Less Is More: Join the Low-Waste Movement

For many years now, environmentalists have been encouraging people to reduce, reuse and recycle. Less Is More takes those concepts one step further and shows readers how to avoid waste in the first place. The author is quick to point out that not all of the eco-friendly strategies offered in the book will work for every family. Rather, families should decide what is doable and start with small steps.
Following a brief introduction, the book is divided into four chapters, the first of which discusses the increasing problem of waste (especially after the rise in plastic production after World War II), where garbage ends up, and the need to reduce the amount of trash that humans throw out. In this chapter, readers will learn the terms “consumerist society”, “environmental racism”, and the difference between a linear and a circular economy. There is also a “waste hierarchy” diagram, a tool that helps individuals and groups to plan everything from the simple (such as grocery shopping) to the more complex (such as product design and manufacture) in terms of avoiding waste.

The remaining chapters are devoted to the three Rs, one for each of reduce, reuse and recycle. Besides the main body of the text, there are text boxes shaped like reusable shopping bags. Each of them contains some trivia, such as the fact that every day during the COVID pandemic, approximately 3.4 billion face masks or face shields were thrown out. Young activists are also featured, some examples of whom are a Simon Fraser University student who started a “Ban the Bottle” campaign at school to phase out single-use plastic drink bottles, and a British Columbia teen who regularly organizes or participates in shoreline cleanups. Readers are encouraged to complete a waste audit, a room-by-room examination of household items that are typically thrown out. The author offers alternatives (e.g. using cloth napkins versus paper ones). Some changes will be doable, while others, such as going back to using cloth hankies versus disposable facial tissues, will be a hard sell. Among others, there are tips for “low-wastifying” one’s lunch, reducing the amount of paper gift wrap (use tea towels, scarves, old maps, comics or burlap sacks instead), and having clothing swap parties. As well, the author explains the different numbers on recyclable plastic containers, how to prepare recyclables for the bin and how to compost.

The illustrations consist of colour photographs, charts and diagrams, all of them suitably labelled. A table of contents, a glossary, an index and a list of print and online resources are also provided.

Though there is not much new in Less Is More, it is still very worthy of purchase.