One Redditor recently took to the popular r/ZeroWaste forum to ask a very important question: How do you get your husband to start caring about protecting the environment?
The poster, who goes by the username u/High-Timelady, wrote that she started adopting zero waste habits during the pandemic. But her husband wasn't so quick to follow suit.
"It has been a struggle to get [him] to go along with the changes," she wrote in the post. "He pitched a fit over bamboo toilet paper and now we're back to Charmin … I feel like every change or adaptation is a fight because it's less convenient than the way we grew up or what's commonly on offer in most stores."
But the discussion that followed showed that there are men who are willing to make some sacrifices for the zero waste cause. Many shared their motivations for doing so.
"One of my best friends is a very 'manly man' kinda guy," wrote u/cowpandas. "He watched a TV show called 'Alone' that's about survival in the wilderness. Saw a bunch of survivalists taking advantage of trash washing up on beautiful shores and it made him not only mourn how much trash there was in nature, but how using things for multiple purposes is very masculine in many ways."
Many other commenters agreed, with common themes including convenience, making sacrifices for the common good, and saving money.
"If it saves money he's all for it," wrote u/No_Studio_7605. "While we are in the process of transitioning to zero waste, he's gotten on board with composting for the garden (so we don't have to buy it), using cloth napkins, dish towels, trying to not buy products that are designed to be thrown away. I'm a crafter and I'm teaching him how to sew so we're repairing clothes and cloth items. He's getting into going green and going zero waste. Aside from saving money, I think he likes having to take out the trash less frequently because we are producing less."
And another commenter, u/Regular_Anteater had an even simpler way of getting her husband on board, writing, "So I am also a wife but I just want to say that installing a bidet really helped my husband use less toilet paper. He loves the bidet."
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