Zero Waste is today a well-known concept that we often hear about. It is a movement that advocates a more environmentally friendly way of life. An emergency at a time when the effects of global warming caused in particular by human overconsumption are increasingly noticeable. The younger generations seem to be more aware of Zero Waste, but seniors are not left out, especially since very simple daily actions to implement make it possible to adopt practices intended to protect our environment, even when one is part of older generations!
Faced with the climate emergency and the deterioration of our environment, we have been hearing about the "Zero Waste" movement for ten years now. What is it exactly?
People who join the Zero Waste movement adopt a lifestyle that consists of preventing the production of waste as much as possible. Waste, made up of various materials, is in fact the first cause of the depletion of our resources. Then, their treatment is not without posing problems for the environment since a large part of this waste is not recyclable and pollutes our soils, our waters, etc.
According to data from the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe), nearly 5 tonnes of waste are produced per inhabitant in France if we consider all waste from households, businesses, construction, etc. Mainly household waste represents just over 400 kg per inhabitant per year.
Joining the Zero Waste movement, practiced at the international level, does not mean actually succeeding in no longer producing waste at all on the scale of each individual (even if this movement is also applied by more and more companies today), but to make sure to adopt a way of life which reduces them as much as possible. Zero Waste is also most often associated with nature-friendly food consumption approaches, such as organic or vegetarianism.
If there are many associations, and in particular groups on social networks, which advocate Zero Waste and provide solutions to achieve it, most of the time, each of us adopts practices intended to eliminate as much as possible our production of waste without being aware of belonging to this movement.
If the younger generations seem to be the ones who opt the most for the Zero Waste movement because they are more aware of the urgency of protecting our environment, seniors, and in particular the oldest among them who grew up before the advent of the overconsumption society, the Trente Glorieuses, have been making sure for a long time, without knowing it but intuitively, to produce the minimum of waste and protect the planet through their lifestyles. Most often, in fact, they have not been accustomed to wasting and the elderly use "grandmother's recipes" which prove to be economical and ecological (for example using coffee grounds as fertilizer for the garden rather than toxic and waste-producing pesticides, use glass jars to preserve food rather than plastic containers, etc.).
But the seniors known as "boomers", those who have taken full advantage of the Glorious Thirties, without being really resistant to the Zero Waste approach, are having a hard time changing their very "plastic" habits, while simple gestures newspaper make it very easy to subscribe to this movement.
The Zero Waste movement was popularized in particular by a Frenchwoman living in the United States, Béa Johnson, who published in 2013 a book entitled Zero Waste Home:the Ultimate Guide to Simplifying your Life by Reducing your Waste , that is to say in French "Zero Waste - how I made 40% savings by reducing my waste to less than one liter per year!". Since then, many books have addressed the practice of Zero Waste, some of which summarize the practice of this movement in 5 easy-to-implement rules:refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, compost.
Concretely, going to Zero Waste is first and foremost very simply refusing packaging and anything you don't need in general. For example, for your shopping, prefer shops that offer bulk purchase where you bring your own fabric bags or glass jars to put your products. Or, in traditional supermarkets, refuse to buy products whose packaging, most often plastic, makes up a large part of our waste:then favor cardboard packaging or bring your own cloth bags with you to put your fruits, vegetables, etc. Another example:opt for tap water as a drink rather than plastic bottled water.
Reduce consumption is also a solution to move towards Zero Waste. In many areas, it is preferable to turn, for example, to rental for equipment that you rarely use, for example.
Reuse is the 3rd rule advocated by the Zero Waste movement. Here too, simple actions can limit the production of waste. Repairing an object, for example, rather than throwing it away and buying a new one, or even, in terms of clothing, prefer second-hand clothes, that is to say, bought in second-hand shops. Finally, it is enough to replace single-use products with reusable ones.
Recycle is also a key word in terms of Zero Waste. This practice consists in banishing as much as possible from its consumption all materials that cannot be recycled, in particular plastics which pollute our environment.
Finally, subscribing to Zero Waste also means eliminating from our household waste all that can be composted . This type of waste fills our bins when it is possible to easily transform it into compost, a very useful fertilizer for our gardens or our indoor plants. And, in this way, you significantly reduce waste which, otherwise, must be treated, most often harmful to our environment.
