I didn't know that about the potato skins and the chimney! Huh!
I am pretty close to zero waste, but not scrupulous about it (that's good for my mental health; the OCD can still rear it's head on occasion). The vast majority of my waste is kitty litter scooping. In second place is tissues from when I run out of handkerchiefs, but I just bought a box of 8 to add to the four I had sewed, so there will be less of that now. I have allergies, there is a lot of nose blowing in my life. 😂 What's left in the trash is just odds and ends after that, especially now that I have a compost system going!
I've lived in this apartment for over ten years, and in that time I bought one box of tiny size trash bags; I still have one from that box, lol. I use whatever packaging happens my way: the bag from toilet roll, or kitty kibble, for example, and that's enough to contain my trash. So I think I'm doing okay.
I use an old cloth shopping bag whose handle broke to hold my recycleables, and probably fill it once a week or so, in addition.