There is a small but growing movement in America of households that want to reduce waste to zero. Zero Wasters, as they are called, help each other by sharing advice on blogs and social media. A number of people also have written books on the movement.
Bea Johnson is author of Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life. She said, “It may be too extreme for some people, but even if you can cut your trash down by even 20 percent, you'll gain 80 percent of the benefits, like saving time and money for experiences instead of shopping for something unnecessary. ”
Johnson said that reducing shopping means her family has more money for fun vacations. She said her family buys recycled things also. All their clothing, for example, comes from used clothing stores. She said that has reduced her household spending by 40 percent.
Zero Wasters like to talk about five “R's": Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot. The first “R" stands for refuse. They refuse containers and plastic straws at restaurants. To this end, they either ask to use their own containers or request that things like food be wrapped(包装）in paper. Zero Wasters also seek to reduce the number of things they buy. They reuse household goods and recycle recyclable materials. They also try to compost （堆 肥），or rot, food material that can be used to enrich soil.
Amy Korst is another most popular writer in the zero waste movement. She wrote the book Zero Waste Lifestyle: Live Well by Throwing Away Less. She noted that once food is buried under plastics, it no longer composts as it normally would. She said that is why it is so important to cut down on using things made out of plastic and separate things that can be broken down from other trash. She recommended residents（居民）to get in touch with the local sanitation（卫生）department in understanding how to recycle.
