Banff couple go zero waste, cut all packaging out of their lives

For the last year, a couple living in Banff has been sayingno topackaging.

"You definitely have to go against the grain and do things differently, but it's completely achievable," Amie Nichols told the Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday.

She and her boyfriend,Jeremiah Marsh, started off small by making a promise to eachother to "neveruse another plastic bag again."

That meant bringing their ownreusable bags to the grocery store.

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But thingsreally got trickywhen they decided to cutall packaging out of theirlifestyle, such as coffee cups,plasticclamshells and deli food containers.

That'sinvolved carrying around alot of glassmasonjars.

"They seehim coming and they know this guy is the guy who wants us to put the cheese in the jar," said Nichols about what it's like forher boyfriend to shop at their local Save-On-Foods.

Making butter in a Vitamix

Finding butter that doesn't come packaged in aluminum foil has been "quite a challenge," said Nichols.

So she decided to start making it herselffrom heavy cream, which she buysin a glass bottle.

"Ican take back to the store and it gets sanitized and reused."

She "churns it" in a Vitamix until it separates into butter and buttermilk. The whole process takes five minutes, she said.

Takeout pizza on a plate

While many zero wasters keep detailed logs abouthow much garbage theyproduce,Nichols and Marsh have decided not to keep track.

"We both have roommates, soit'shard for us to judge what's actually ours and what's theirs," said Nichols.

The coupleavoid all packaging, eventherecyclablepaper box for their pizza takeout. Theybring their own plates to carry their piehome with them.

• A pizza box made out of pizza
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"I would say 90 per cent of people are excited by what we're doing and they're curious and they want to know more. And there are definitely people who think we are off our rockers."

She said they have no plans to stop.

"Wecould never go back to the way we were living our lives before."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener