A zero waste life
I recently discovered the book Zero Waste . Have you heard of it? This book was written by Béa Johnson, a French woman who has lived in San Francisco for several years and is the mother of two boys. She decided overnight that she had to change her way of consuming, for the good of her family and the planet, but also for the future of her children. She traded in her big house for a smaller one and completely changed her way of consuming... So much so that instead of throwing out the contents of a trash can every week, she throws away and recycles the equivalent of a handful of waste every month!
I can already hear you protesting that this is all she has to do. That she surely doesn't work 40 hours a week. That she has no life. Etc. Honestly? I don't know, and I don't think it matters. By making these changes in her life and that of her family, Béa has shown great intelligence, humanity, and eco-responsibility, and I find her simply inspiring.
What first inspired me were the photos of her house (to see the photos, visit Béa's blog Zero Waste Home). I admit that the decor is quite minimalist at my house, but never to this extent! I found her uncluttered space simply inspiring. A complete cleaning of her house must be done in 20 minutes flat !
But the Zero Waste book especially opened my eyes to my consumption and that of my family… Do we really need another pair of shoes, another toy or a mushroom brush to be happy? No. And Béa made me realize that all these things waste a lot of time : time to buy them, store them, clean them, dust them, maintain them, repair them and even time to get rid of them! Since reading this, my husband and I always take the time to question ourselves before buying anything: is it really necessary? If this expense is unavoidable, we try to make a more sensible purchase by opting for a better quality and therefore more durable object, made here (or close to here) with recyclable and renewable materials, and packaged as little as possible. It's not always easy, but at least we try!
Another change following my discovery of Zero Waste : I adopted precycling. Precycling is a way to reduce garbage and recycling at the source by opting for items with little or no packaging . So I try to buy food and household products in bulk as often as possible. Between two identical products, I always choose the one with the least packaging. I also stopped the delivery of my Publisac.
Well, I'm not ready to permanently relegate my trash to oblivion like Béa, but at least I'm trying!
Photo credit: Mariphotographie
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