Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Gathering too much waste? Here’s how to can it
SHE’S known as the guru of zero waste and is touring South Africa this month to show how and why a zero-waste lifestyle can be achieved.
Bea Johnson, a lifestyle blogger whose Zero Waste Home blog has an international following, spoke in Cape Town last night, sharing her tips.
When Johnson and her family began downsizing their lives, it was the start of their zero-waste journey – they lived in a home that was half the size of their original one.
“We started reading up on environmental issues and some shocked me, while others made me cry. That’s when we decided to change our ways for the sake of our kids’ future and aim for zero waste,” she said.
Her move towards living a zerowaste lifestyle began just over a decade ago, when, in 2006, she and her husband moved homes to be able to walk or ride everywhere.
“Before finding our small house, we rented an apartment for a year, moved in with only a few necessities and we stored the rest. We immediately realised the benefits of living with less as we had more time to do the things that are important to us, such as spending time with family and friends, and exploring/ enjoying the outdoors.
“When we then bought a house, which is half the size of the previous one, we let go of 80% of our belongings including those we had stored,” she said.
During the recession in the US, Johnson said her husband Scott resigned from his job and started a sustainability consulting company, and then she used the same principles in their home and lifestyle.
“We’ve been waste-free ever since,” she said.
On her website is an image of a small glass jar, with bits and bobs on the inside – the items on the inside are the only waste materials her family, including teenage sons Max and Leo, generated over the previous year.
“The advantages have been so great, time and money savings in particular. We could not envision going back to the way we used to live and we now see our past life as inefficient, a waste of time and money,” she said. So how does she do it? Johnson promotes the 5Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot, concepts she will unpack in her talk.
In her daily life, Johnson explains how she achieves zero waste when shopping: “I go to the grocery store once a week. I bring our grocery list which the family fills in throughout the week. We avoid grocery shopping waste by bringing reusable totes, cloth bags (for dry goods sold in the bulk aisle), and jars (for wet items like cheese and deli foods) to the store or farmer’s market.”
The last “R” for rot may be the tricky one, but Johnson said there were different composting systems available. “There is one out there to answer the very needs and specifics of each household. I created a tool in my book to help people find one that works for their dwelling and diet.”
Flat-dwellers who do not have access to pavement refuse pick-up can use a worm bin (on a balcony or a corner of the kitchen) or an undercounter composter (it digests fast, but requires electricity to run). “They can also take their scraps to a gardening club,” she said.
Johnson said the key to growing the zero-waste culture was teaching children the impact of wasteful habits through picking up litter, taking a tour of the local wastemanagement agency, or playing games in sorting materials, and the tools to avoid it through basic cooking or mending skills.