Green Thing’s Andy Hobsbawm and Rachelle Strauss of My Zero Waste

Andy Hobsbawm created Green Thing, an online guide to leading a greener life, in England as a means to inspire and educate normal people to live healthier and more eco-friendly.

“When we started Green Thing, we were trying to figure out why people can’t be bothered to turn off the lights when they leave a room,” Hobsbawm recalls. “We realized it’s about inspiration. How could we use that source of inspiration to make environmental living something that people actually actively wanted to do?”

The website chronicles seven ways everyone can make their lifestyle greener: stay grounded (travel by air less), resist the urge to buy the latest and greatest, eat less meat, lessen the reliance on air and heat, unplug everything when not in use, use everything to its fullest extent and walk whenever possible (instead of traveling by vehicles).

After reading an article about the effects of plastics on marine life, Rachelle Strauss and her husband were compelled to start MyZeroWaste.com, a U.K.-based site that encourages its readers to make small changes in their day-to-day lives, using less resources along the way.

This year, the Strauss family dedicated themselves to a zero-waste year — absolutely nothing they create can go to landfills. As determined as the Strausses are, it is quite a change in lifestyle.

“Prior to this challenge, we were putting out the equivalent of two to three trashcans per week,” Strauss admits. “We didn’t recycle anything. It all went into the landfill.”

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