Book Review: ‘Zero Waste Home’ by Bea Johnson – a useful guide to living more lightly

I love reading books about how people have changed their habits to live a more zero waste lifestyle. They are often inspiring and thought provoking. And its fascinating to read books by authors with different viewpoints about how to live a lower waste life.

This book, Zero Waste Home and the author, Bea Johnson, often pop up on online searches for information about zero waste. It seemed like a must read in the genre, so I asked for it as a Christmas gift.

About Bea Johnson, author of ‘Zero Waste Home’

Bea Johnson is an environmental activist, who was born in France, and now lives in the USA. She is known for reducing her family’s waste to landfill down to a tiny amount each year. Bea started living a more simple lifestyle back in 2006, and is known as a pioneer in waste-free living. Bea’s website is at Zero Waste Home

The Publisher’s blurb about this book

Here is the information from the back of the book:

A brighter future starts at home. Make yours a waste-free sanctuary.

Zero Waste Home is the ultimate guide to simplified, sustainable living from Bea Johnson, author of the popular blog of the same name.

Bea Johnson transformed her family’s health, finances, and relationships for the better by reducing their waste to an astonishing half litre per year.

It’s all down to the 5 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot (and only in that order!). Zero Waste Home shows how these key principles can be applied to every area of your house from the kitchen to the kids’ room, and it’s packed with easy tips for all of us: from buying in bulk and clever meal planning to simply refusing unwanted freebies and using your plants as air fresheners.

Bea Johnson shows, by inspiring example, what green living looks like and offers a practical, step-by-step guide to diminishing your environmental footprint and improving your life.

Penguin Books

What did I think of the book ‘Zero Waste Home’?

This book was a Christmas present in 2018. The end of a year and start of a new one was the perfect time to take on new ideas to reduce our waste output at home. I read this book very quickly, and discovered a few new ideas that I could start at once.

One big change I made after reading the book was to put a ‘No Junk Mail’ sticker on my mailbox. Previously, I had recycled the junk mail, but when I read in Zero Waste Home about the huge volumes of junk mail that may not actually get recycled, I decided to opt out of it completely. And I really haven’t missed having to collect the junk mail, save it up and put it out for recycling!

If you are looking for a comprehensive book on reducing waste if you are just starting on the path, then this would be a fantastic book for you. I would recommend it as a resource of zero waste living ideas for a newbie.

However, as I was already on the path of zero waste living, I felt that there were not a lot of ground breaking ideas for me. This book is not one I have gone back to dip into. In fact, I lent it to a friend and haven’t missed it. So borrowing a copy may be a good idea, as that will reduce waste too!

Further reading suggestions about Zero Waste

There are many great books about living a zero waste lifestyle.

See my post about ten books that I recommend on eco friendly living, sustainability and self sufficiency:

Check out these websites for lists of useful and influential books:

• https://greendreamer.com/journal/zero-waste-lifestyle-books
• https://pollybarks.com/zero-waste-books/
• https://www.zerowastewisdom.com/post/2017/03/30/top-5-zero-waste-books

I would also recommend reading ‘Make, Save, Do’ by Lyn Webster. Please check out my book review about this book, and how useful I found it.