A few months ago at a dinner party, I listened to my friends talk about a zero waste family living in The States that they read about in the French newspaper, Le Monde. This family, they told me, produces only one litre of rubbish a year! I wondered how it could be possible? The next day I googled zero waste family and found Bea Johnson’s blog and my fascination with this idea has kept leading me back to her site.
Adding to this, my five year old son has recently started at a school that has an impressive environmental awareness program. Quite often he questions and reminds me of so many things I should be doing and he is genuinely interested in the environment. When I see this awareness being taught to our children so young, I feel there really is hope and it’s my duty to nurture and encourage this in them.
I recently contacted Bea Johnson who has also published a book on this subject. She kindly answered my questions:
What was the catalyst for starting a zero waste home and is your life now how you envisioned it to turn out?
It is downsizing that triggered our rethinking. In 2006 we were living in a large home in the suburbs and wanted to move to a downtown to be closer to amenities. Our transformation took two years.
The first year, we moved into an apartment with only the necessities -that’s where we learned that living with less allowed us to live more.
The second year, we bought a house half the size of the previous one, we let go of 80% of our belongings (including those that we had stored) and then our voluntary simplicity opened time to educate ourselves on environmental issues -that’s when we decided to change our way of living for the sake of our kids future.
We found that Zero Waste is nothing that we would have expected it to be, it not just good for the environment: Overall it has also made us healthier, and it saves us an incredible amount of time and money!
Did you know that 15% of the sales price of a packaged product covers the packaging itself? It basically means that I used to send 15% of my income to the landfill! The savings of the Zero Waste lifestyle are so great that I beat myself for not doing it earlier and I could not envision myself going back to the way I used to live (what a waste of money it was!)
Zero Waste has even brought beauty into our life -glass jars are so much prettier than disposable packaging in my pantry for example.
In the end, it’s all good! And I wish everyone realized and enjoyed the great hidden benefits of this lifestyle.
What were the biggest and most difficult changes that you and your family needed to adjust to?
Our major challenge was finding balance, figuring out what works for us and what does not. There were no books or blogs on how to do Zero Waste when I started in 2008. So I googled alternatives and tested many recipes and how-to’s. But I eventually got too wrapped up into homemaking: At one point, I made cheese, bread, yogurt, soy milk, butter, etc. Some of these ideas were too extreme, too time consuming, and we later dropped them for the sake of simplicity. For example, we realized that there was no need for us to make bread if we could buy it unpackaged either directly from the bakery or from the bakery bins. Other alternatives were easy and we adopted them.
Today, we have Zero Waste on auto-pilot in our home. We found that for Zero Waste to be sustainable in a household, one has to adopt alternatives that fits his/her schedule and are feasible in the long run.
Does living like this mean that you miss out on luxuries and a few of the materialistic things?
The Zero Waste lifestyle does not deprive, as one would think but improves one’s quality of life. Life becomes less focused on having and rather on being. What I love most of the lifestyle is the simple life, and how closer it has made my family. Voluntary simplicity has changed our daily routine in these ways: It has greatly simplified our cleaning (picking up the house only takes a few minutes each day). It makes our housework and professional work much more efficient. It has allowed us to play more (simple living focuses on experiences versus stuff) and spend more time together (we always eat dinner together). It has even allowed us to travel more by being able to easily to rent our house when we’re gone (our minimalist wardrobes fit in carry-ons), which then funds vacation and family getaways! Now that’s a luxury.
In my family and I’m sure a lot of my readers families, we recycle, take shopping bags to the supermarket and mostly purchase environmentally friendly products. What other baby steps would you suggest a household do for an environmentally conscious home?
What we do to generate only a one liter jar’s full of trash per year is no secret. We found that following a set of 5R’s IN ORDER was the key to eliminating waste. We Refuse what we do not need (for example single use plastics, junk mail and freebies), Reduce what we do need (furnishings, clothes), Reuse by buying second hand and swapping disposables for reusables (that includes shopping with reusables such as cloth bags, jars and bottles), Recycle what we cannot refuse, reduce or reuse and Rot (compost) the rest (fruit peels, lint, etc).
The most important thing one can do to stop waste and clutter from entering their home is to simply say no! Think before accepting something that is handed out to you. Turn down flyers, freebies, party favors, business cards, single use plastics (such as plastic bags), and fight junk mail. Accepting these things not only creates a demand to make more, they are a waste of resources and once they are brought into our home, they add to the clutter and require effort to dispose of them later. Refusing is the first rule to living a Zero Waste, simple lifestyle. Give it a try; you’ll be amazed how much stuff you’ll be able to stop from coming in.
Have you found that friends, family and the community around you have inturn made positive changes in their lives?
I started my blog to let friends and family know that we were serious about living the Zero Waste lifestyle and therefore discourage them to bring needless gifts and waste into my home. Little did I know then that it would attract an international readership and change people’s lives across the globe (they share their testimonies on the blog and on Facebook and I get thank you letters on a regular basis). I am really exited about people being open to change and to the tips that I provide in my book. I am convinced that our world would be a better place if we all embraced the benefits of the Zero Waste lifestyle.
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions Bea, you are an absolute inspiration and I wish you every success in sharing your story and message further.
Readers, for more information on a zero waste home, follow the links:
Website, The Book, Facebook and Twitter
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject!
Mel x
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I read this interview a week ago when you published it and have been reminded of it a couple of times since then when I went shopping or got freebies from somewhere. Thank you for sharing this story with us – like many other readers I found it very inspiring and encouraging!
Doesn’t it make you open your eyes more? It’s overwhelming how much waste is there…
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Great interview – I remember seeing Bea and her husband featured on ‘The View’ – I was really fascinated by the way she and her family managed to cut waste, eat clean and well and also re-use and
re-cycle wherever possible – inspiring!
I was really impressed with my son’s school’s program as well – great to see them all jumping on board. What Bea has accomplished in her home and way of living is remarkable, and so inspiring. I’m looking forward to checking out her blog. Great interview Mel x
Really impressive. Our council has just started a full ‘re-cycling service-we now have 1 instead of 2 bags of rubbish each week and they take all the plastic and tin- a God send! Fantastic story-inspirationAl x
Hi Caroline, yes I’ve seen that there’s vast differences with recycle programs when you’re not in the main cities. Great that your local council is taking some responsibility! Mel x
Fantastic interview! Love the concept of a Zero Waste Home. What an inspiring way of living, one that honors simplicity and responsibly responds to our place in the web of life. Really beautiful.
Glad you enjoyed it Marjory:) Mel x
Fantastic interview! I have been trying to simplify and cut down on my waste. it is a big goal of mine for this year. I will definitely have to check out that book!
Oh great, I’d love to hear how you go!
This is one of the best interviews you’ve done Mel. What an inspiration Bea is. I agree with everything she has said and in my ideal world being able to tidy the house in a few minutes each day would be totally liberating. It’s incredible that she’s reduced her waste to one litre of rubbish a year. I will make the time this week to look at Bea’s website to learn more about this. Thanks for sharing the links. Really great post Mel.
Thanks Catherine, I’m glad you liked it. I’m surprised how much it’s touched me actually. While I don’t think that I will go as far as Bea, I’m certainly inspired to do a lot more than I do now. M x