Well, hi there, listeners, and welcome back. Happy New Year. My name is Stephanie Safarian, and you're listening to Episode 513 of Sustainable Minimalists. This is a listener-supported show about intentional and eco-friendly minimalist living. On today's show, we're talking about something that I frankly haven't covered in a long time,

and that's zero waste living. I don't know. Where have I been? What have I been doing? We haven't

talked about zero waste in a while. So today we're doing it. We're talking about zero waste for

families. My guest today, she says she saves almost $20,000 a year living a zero-waste life and she has three children.

Think about it.

Today I'm speaking with Frederica Siren.

She is the founder of zero-wastefamily.com.

She is the author of The Practical Guide to Zero Ways for Families, and she is a passionate environmental activist

who is doing things differently. She is happily going against the grain and happily making

noise as she does so. Make sure your ears perk up when we talk about bubble gum and flowers

that come in plastic. mic drop moments there.

Frederica, so excited to talk to you today.

How are you?

Well, thank you for having me.

Oh, I'm doing great.

We're just having a snowstorm here in Sweden, so.

I wish we were having a snowstorm here in Boston.

We haven't had hardly any snow this year.

We're here today to talk about zero waste for families.

You are an environmental activist. You're an author of a book on this topic. Tell us who you are,

what you do, but also tell us that moment you found zero waste living. Like It's not an attractive lifestyle for a lot of people,

but something about it spoke to you. Tell us about that moment. Oh, so, yeah, so I'm a journalist

...