Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life

Excellent, excellent book! The author speaks from own practice and sticks to the principles presented in the book! You can tell that the book came as a result of her life experience and the solutions she had found to the challenges of living a zero waste life! The book presents lots of practical ideas and solutions, anyone can find some good advice in it even if not trying to live a zero waste life. The book can be highly inspiring and motivational. I highly recommend it! I haven't managed to put everything into practice, not because is not possible, but because I am not disciplined and organized enough. But I am not giving up, I am still on my journey and I know I will get there!

I've always been interested in ways of being less wasteful and helping the environment, but I've never really done enough or made a real effort to get started. This book collects everything together into quite a comprehensive guide to how you can reduce waste and become more environmentally conscious. It's full of a lot of good information that really helps you to get started or go a bit deeper on your journey. However, as others have mentioned, there are provisos. For a start, Bea is a bit of a yummy mummy character with a lot of time on her hands. She doesn't work, so she clearly has time to char almonds to make eyeliner, craft things out of felt and make her own jam. Obviously most of us with 9-5 jobs do not. That's not to say you can't implement some of the ideas though - just probably not many of us are going to switch to moss for toilet paper, cocoa for blush and vinegar for conditioner. She does seem to take things to rather an extreme: maximising right turns to save fuel (!), making all her own 'makeup' from arrowroot powder and suchlike, and making a fuss about the tiny bit of paper on the back of a stamp. This doesn't really resonate with most people. We could all make a huge difference just by buying veg loose at the market, switching paper towels for cloths and avoiding bottled water or takeaway coffee, for example. Bea's 110% approach is a bit off-putting to some. That said, Bea gives us a lot of information on how to be zero waste in a way that isn't smelly and tree-hugging. You don't have to wear sandals or tie flowers in your hair if you don't want to. I think everyone should read it, and if you only implement around 1/3 of her tips you'll already be doing a great job. Many of them are not practical if you have a job or don't live next to an organic farmer's market. However a lot of them are very very effective, and if people start improving their habits just a bit, she will have done an amazing job. Thanks Bea.

This is a super book to help you on your eco journey. Very practical and down to earth and with some really good ideas.

What an amazing book. I have been reading Bea's blog for sometime but having it all put together in one place, with a lot of extra bits was just great. Easy to read, well researched (she does this day in day out) and truly inspirational. You get a lot of book for your money. It's like the modern version of the tightwad gazette, but the focus is on being green and kind to the planet, with the upside of saving your cash too. If you are remotley interested in 'green' lifestyle you will love this book. Hope she does more!!

I began this book with an open mind, and at first I thought that what the author had undertaken was pretty impressive. And let's be fair, it is impressive. She has thrown a tremendous amount of energy, time and imagination into figuring out how to reduce (potential) waste from entering her home. She outlines how she went about it, and she goes into quite a lot of detail. If you want a zero waste home, this is the book for you. I had several problems with the book: The first problem is that as a UK reader, it's difficult to put most of this into practice, because we simply don't have the bulk shopping opportunities here that there clearly are in the US. My second issue is that despite the undoubtedly admirable nature of the efforts made by the author to reduce waste in her orbit, one can't help thinking that someone with this much creative energy is wasted in a single domestic setting. I would have preferred to read her story about how she designed and manufactured an eco-effective product of the type described in 'Cradle to Cradle' one of the books that she says was an inspiration to her. The impact of her efforts, and the efforts that she's exhorting others to make, are small and unlikely to make the sort of difference that is needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. I'm not sure I have time to consider whether I keep bathroom products that were given to me as gifts because I feel guilty about getting rid of them or whether I want it because everyone else has one. That doesn't seem to me to be a good use of anyone's time. While I can see that reducing 'stuff' is a good idea, the author's approach often seems more akin to purging. I'm not sure that I need to be rescued from my moisturiser just yet. It seems to me that the author may have been confused at times about whether what she was attempting to create a minimalist home or a zero waste one. There were a lot of suggestions that might result in very tiny savings in time: store the bread knife with the bread, toss salads with your bare hands (really?), and how to give yourself a zero-waste pedicure (really? really?). The final thing that really got up my nose were the comments about how to handle diapers/nappies. As the mother of two children who wear nappies, I felt quite irritated to read 'If I had a baby at home, I would reduce by implementing elimination communication (EC) a method that can get a baby diaper free before his first birthday'. If you're not familiar with it, it's a method of communicating with a baby so you know when they need to go and can hold them over the toilet. That's totally fine for her to suggest, but it feels a bit holier-than-thou to have her say what she would have done, given that her children are out of diapers. So I would say useful and interesting, but also quite annoying.

Es un excelente libro para despertar conciencia respecto a situaciones que todos vivimos, fomentamos, y muchas veces ni nos damos cuenta. El tópico es el cero desperdicio, pero el cambio de vida que debe ir apegado a este objetivo es de tal magnitud, que se agradece mucho contar con material tan dedicado y esforzado. En mi opinión no es la fuente de todo el conocimiento para zero waste, pero si es un excelente parte aguas para encontrar tu propio camino hacia una vida más responsable y ligera de equipaje.

Every one should read this

Aun lo estoy leyendo pero es muy interesante! Ayuda a convencerte de que los cambios que estas haciendo son normales y necesarios. Comprar a granel, reducir la cantidad de coses en el hogar, cambiar hábitos, valorar cosas inmateriales, etc. Ojalá todos llevásemos un estilo de vida más parecido al descrito en este libro.

Superbe livre. Après l'avoir parcouru une fois (et il existe en français :o), j'avais l'impression de ne rien savoir sur l'économie dans une maison! Même si elle est un peu extrême, (brosse à dents en bois - je garderai ma brosse à dents électrique, merci), il y a beaucoup beaucoup d'idées ici que je pense adopter ou au moins réfléchir. Génial pour les jeunes ménages et aussi, pour celles/ceux qui voient l'argent partir et ne savent pas où!!! Elle parle d'acheter en vrac (que je fais déjà et c'est fou ce qu'on économise) mais aussi, des petites choses qu'on ne pense pas et qui coutent cher à a longue (des sparadraps avec Mickey, du savon pour chaque usage dans la même maison, les sprays, etc. J'aime beaucoup ce livre où elle admet aussi qu'elle a eu des échecs, ce qui est encourageant tout de même. Super cadeau à faire, ou se faire à soi même!

Ich beschäftige mich immer mehr mit den Worten "Bio", "plastikfreies Leben" und "wie kann ich, als Individuum, der Umwelt helfen". Meine Tochter geht in einen Waldorfkindergarten und von dort habe ich den ersten Impuls erhalten, mein Handeln zu überdenken und zu ändern. Dieses Buch gibt Ideen was man selber tun kann, ohne mit erhobenen Zeigefinger zu wedeln. Die Autorin gibt einem kein schlechtes Gefühl, weil man ihr Leben nicht zu 100% teilt und umsetzen kann. Man bekommt eine Schritt für Schritt Anleitung, mit vielen Ideen und Denkanstößen. Ausserdem "Rezepte" zur Herstellung von Make-up. Wer der englischen Sprache mächtig ist und den eigenen Umgang mit der Natur ändern möchte, sollte dieses Buch lesen (gerne aus Zweiter Hand) Mir hat es sehr gut gefallen, ich konnte vieles umsetzen und nehme es immer wieder in die Hand