Zero-waste life simpler, happier

By ALPHONSE BARIASI
THE New York Times described her as the Priestess of Waste-Free Living while CNN simply called her the Mother of Zero-Waste Lifestyle.
Priestess or mother, Bea Johnson does not preach nor admonish others about their waste in their households or the needless clutter they pile up not knowing what to do with it. She simply tells what her life is and that if anyone else chooses to, they can emulate her and be surprised by the results.
Heroine of zero-waste living, founder of Zero Waste Home, she left her native France as an 18-year-old to travel to America in 1995 in search of a job and to polish her heavily-accented English.
After a fruitless job hunt she was about to leave when she met American, Scott Johnson who proposed to her the day before her planned departure.
Today, 23 years on, she is settled in a cozy little San Francisco Bay home in California, a proud mother of two teenage boys (one of whom has left the coop for a computing science degree at a Canadian university), an internationally-recognised author and motivational speaker.
Through social media and her book, Johnson inspires a growing international community to live simply and make a change against needless waste.
She has over 300,000 followers on social media, her book Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your life by Reducing your Waster, has been translated into 25 languages, she has spoken at presentations in 58 countries and multi-national forums like the United Nations and European Commission.
Her passion and positive outlook have earned her appearances on TV and in publications around the world.
Grand prize winner of “The Green Awards” in 2011, she regularly speaks at universities, corporate events and conferences. She has become the spokesperson for the Zero Waste lifestyle.
She manages to talk about her personal journey with humour and without preaching. Her family’s simple lifestyle is based on the 5Rs rule:
Refuse – things not needed
Reduce – clutter and let go what is not important
Reuse – disposable items for those that can be re-used
Recycle – only those items that cannot be refused, reduced or recycled.
Rot – (or compost) items that can enrich the soil.
In adopting this 5Rs, the Johnsons have been able to reduce their annual household waste to a mere jar-full or about a kilogram.
Her waste-free lifestyle has caught the attention of Port Moresby-based Shirley Yip, founder Zero Waste PNG who contacted Johnson to book an engagement.
Yip started Zero Waste PNG out of a concern and passion for a cleaner environment and through her own research and inquiries, found out about the amazing and simple life of the Johnsons – and their unbelievable quart of annual waste.
Through the sponsorship support of Travel Service, Lamana Hotel, Sport Fishing PNG, DAC Real Estate – and The National as event promoter, Zero Waste PNG was able to host Johnson on Tuesday evening at the Lamana Hotel.
Port Moresby residents who turned up heard first hand from Johnson what she and her family had started which has now become a worldwide movement.
In her usually humourous and disarming manner, she made the presentation of what her family of four and a pint-sized dog were able achieve over the past few years.
Yip showed a video of distressing images taken in other localities around the world of wildlife trapped or feeding of plastic waste mainly and challenged her audience.
“This may not be happening in PNG but should we wait until we are like others? Be the ripple, be that point of origin of change, and start the dialogue.”
Johnson, who has been travelling the world constantly on her mission, flew into Port Moresby from Beijing and following Tuesday evening’s presentation, travelled to Manila.
Her presentation was “evidence-based” showing her clutter-free home and a lifestyle some might think is frugal and lacking fun and pleasure.
Far from it, Johnson says her family, through de-cluttering their lives have now time for the important things in their lives, save home finances by up to 40 per cent and rid their lives of ailments they had unwittingly encouraged through their previous lifestyle of excesses in everything they had and did.
Every part of their home has the bare essentials for enjoyable and comfortable family living. They buy their groceries package-free meaning they walk in with their own jars or bags to shop.
The package-free shopping craze has caught on in Canada and in elsewhere around the world so a number of supermarkets or “tuck shops” have adopted it.
“Packing actually takes away the real taste of food,” Bea says.
She also points out that up to 15 per cent of the cost of items is for packaging.
“Plastic is not only toxic when used; toxins in plastic wrappings are transferred to food,” she adds. And she and her family are able to tell the real taste of food from anything tampered by its packing.
So how does a Californian family’s lifestyle apply to PNG household and can it work here?
“You can do whatever is possible in your own region or community,” Johnson says.
As for the widespread use of plastic in packaging – bottles and bags, she has this to say: “Manufacturing can change when consumers demand such change. There can be an exchange or recycling of containers instead of using disposable ones.”
We can, like her, change our own lifestyles from “having” to simply “being”. And she guarantees that we can enjoy life a lot more if our homes are clutter-free. But like all change, it will be painful in the beginning and naturally needs be gradual.
Johnson’s 5Rs are applicable in any economy or living standard of the world were all can refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot.
She quotes Mahatma Ghandi: “Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.”
It was Johnson’s first trip and speaking engagement in Port Moresby and it is hoped it is not going to be the last. There has been interest generated via social media and inquiries have reached Zero Waste PNG from other places like Alotau and Popondetta.