I just fell on this article, I wrote around Christmas time, and wanted to share it with you again, as it beholds really interesting facts and figures of Bea Johnson, living in a zero waste home.
Wow, wow, wow! How can we possibly produce Zero Waste in a year? Well, there are some people, very inspiring people, by the way, who have left everything in order to live totally differently than almost the rest of the world. Only to win more freedom, less expenses and a lot more lightness.
We’ve experienced this inspiring lady, living in San Francisco, out of France, in Pully in November, where le journal Le Matin and Sandra Imsand, herself following the ideology of less is more, had invited her. Almost 800 people came to assist the Conference, which was the best result on her entire tour, and which puts the French part of Switzerland on top of the list of habitants willing to change their consumption behavior.
Bea hasn’t got a car, she walks, takes her bike and buys everything nearby. She states: “To live with less offers to live even better. More time for walks!” She gave away 80 % of her staff “As a family, we never felt a lack in our lives. Today, we have time to read books, watch movies, and I had this great wow-moment, reflecting about what future we’re going to leave to our children.” Bea finds solution for everything. How to conservate tomatoes, how to create her own shampoo, toothpaste, make-up, toilet-paper, and she lives after the principle:
1. Refuse 2. reduce 3. refuse 4. recycle and 5. compost!
1. Reuse: “Just say no to superflu.. Like free products, plastic bags, pens, visit cards etc. We vote with every item we buy or we accept”.
2. Reduce: “What you don’t need. Get lighter! Find things to rent, and use utile products, such as white vinegar with which you can clean almost everything, or the soap of Marseille. As a person we don’t need more than 1 spoon at a time! In general, we only use 20 % of our garderobe, the other clothes we keep in case of. We can use textile differently. In my wardrobe, I have 1 short, 2 dresses, 2 trousers, 7 t-shirts and pull-overs and 5 pairs of shoes, 4 towels for friends and for the beach and 1 bed-sheet that I reuse everytime after washing. I use the Alep Soap bar for my body and vegetale oil for my skin.”
3. Reuse: “We need to replace everything that we can throw away to make it reusable. Instead of aluminium, let’s use jars. And we have 2 whole shelves of glasses for guest. We also use washable napkins and we press our oranges directly in the grocery stores. We also buy second-hand.”
4. Recycle: “What you can’t refuse, reduce or reuse it. Eleminate plastic products!”
5. Compost: “Fruit and vegetable skins. Butter wraps
We extract all toxic products from our life, and we save 40 % in our daily lives.
I suggestion to you, if you’re interested by this lifestyle:
- buy second-hand
- buy food and put them in cans and jars.
- Reuse your bags, and replace everything which is ‘throwable’ to ‘recuperable’.
Put the verb ‘being’ before ‘having’!
This lifestyle puts you in an absolute happiness state. To buy something means means to vote for something. The way it has been produced and the way it will be used.
Let your voice be heard!
You know, there are solutions for everything out there. The well-being we have discovered for ourselves makes that we will never ever want to return to our lives before! It is a simple, a minimalistic life, healthy and a real wow-moment!
The same can be used for your email, empty them every day!”
It was a perfect timing to meet and experience Bea Johnson just before Christmas and the New Years Resolutions. This lady is a total eye-opener and even if we won’t get 100 % into her footsteps, meeting her will change our ways of consumption. Less is definitely more!
