http://blogs.marinij.com/northbaywoman/the-bea-johnson-lifestyle/
Johnson (her first name is pronounced Bay-ah), 44, born and raised in France, came to the United States at age 18 to be an au pair. She is the founder of the blog and web site Zero Waste Home, and author of the best-selling how-to manual “Zero Waste Home” that grew out of her blogging.
She’s a character. She’s passionate. She speaks with the zeal of a fanatic, but with a warm twinkle in her glacier-blue eyes that tells you she’s having a ball living a dedicated zero waste lifestyle with her husband Scott and two teenage sons on board, supporting her ideals and practicing them alongside her.
The family uses cut-up washable towels, washcloths or rags instead of paper towels. (“Men are addicted to paper towels. It takes time to get them to use rags instead,” she laughs.) They use no plastic bags or containers, only glass containers that are washable and re-usable. Instead of tissues, they use handkerchiefs. Everything in the home, from cereals to flours to nuts to washing detergent to liquid soap, is bought in bulk. All commercial cleaning products have been traded in for white vinegar and water, sometimes baking soda.
When it comes to the kitchen, there are no processed foods. Fresh bread is carried home from bakeries in clean pillowcases. Leftovers are stored in glass containers. Instead of paper napkins, the family uses cloth. They’ve eliminated sandwich bags, aluminum foil, plastic wrap and freezer bags.
“We rarely freeze leftovers because I reinvent them right away; I am on top of our food inventory,” Johnson says. “We do not waste any food at our house.
“Zero waste becomes a lifestyle when you let it simplify, rather than complicate, your life,” she continues.
The family discovered that as they practiced zero waste, they were saving up to 40 percent of the money they used to spend on things, random stuff, standard American heavily packaged products. Impulse buys.
“We were able to use the money we saved to afford to do things that we wouldn’t have thought possible before,” Johnson says.
“We’ve gone ice climbing, snorkeling with humpback whales, the kids have now traveled in more than 20 countries. As we went deeper into zero waste, we discovered that we were having a life based on experience instead of things; a life based on being rather than having. For us, that’s what makes life richer.”
