Meet the zero waste family
Kate Hughes’ family creates so little rubbish they don’t even have a bin. Here she explains how an eco idea sparked a new way of living and why they’ve never looked back
As Kate Hughes walked into her living room, she saw her husband David on the floor surrounded by hundreds of conkers.
“He had a hammer in his hand and was bashing them into pieces,” says mum-of-two Kate, 41.
It was the latest effort in the couple’s mission to become more eco-friendly. Indeed, having decided to become a zero-waste family five years ago, they now create so little rubbish they don’t even own a bin.
The conkers were used to make DIY washing-up liquid.
“We discovered the washing-up liquid we had was fatal to marine life, and could end up in the sea after being washed down the drain,” says financial journalist Kate.
Scouring the internet she discovered that conkers can create a natural detergent.
“It’s probably one of the most hippy things we’ve done but works just as well as washing-up liquid without harming the planet,” Kate says.
The family’s eco-friendly mission started five years ago, when a bean bag popped, scattering polystyrene balls all over the garden.
“It struck me that those little balls would still be there in hundreds or even thousands of years. It was a wake-up moment that made me think differently about the products that I buy,” says Kate, who lives in Wellington in Somerset.
So the family started off trying to create zero waste – by not buying single-use plastic, reusing as much as they could and recycling the rest.
“My family thought it was a fad
I’d give up in six months,” Kate recalls. But rather than quitting, the Hughes family kept making small tweaks to their lifestyle in order to become more eco-friendly.
They stopped eating as much meat, and started cooking more from scratch.
Now, they buy food such as flour, oats and cooking oil in bulk, and reuse the sacks and drums they come in. They bake their own bread too.
Kate says going green has saved them money as well.
“We’ve saved about a third of our monthly food bill. The key is to buy in bulk.”
Buying everything secondhand “apart from mattresses, pants and light bulbs” has helped both the planet and their bank balance. “We only buy natural fabrics, even secondhand, as synthetic fabrics like polyester create thousands of microplastics with every wash which end up in the sea,” says Kate. Plastic toys or synthetic dressing up clothes for their two young children are also a no-no.
“It’s hard because you don’t want them to feel left out when their friends are allowed to have things which they aren’t.
“But in fact, it’s often the children who will point out how much plastic is in certain things and say they don’t want them.”
During the pandemic, David was diagnosed with leukaemia.
But far from convincing the Hughes to ease up on their eco-friendly lifestyle, it reaffirmed their commitment to it. Indeed, the family are planning to move to a farm on Exmoor, to create an agro-farm. It would combine growing crops and keeping livestock with planting trees and shrubs, to benefit wildlife, improve the quality of the soil and mitigate the effects of climate change. “It made us think about what’s truly important in life – and that’s our health and the children’s future,” says Kate.
■■Going Zero: One Family’s Journey to Zero Waste and a Greener Lifestyle by Kate Hughes (£8.99, Canbury Press) is available now
We buy secondhand apart from mattresses, pants and light bulbs