Once COVID-19 hit, my zero-waste lifestyle started to fall apart. Suddenly, waste was one of the last things on my mind and maintaining this lifestyle became unimportant. Some zero-waste influencers, like Lauren Singer, @trashisfortossers on Instagram, felt the same.

Should you bag it in plastic? It’s a bit more complicated than you may think. Recently, New York state has enacted a plastic bag ban. New York news stations such as CBS have since been showing local frustrations with the ban. When faced with climate change, also known as the end of humanity as we know it, the fragility of paper bags should be the least of our concerns.

The holiday season is here and, although it is a time for festivities, winter activities and family, it is also a time in which a huge amount of waste is created. However, it is very simple to celebrate while creating less waste and saving money.

This summer, I started to feel a bit hypocritical about my environmental footprint. I was having immense anxiety about climate change and was preaching that action needs to be taken to stop it, but was still supporting fast fashion and throwing away three single-use plastic water bottles a day. It’s not just about personally producing less waste; it’s also about not supporting the companies that function to pollute and produce mass amounts of plastic.