Talking Trash: My Year in Zero-Wasteland

This is the story of how one woman transitioned to zero waste without totally losing her mind...ish.

Jaren Cerf, a newly single recording artist in her mid-30s with two toddlers, decides transitioning to zero waste is exactly what the doctor ordered. Not only will it look like she has her life together, she’ll also have a project to keep her mind occupied when the kids are with their dad.

How hard could it possibly be? Zero-waste living has a lot of benefits: You can pay off your mortgage and student loans faster than your friends, save hundreds of dollars buying your wine in bulk, and spend half the amount of time it normally takes to do laundry. But isn’t it still kind of a hassle?

Follow Jaren in her journey as she attempts to ditch her old life as a chronic clutter-butter (a term she invented) and embrace a new, less-is-more lifestyle, one change at a time. Included in her book are hilarious stories about her Wild West upbringing; rants about random things like miswak sticks, the cleaning fairy, and that huge new mall in Moscow; and plenty of examples of what not to do when you’re trying to transition to zero-waste (for example: how not to compost indoors).

Unlike a lot of the great books about zero waste on the market today, Talking Trash: My Year in Zero-Wasteland isn’t a how-to guide. Jaren is not an expert in the field of zero waste, nor does she try to be. She’s simply a storyteller who changed one habit a month for a year in an effort to make the world a better place.

Did she succeed? Find out!