as we go from a lesswaste society in our grandparents time to a resourcehungry one a few indians are trashing their old lifestyles it is not a forum for buying or barter he says americans make more trash than anyone else on the planet for the last four years now this 36yearold south delhi resident has slowly cut down the excess in her life to lead a zerowaste lifestyle johnson a frenchwoman who lives in california has been living trashfree with her husband and two children since 2008 and has published a book on the subject in 2013 she also describes herself as a holistic cleaning agent who helps people declutter their homes but there are also people like deepa who are becoming conscious of the impact their lifestyle is having on the environment at a time when we are all about what we wear the phone we own the car we drive she has worked to not just reduce and recyle but to live by the mantra use what you have borrow swap thrift make and if nothing else works only then buy she does have to brave some disdainful looks from restaurant staff but thats par for the course people can gift an object they are not using or even a skill or knowledge that may be useful to someone else she says pointing to a laptop and headphones she got from the forum a mix of coco peat and dry leaves helps compost the garbage within a month and keeps the smell to a minimum when she started zero waste was a term only used by the government and by companies that wanted to differentiate themselves from organizations they saw as less environmentally friendly i was trying to get over a relationship at the time and was in an unhappy place in life among the social media forums that she has initiated are dariya dil dukaan a panindia gifting forum with over 4700 members though deepa admits that she has lost some friends who are unable to understand her obsession she tries not to preach to the nonbelievers much of that refuse will outlast any grave marker pharaohs pyramid or modern skyscraper we recycle plastic bags used for dal or flour but all the rest of the waste is composted at home and used in the kitchen garden she says a sharp wakeup call came in 2013 when deepa attended a selfdevelopment workshop even with all these steps plastic still does creep into the household considering indias overflowing landfills every little bit counts i believe in relationship over ideology she has not bought a bottle of mineral water in the last 10 years always leaves homes with cloth bags and even carries her cutlery to restaurants when she goes out to eat deepas lifestyle may not have gone mainstream in india but the idea is fast catching on with millennials in the west avoiding waste in a city can be tough but deepa goes to