Melanie Mannarino shares over 100 tips for reducing waste in our everyday lives. While some tips were very basic, others were extremely useful, and I'll be implementing them in my own life.

Visionary, contemplative and poignant. The irreversible and dire situation of our climate has become one of the most talked about topics around the world. New laws are being enforced, changes are being made within continents, countries, and communities. Though it would appear as though we may be too late. We are a point where, if we do not collectively make moves toward change on a drastic scale, we are looking at a very different world in five years. The (Almost) Zero-Waste Guide is here to change that ominous future picture.

Drastic change doesn't just start at the government level. It starts in each and every person's home. Through self-policing ourselves we can help to influence industry and political leaders to make these sweeping changes. And even with these dire circumstances, and the daunting list of things that need doing in order to attempt to save the planet, it may not be enough. But there is no rule that says we cannot try, right?

What I love most about this book is that is acknowledges, right from the beginning pages, the living a zero-waste lifestyle is easier said than done. The concept is simple: live in such a way that you leave no impact on the world around you. This can be done through recycle practices, sustainable farming and water collection, reducing emissions and harmful impact on the environment and more. However, the book makes it clear that, despite everything, it is practically impossible to live completely zero waste. It does give us guidance on how to get closer to that goal. It also gives you different levels of how to do things.

For example, we all go grocery shopping - well, most of us anyway - and there are different ways and levels of how to shop, zero-waste style. The simplest is to no longer use plastic bags as they difficult to recycle, but one can also forgo paper bags and use only reusable bags. You can also use produce bags and shop for items that are not pre-packaged with non-recyclable packaging. It recommends getting your fish, meat and poultry cuts directly from the butcher to avoid unnecessary food packaging. Furthermore, purchase the food you need and grow the rest.

Now, for many people some of these seem incredibly outlandish or impossible to do. And I get that, as did the author Melanie Mannarino. Not everyone lives in a place where they can grow their own food. Some communities are limited in their fresh food options so things are required to be purchased frozen vs. fresh, which can lead to unwanted non-recyclable or compostable packaging. This book not only tells you HOW to get closer to living a zero-waste life, but lets you pick the extent of how you can do it. This book is filled with alternative options for just about everything and encourages its readers to become inspired and motivated to make changes in their own lives.

I have already been taking steps towards living a more eco-friendly, sustainable and zero-waste lifestyle (much to my boyfriends chagrin). In making some of these changes I have realized just how easy some changes are to make while others seemed so out of reach. Regardless, this book inspired me to make sweeping changes but reasonable ones at that. Like ensuring we use only reusable bags to shop or use paper bags (which double as our trash bags since we can't compost at our apartment). Only purchasing products that follow sustainable, eco-friendly practices like recyclable/biodegradable/compostable packaging. By making ourselves hyper-aware of everything we touch and use, we realized just how many things we had were made out of pieces that weren't recyclable in their current state or at all. Or were a waste in itself, like trash bags which are made of plastic which doesn't break down well.

Everyone needs to get their hands on this book and read it. Then they need to decide what changes they can make and encourage family and friends to do the same.

Sometimes we need some centering, a reminder of what's in the circle of common sense, and just some polishing of our skills. We're bombarded every day with information, traumas, fears, worries...our brains are stacked right now, and earth friendliness has to compete with other scary things. So it's nice to get a compendium of smart ways to waste less, live smarter and greener and just feel better about having the power to adjust our habits for the better. I liked this book a lot, never expecting to find hundreds of never-before-seen tips and being happily reminded of what my family could be doing better. It's worth your time.

Environmental books are kind of like self-help books-- even if I'm not the audience, I hope that someone else will find it useful. This book's organization wasn't my favorite, and some of the tips felt a little repetitive--it seemed that the kind of listicle-style meant that the book has to have 100 items, even if they are similar. For the person just beginning to think through consumption habits, though, it could be helpful.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review.

The general premise of this book is a very good one: reducing waste and becoming an environmentalist imperfectly is better than not doing it at all. The tips were generally helpful and some of them were things I hadn't thought of before. I love the research involved and the casual conversational tone. What I didn't like was that it made it seem that personal impact matters more in fixing the planet rather than corporations. Also, the tips would be good for a middle class and privileged beginner, it's not helpful for people who already were heavily involved in environmentalism and people who experience systemic oppression that makes it harder to do many of the things listed. I think having poor voices and indigenous voices involved could add a lot of dimension to this book. I would have loved if some of the tips involved ways we can work with legislation to help the environment or ways to hold large corporations accountable and a part about the land back movement and how indigenous people are the front-runners of sustainability. It has potential, but it ultimately seems like something a white, middle-class woman would buy and vaguely use to appease her guilt.

This is a great book full of organized tips on how to reasonably live a life where you try to limit your daily waste. Many of these tips are fairly easy to implement; would recommend for anybody looking to decrease their waste impact on a regular basis.

Melanie Mannarino’s new book The (Almost) Zero Waste Guide is an easy-to-read listicle of 118 actionable suggestions for reducing your impact on the planet. This is a topic I’ve cared about for a long time, and while many of the tips are common sense, it’s helpful to have a collated resource to refer to. I found the chapter on clothing waste to be particularly surprisingly and thought provoking.

While we all can’t fit our garbage into a mason jar like some serious no-waste bloggers on the internet, even a handful of intentional steps and decisions can make a difference.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Tiller Press for the digital advanced reader’s copy.

There's a hefty promise in the title of this book. Can we really reduce our waste without changing our lives? Most ambitiously, can we achieve (Almost) Zero Waste without changing our lives? Melanie Mannarino helpfully asks and seeks the answers to questions about resource usage and material wastage. Her summarizations suggest that the answers aren't straightforward and often the goal of reducing wastage will require choosing between the lesser of two evils.

As someone with a pre-existing interest in preserving the environment, reading this book provided quite an esteem boost when I recognized many of my everyday habits featured as good advice in this book. This shouldn't be a stretch for most people: we're talking about taking the stairs instead of elevator, energy-saving appliances and renos, saving your leftovers, recycling and composting, donating used clothing, bringing reusable bags to go grocery shopping, and buying electric vehicles. In some jurisdictions (like my home province of British Columbia), government and commercial incentives have already made most of these items commonplace and de rigueur.

With 118 tips to choose from anyone should be able to pick up some additional ideas. I would recommend bookmarking them as you read along, to keep track of them. It's easy to say to yourself "Oh, that's good! I could do that!" and then lose track of them as you move along. There are other recommendations that I would find more difficult to actualize but Mannarino offers this conciliatory opinion from her only quotable expert, Darby Hoover, senior resource specialist for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), "The world isn't going to end because you bought one bottle of water when you were thirsty. Understand where you can do stuff, and forgive yourself for everything else."

One of the strengths of this book is its simplicity, practicality, and accessibility. However, some of the tips come across as overly obvious regurgitation of widely available educational propangada:
Don't cook too much food if you are going to waste it, but also cook more food so you don't have to cook as often.
Don't leave the water running while washing dishes.
Variations of the theme of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Other tips are so basic that they were annoying:
Let yourself go gray. Embracing your natural hair colour will save a car trip to the salon, and the ingredients of the hair dye, and even the little plastic tray that the dye is mixed in.
Thank you, Captain Obvious!

Who is this author? Her other book credits are The Best Gender-Neutral Baby Name Book and Epic Baby Names for Girls. She's a Marie Claire editor who prides herself for "repurposing leftovers like a pro." Overall, this book is helpful and will probably inspire a lot of positive action. Be warned. That action will require changes in your life. The parts of this guide that read like Jane Average's social media blog undermine the impact of all the EPA, Department of Energy, and NRDC research that this "award-winning" journalist laboured to put into writing. It's well-meaning and really feels as if you are receiving neighbourly advice.

Loves this practical, resourced, feel-good book! I consider myself pretty aware of repurposing and recycling yet learned so much in this book! I appreciated the can-don writing and the simple instructions for getting started with little changes that make a difference in our world. I highlighted the heck out of my electronic copy and am excited to put so many of these calls-to-action into practice. Will share with my family and friends. Bravo!

This is the most realistically titled eco-friendly book I have ever come across, and I have read many. I appreciate that Melanie Mannarino states upfront that being completely zero waste is practically impossible given today's current manufacturing state. Her suggestions are easy to do, easy to fit into your lifestyle. Many of them you probably do already and don't even think about the fact that they are minimizing your waste output into the world. I would absolutely buy this for anyone wanting to begin their journey towards lowering their carbon footprint on the world.

There was nothing mind blowingly new in this book. Most people should know the good majority of these things will help the environment, but it is nice to have all of the ideas in one space and if there do happen to be some people out there that have been living under a rock and don't know the basics of eing less wasteful this is definitely a great book for them to start with.

This is a very basic guide to transitioning to a lower- waste lifestyle. Many of the tips were repetitive. I think many people who want to become zero waste have already begun with these sorts of tips.

Also, there was more than one fat-phobic comment in this book, which I found to be in very poor taste.

The (Almost) Zero-Waste Guide was full of practical eco-friendly swaps. The author provided simple ways anyone could use things they already have around their house to reduce their carbon footprint. I was surprised by how many I was already incorporating in my own lifestyle but the book still gave me ideas of where I could improve! This is a great book for anyone who has an interest in living a more sustainable lifestyle but isn’t sure where to start. It’s a book I’ll keep around for reference. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

Mannarino gives a lot of great advice on how to lower your waste in daily life. She also provides various examples that are extremely practical that I had never heard before. Did you know that you can use boiling water to kill weeds? If you are looking for ways to reduce your impact on the planet this book will provide you with a blueprint.

This book is very helpful in offering suggestions for ways to reduce waste. It touches upon a variety of things that I didn't consider. I am trying to be more green and limit my waste production so this book was very useful. It was more than just a list of things to do it gave reasons why and had science to back up some of their claims. I will find myself using it on a day to day basis!

The (Almost) Zero Waste Guide by Melanie Mannarino offers practical and logical solutions for reducing individual waste. Mannarino explains reducing waste in such a realistic way by acknowledging that zero waste is just not realistic for most - but it doesn't have to be all or nothing. we can all reduce waste by adopting simple habits and something is certainly better than nothing. i know that after reading this book, i recognised several areas in my daily life that i can improve upon and reduce waste. definitely recommend this!

This has a lot of good ideas and living a zero waste life can be a lot of work. But there are a lot of things that are easy to do that can have a lot of impact. There's a lot of common sense here (including really obvious stuff), but it covers a lot of ground, and includes approaches everyone should use. It's a little tricky, but it would have been helpful to get some recommended products/companies (e.g. multiple companies offer 100% recycled toilet paper, Eco-friendly {fill-in the blank] products, etc). Recommended.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

I had a really hard time getting into this book. I have tried to find a way to at least eliminate the amount of waste we produce as a family, and while reading this I did learn some tips but felt that much of it was just things that I already knew. It was well laid out though.

I like the format of the book and how the author divided the areas into clear categories (cooking, at home, personal care etc). I read it and only felt slightly guilty about my lifestyle. Yes I need to get rid of plastic shampoo bottles, sandwich bags and paper napkins. Overall there isn't much new information in this book (for me anyhow).. The author summarizes a variety of sources in one easy to read place. Would recommend if you are new to recycling or the zero waste lifestyle.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster, the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

A lot of good ideas, backed up by statistics and verifiable facts, covering areas including food, home, travel and more. Easy to read and inspiring.