate-related issues on their radar, with disposable income, who are driven by trends, fads, and online lifestyle blogs.

A great introductory guide on how to reduce your waste. Beautiful design and fun illustrations make this book that much more entertaining to read. I especially liked the gift guide in the holiday section, and the final chapter that included a numbered challenge list with manageable steps to take to reduce waste in your own life. This book was organized and efficient, and included many recipes and DIY's to help get you started. I would recommend this to anyone just starting to get in to more sustainable practices, however much of the advice would be redundant to those already in the midst of going zero waste. Still a perfect book to have on hand, even just for the recipes and concise lists to skim through.

Lots of great ideas in this book. I’m always looking for ways to reduce the waste in my life so I appreciated the suggestions found here.

What can I say, this book completely threw me because it exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be just another book on how to reduce waste. But it was far more than this, it was full of facts and recipes. I thought I was quite up on zero waste, but this taught me a thing or two. Great recipes from your household cleaning to beauty to baby recipes. I can’t wait to try out the dry shampoo recipe! I also thought that the thirty steps to zero waste challenge was an amazing idea, something for everyone to get involved in.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

I liked this book, it came with a bunch of no nonsense, non judgmental advice on how to live waste free. None of this I felt was revolutionary or new, but it was certainly nice to see all that information compiled in a book.