Still, if she was going to paint she wanted to do it in the least wasteful way possible, so she scoured hardware stores for “oops” paint, cans of custom-mixed paint rejected by other customers because the colors were not quite right. She visited at least 10 stores, but failed to find enough paint in a color and finish she liked. After a final trip Big Reuse in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where she found leftover paint remixed into vibrant colors suitable for an accent wall, but not an entire apartment, she capitulated and went to a paint store.

She selected a paint and primer combo in sea-glass green and hired a professional painter from TaskRabbit so she wouldn’t have to buy equipment she would likely never use again. Afterward, she turned the paint can into her composting bucket, which she brings to the farmer’s market in Prospect Park every Saturday.

In many respects, living alone has made a zero-waste lifestyle easier to pursue, Ms. Lindner said. Although her roommates had been supportive — and she was always delighted when one of them would come home and tell her that she had refused a plastic straw, for example — the choice of which cleaning products and other shared goods to buy was not entirely up to her. And other things might be a hard sell: In her living room, she keeps a basket of clean hankies to use in lieu of tissues.

A zero-waste lifestyle, she has realized, is not for everyone. Her current grocery habits save her a considerable amount of money, she said, but involve schlepping large quantities of bulk goods home in reusable cloth bags a few times a month and bringing refillable cleaning bottles to the 4th Street Co-op in Manhattan.

“If I had a family, mobility issues or was working three part-time jobs, this would be difficult,” she said. “It’s a privilege to be able to do this, but because I have the ability to do it, I feel that I should.”

Initially, she was worried that her requests to fill reusable containers might annoy or burden others, but for the most part she has encountered only curiosity and encouragement.

Still, her parents were disappointed not to be able to buy her things for her first apartment, she said. Her mother begged her to at least get new pots and pans.