Why did I start the zero waste man?

Now I want to be honest with you here. In the first place, I wanted to make money. Which I guess can be the motivation for many out there to start a blog.

I was looking for an opportunity to combine my passion, which I discovered had anything to do with animals to the environment. Since I am madly in love with my now fiance, I followed her from Australia over to Canada, the French part.

Not speaking French turned out to be quite challenging, and I guess I became more of an introvert than I used to be, which is not bad. In fact, it led me to discover myself on a whole new level. 

1:

I wanted to become rich and not only in the financial aspect but also in the spiritual. So I started reading more books, well, you could say I have never read that many books in one year. 

I aimed for 12 books that year. I managed to read 10, which I am pretty happy with. 

2:

I finally decided it was enough, wishing for a more muscular body, and I started to train. I was amazed to see the connection between my mind and my body. Often I don’t feel like exercising, but I made my “why” so big and my “if I don’t do it” equally big (Tony Robbins NAC). I decided not to give in to my small mind and instead thank it for protecting me. I started to train and push myself. The same goes for blogging. 

I had moments where I didn’t feel like writing (I still have them). I didn’t have the motivation, but I pushed through it. And even though I am not where I want to be, I am right where I am supposed to be. 

The reason for the zero waste man.

It all started with me running around the block. No kidding, I realized that I am in a better state of mind when I exercise, and I also have more energy. So I started running next to the beautiful national park where we currently reside. 

But something was wrong; there was trash on the side of the road. Since it really bothered me and just made me plain angry, I felt like I had to do something. I started plogging. For those of you who never heard the term, it is jogging and picking up trash. A movement that started in Sweden, I believe, and has made its way through social media. 

#plogging

I was surprised by how much trash I could come back every day from half an hour run. Conveniently I even found plastic bags on my runs and used them to collect all sorts of things. Most often, though, beer cans. Which you can actually get a refund for. 

Grow into your best version

All this made me buy the book “Find you’re why” by Simon Sinek. Because at the time, I still felt pretty lost. More and more, I realized rubbish became a passion of mine. Well more the cleaning up part. Actually, more the avoiding trash in nature in the first place. 

So the research began, and weeks later, I decided to start a blog about zero waste. Not knowing how to build a website or even write a proper article, I came across WealthyAffiliate. 

Being the skeptic that I am, I only went for the free version for a couple of months and did more and more research on them. Finally, I decided to give it a go and learn through what I can now say is an amazingly supportive community. 

Side note: If you ever want to start your own zero waste blog or any blog/website, go and learn from those guys. They have helped a ton of people, and the community is super active. 

I learned WordPress and writing (although I still struggle with that part), but it kickstarted my career as an online wantrepreneur. Yes, I am still an entrepreneur in the making, so I wouldn’t call myself that until I actually say I made it.

At first, I created a page called whenlovehitsthefan.com, which still exists, but it is currently put on hold. Later, I created zero waste man. I realized that women mainly dominated this whole zero waste movement. While there is nothing wrong with that, I felt like men need to be more involved and become active parts of this lifestyle. 

Yes, if you live in a traditional household where the woman cooks and the man goes to work and bla bla bla, do those still exist? I guess.

But nowadays, women and men work all the same, and while women also still do most of the errands in the house, we men need to step in and be supportive. 

I can feel all the ladies go yay. My man needs to talk to the zero waste man for some advice. 

Well, here is my email: hendrik@zerowasteman.com. Hit me up if you want to work with me.

Not only to help your relationship but also to help the environment and yourself. That’s right, going zero waste is more healthy for you. I get into that in some of these articles …

And you thought too much salt is bad for you

The Dangers of plastic food containers

Ok, but that makes me look excellent, and I am the only man in the universe that has only the best intentions, right? Wrong, I also saw this as a money opportunity.

When you google how to make money online, you often come across blogging. And while I started with several other niches, zero waste has become the dominant one right now. Even though my mind is constantly coming up with other ideas.

Is going zero waste easy?

I am still not 100% a zero waste man. I wish I were, but I get it. We all have to bring in the dough, and now you want me to prepare every meal and go shopping in 3 different markets, such as bulk food stores/farmers markets and the local grocer. This takes time, and time is the one thing we all are limited by. 

It needs to be convenient and quick. You will be surprised, but it becomes very convenient and actually cheaper with a little work upfront. 

The other benefit is the health factor. Plastics can leach the chemicals they are made of into the foods/drinks they are supposed to protect. If you go zero waste, guess what. You put fewer toxins into your body. Its’ a win win. 

What is my mission here:

I don’t want to make you feel bad about yourself. In fact, I want to empower you to show you that it does take time, but the little things make a big difference. 

Don’t get me wrong, I still want to make money with this blog, and while I currently promote some Amazon products, which come in packaging. I know, silly, right. I am in the process of phasing them out since I realize how hypocritical that is. Strangely when you go on some of the biggest zero waste blogs out there, most of them promote products from Amazon.

And yes, I just deleted my Amazon prime yesterday and stopped buying from this giant altogether. It seems wrong talking about zero waste and then trying to sell you something that not only has bad labor ethics and shit loads of packaging. I mean, the environmental footprint behind Amazon is huge, but it takes time and effort to get it all up and go until I can put my own no packaging products here. 

In the meantime, you can use this as a resource to educate you and your friends and help spread the word. 

Share the love if you like what you read. What’s your story? Do you want to grow a business online, or do you want to make a difference in the world? Let me know in the comments below.