Filming ∣ 郭兆龙 余冰 马千惠 邓磊 丁阳
Transcription ∣ 李文君
Translation ∣ 董惠玲 Subtitle coordination ∣ 董惠玲 丁嘉琪 曹莉
Hello everyone, I'm Carrie Yu (余元). I'm an advocate of the zero-waste lifestyle. This is all the waste I created in 6 months, less than 0.5kg.
Three years ago, as I was moving apartments, I had an experience that completely changed my lifestyle and consumption habits. I got rid of about 80% of my things and only took about 20% of my items onto my next apartment (which was a temporary apartment).
I suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of ease and freedom. I didn't feel 80% less happy with 80% less stuff, instead, I felt better and freer. I realized that the less I had, the less worries I had.
After a little bit of internet surfing on minimalism related posts and videos, by chance (or by the algorithms set by Youtube), I came across a lady called Bea Johnson and learned that her family of 4 practiced a zero-waste lifestyle. 1 small jar was all the waste the family created in a year!
I suddenly realized that the waste problem is reflected in our daily life all the time.
For example, we can see the tangible garbage, the kitchen waste in our home, the piles of garbage piled up at the entrance of the community, the delivery packaging from our online shopping, the non-recyclable waste piled up in landfill and unsorted waste that finds its way into rivers, lakes, and oceans.
图片: 来自网络
Also, we can't ignore the problem of smog.
The garbage we throw out of the house eventually comes back to our table via the food chain. These irresponsible consumption habits and lifestyle decisions are like a time bomb, which may endanger our life, health and the Earth at any time.
And there is also invisible waste like false marketing that misleads customers to consume blindly and irrationally. Customers shop so that they can compare themselves with others which results in a very bad social atmosphere and have homes crowded with all kinds of things which bring us anxiety and anger.
This invisible waste causes huge negative effects on our physical and mental health. Bea Johnson used the 5R principle to help her reduce waste and live a zero-waste lifestyle conveniently. While I was practicing the zero waste lifestyle I found a 6R principle is actually more effective to reduce waste to zero. Follow the 6R's of zero waste in the order they are written.
The 1st R of zero waste: refuse
Refuse what you do not need.Refuse unnecessary things from coming into your life in the first place. For example, plastic bags at markets and supermarkets, leaflets on the street or when we say yes to the free gifts at an event, this kind of behavior means that I am encouraging for more trees to be cut down or more oil to be extracted.
So, I learned to refuse and it not only helps to prevent those unnecessary things from getting into our lives but also reduces the garbage and solves the garbage classification problem as well.
The 2nd R of zero waste: reduce
For example, I tried a lot, I secretly donated my boyfriend's clothes, because it's much easier to deal with his things than mine.
I can't imagine the changes I've made to simplify my life. I only have what I need in my bathroom, my kitchen, and bedroom.
I used to have two or three hundred items of clothes. I hesitated every morning on "What shall I wear today?" Now all the clothes for all 4 seasons are in 1 wardrobe. I don't have to worry about what to wear in the morning anymore as it's easier to choose when there's less.
The 3rd R of zero waste: reuseReuse what you can't refuse or reduce.
This means replacing all disposable items in your home with reusable ones (first though, make sure you use up what you already have at home). Some examples: use napkins instead of disposable paper towels, use a dish brush where you can replace the head, thus enabling you to reuse the handle part again and again. Get some reusable containers for taking food in bulk from the supermarket or for taking away leftover food at a restaurant. I now have a kit of reusable shopping items instead of taking plastic bags from the market every time I go.
I now choose to buy second-hand goods for the things I need in my life. Some examples of things I have bought over the past couple of years: a hot water bottle, gloves, second-hand furniture, a yoga mat, and the boots I bought for 4 RMB (50p at car boot sale in England)
For daily necessities and sanitary products that you wouldn't buy secondhand, I have a menstrual cup that can be used for longer than a decade. I spend my money more wisely now, I look at things as an investment that can be reused so that my money can go further.
The 4th R of zero waste: repairRepair what can't be refused, reduced or reused.
Repair items that can't be reused in the state they are in. Now, if my computer breaks I will try to repair it. If the clothes are ripped, I will either get them repaired or alter the style (Repurposing).
The 5th R of zero waste: recycling
Recycle what you can't refuse, reduce, reuse or repair.
Recycle items that we can't refuse, reduce, reuse or repair. Zero waste doesn't encourage people to recycle more, but to recycle less. The more you refuse, reduce, reuse and repair, the less recycling there will be. This is a real solution to the waste problem.
According to National Geographic, plastic started to be mass-produced for our daily lives in the 1950s. All the plastic waste generated by human beings is still on this earth, and less than 9% of the plastic has been recycled.
In order to avoid more waste entering our lives, we ship products by reusing boxes. Every few weeks we collect small boxes from the Greenpeace office in Beijing and reuse them.
One example of how I reuse, is I have refillable bottles for shampoo, body wash, etc. I use these at home and when traveling.
When deciding which reusable products to get, I always opt for products that I know can be easily recycled once I can no longer use the item. Of course, I will reuse and reuse an item until it is completely worn out. Products made from aluminum and wood or bamboo are very easily recycled.
The 6th R of zero waste: rot (compost)
Through composting, I eliminate those things in my life that cannot be refused, reduced, reused, repaired or recycled.
Rot is kind of like recycling matter that is biodegradable/compostable, but as recycling more so means to take an item, for example, a plastic bottle and recycle it back into a plastic bottle again, you can see that Rot is a little different from recycling as you are taking many different things and turning them into a completely different thing, nutrient-rich soil.
I can even put zero waste products, such as my bamboo toothbrush into my compost bin.
Things that can go into the compost include: coffee grounds, vegetable peels, stems from dead plants, leaves, hair, fingernails, eggshells and loads of other stuff. The nutrient-rich soil that is created can be used on my plants and flowers or used outside in my community to add nutrients back into the dead soil. By the way, you don't have to freeze your food scraps before putting them into the compost bin, we do this just so we can take fewer trips to our compost bin. We usually fill 1 large metal bowl once a week and then pour the contents into our compost bin which is about 10 meters from our front door (it's inside an apartment building, but don't worry, it doesn't smell).
Remember: follow the 6R's of zero waste in the order they are written.One year after practicing the zero waste lifestyle, I founded THE BULK HOUSE, the first zero-waste social enterprise in China, and it soon got a lot of media attention. A couple of videos that went out in 2018 about our story went viral on the internet, 1 went viral internationally and another went viral nationally.Like everything in life, I meet people who agree with this lifestyle and others that question it and perhaps try to reject it. For example, some people may think that this way of life is unrealistic, and others think that no matter how hard I try to help the environment, it will be pointless, nothing will change.
We even have some people who think we are not doing enough as we use toilet paper when we go to the bathroom, or because we occasionally eat meat and so that makes us hypocrites.
At the same time, we have huge support and this support keeps us going! It helps us wake up every day and fight to change the habits of society in the hope that more and more people will adopt the zero waste lifestyle and work together to make the world a more beautiful place to live.
We do receive some pushback from people saying that the zero waste lifestyle will cause problems for the economy, but, I see it the opposite way, it will boost the economy. We can all live happily whilst still consuming, we just need to consume more consciously and wisely and use products that work with nature not harm it. The whole repair economy can be brought back into society to replace the throwaway society. We can start to spend more money on educating ourselves, buying healthier food, travel (with less flying hopefully), entertainment, etc. We don't need to spend so much of our salary on more stuff.
This way of life has brought me so many benefits, not just simple pleasures of feeling good about helping the planet. I used to scroll aimlessly down e-commerce websites, but, since living the zero waste lifestyle I have started saving 50% more than I used to.
Of course, I still buy things from time-to-time, but because I choose secondhand over new, I have saved money getting items such as my a straw hat (below), a retro belt, secondhand handbag or I will buy more consciously and opt for organic cotton over cotton. Also, I support sustainable brands more.
For the daily necessities, I only buy durable and environmentally friendly products that I really need.
For food, I only buy fresh food without packaging in bulk, which not only reduces the use of single-use plastic but also means I eat a lot healthier.
Saving time is the most satisfying thing for me. In this era of time is money, who doesn't want to have more time and freedom? I can now spend more time on experiences in life, I recently went skydiving for the first time and I also learned how to ride a horse.
When you have fewer items, you need less time to clean things, store things, organize things and maintain things. When we reject unneeded items and unwanted gifts, we avoid wasting more time on things, such as: where to put these new items we didn't want or need and also save time, as said before, on deciding what to wear.
I used to eat processed and packaged food, now I will choose more natural and organic fresh fruits and vegetables without packaging. Eating healthy foods means that I sleep better, and waking up feeling refreshed means you have a happier day.
A big benefit of zero waste is feeling happier and healthier, which saves you a lot of money on not needing to buy medicine for the body or for the mind.
So what changes can we make as individuals? For example, we can order takeout (Waimai外卖) less, refuse single-use straws (refuse paper straws and plastic straws) and drink less bottled water.
Vote with your money. As consumers, we have the right to put forward the requirements we want from the brand. Because every time you consume you are voting, it is up to us to decide what future we want to vote for, for ourselves and for future generations.
Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."And, so, I shall leave you with this: We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.Can you be one of those millions?Please follow THE BULK HOUSE 零浪费生活 and if this story inspired you at least a little bit, please share it on your Moments or share it with a friend.Love from THE BULK HOUSE Team.TEDx Speaker: Carrie Yu (Yu Yuan - 余元)
Social innovator, an advocate of the zero-waste lifestyle. She co-founded THE BULK HOUSE, a social enterprise dedicated to advocating the zero-waste lifestyle, encouraging people to better understand waste and work towards waste reduction through the 6R's of zero waste (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Rot), and then experience freedom, happiness and comfort brought from zero waste living.
In early August 2017, Carrie and her partner Joe Harvey set themselves a three-month zero waste challenge, resulting in only two jars of waste. At the beginning of 2018, the first zero-waste store was opened in mainland China, it attracted the attention of a lot of media both in China and abroad, 1 in particular which included an original video shot by Yi Tiao (一条) which reached over 38 million people.
THE BULK HOUSE 是中国首家致力于倡导零浪费生活的社会企业，通过组织分享零浪费的主题系列活动和内容来引导人们与自然和平共处，并提供一系列日常实用且独具美感的零浪费好物，旨在帮助人们轻松开启一站式零浪费生活之旅。THE BULK HOUSE 为了提倡环境保护，加入1% For The Planet "1%地球税” 的国际环保组织，将产品售出的1%收入捐献给这个组织。我们也将一直支持 “1%地球税”，并希望将我们企业为地球带来的负担降低到最小。
THE BULK HOUSE is the 1st social enterprise in China committed to promoting the zero waste lifestyle. We do this in 3 ways: ① Create and promote valuable content. ② Organising events revolving around the 6R's in our logo. ③ Provide environmentally friendly products to make the zero waste lifestyle more convenient for all. We are proud to be a 1% For The Planet member. This means we contribute at least 1% of our annual sales to environmental causes.
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