A little something different on City Girl, City Stories today! Last week, I received an invitation to attend an event which was part of Zero Waste Week, a campaign organized annually by Ecozine magazine.

The event, called Zero Waste Global Summit, consisted of various guests speaking about the goal of zero waste and what is currently being done (and can continue to be done!) in both Hong Kong and other parts of the world in tackling the huge amounts of waste being produced everyday. I realise this is something different I’m sharing here on the blog, but I felt that it was well worth sharing about. :)

Seeing as how I’m into my eighth year (!) of tertiary education, I guess you could say I believe in always learning about new things and ideas. (Not that learning stops when formal education ends of course, I truly like to think that learning continues as long as we are willing!) So, at last week’s discussion on zero waste, I was glad to have the opportunity to hear more about waste, something I never considered in-depth before.

The speakers covered a wide variety of topics such as the very large amounts of waste produced in Hong Kong, landfill problems, the negative effects of plastic on our health and environment and pollution of oceans and beaches. It was a thought-provoking morning and I left the event with a lot to reflect on. One of the main takeaways for me is the point that zero waste means reducing stuff we don’t need. I’ve always been active in recycling, but I’d like to try reducing purchasing things I may not fully need or use long term and reducing the amount of things I throw out.

At the end of the talk, Ecozine encouraged us to take the zero waste pledge, to make a commitment to reduce waste in different ways. I thought about it and submitted mine, which I’ve shared below! I can’t do everything just yet, but I will try my best at the ones I picked. :)

Do check out the following link for info on Zero Waste Week and make your own pledge too! http://www.ecozine.com/zerowasteweek
(P.S. You can make your pledge anytime and from anywhere in the world, this is not limited to Hong Kong or to this week only.)

To wrap up, I did some reading from Ecozine over the weekend and I thought I’ll share some interesting articles I came across. Click here to read about an upcoming documentary called A Plastic Ocean about plastic pollution and its effects or click here to check out a variety of reusable coffee mugs!

That’s it from me for now. Happy reading, happy pledging and have a great week ahead! Talk soon~

Thank you for having me Ecozine!