How to Create a Zero-Waste Home

Take a peek inside your garbage can. Chances are the trash is overflowing. But for Mill Valley, Calif., resident Bea Johnson and her family, a wine glass worth of waste is all they have -- for the past six months.

Johnson, her husband and two young sons have adopted a zero-waste lifestyle. The family lives by a rule of "the four Rs"-- refuse, reduce, reuse and, as a last resort, recycle (the goal is to avoid bringing anything into the house that must eventually be discarded).

How do they do it? Johnson says a big part of their new lifestyle is refusing. She now offers a polite "No thank you no" to freebies -- pens, pencils and knickknacks at conferences, fliers handed out on the street, favors from parties.

"Every time you take [something free], you're condoning it, and you're basically saying 'Yes, please do more,'" says Johnson, a 36-year-old artist and entrepreneur.

Another huge factor in maintaining a zero-waste home is eliminating packaging from the grocery store. Every Friday, Johnson heads to the market armed with three totes, mesh produce bags, five quart-sized glass jars (for deli, meat, fish, cheese and one extra) and cloth bags for dry goods such as baguettes. She also brings empty egg cartons to the farmer's market to refill them with fresh eggs.

As far as leftovers, she says, hardly any food gets thrown out or composted -- everything in the house gets eaten or reinvented into another dish. "We basically have zero waste on auto-pilot," Johnson says.

She started tackling waste about three years ago after the family downsized from a 3,000-square-foot home to a house half the size. The Johnsons had put many of their belongings in storage, and living without all of their possessions made them realize it would be easier to maintain their household with less stuff and that they also would have more time for family activities. Most of the bulky furniture from the old house had to be sold because it wouldn't fit in the new house. In total, Johnson estimates they sold about 80 percent of their belongings.

At the same time, Johnson and her husband, Scott, 47, started educating themselves about environmental issues. Scott began working at a startup that helps large companies improve their sustainability methods. Bea focused on minimizing waste and finding alternatives for every piece of trash the family generated.

Last year, Johnson started a blog called The Zero Waste Home, where she chronicles the family's eco-friendly lifestyle and offers advice to others. "The only way I was going to get further in my waste reduction was by letting the word out," she says. She also runs a business, Be Simpler, and helps people de-clutter their homes.

Johnson concedes that some amount of trash is inevitable. "No one can really be fully zero waste if you have a house, which needs maintenance, and you have a body and you have to take medicine," she says. "You're going to have trash somehow." But, she says, there's almost always an alternative to using disposable items.

Here are 10 things that the Johnson family does regularly to reduce waste.

1. Bring glass jars, totes, cloth bags, and cartons to the grocery store to carry food.

2. Buy in bulk. It eliminates packaging and can be more economical in the long run.

3. Refill clean empty wine bottles at local wine bottling events instead of buying new ones.

4. Use microfiber cloths instead of paper towels.

5. Consolidate multiple cleaning products into one or two cleaners that do the job just as well -- or, better still, make your own multipurpose cleaner. Johnson uses only one cleaner for everything in the house -- a combination of vinegar, water and castile soap.

6. Use handkerchiefs instead of paper tissues.

7. When buying makeup products, choose a company that takes its packaging back and recycles it. Johnson suggests Mac Cosmetics as one example.

8. Only recycle paper if it's been printed on both sides. Otherwise, use the blank side for making lists or jotting down notes.

9. Use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins.

10. When packing a lunch, wrap sandwiches or other food in a cloth napkin instead of using wax paper, plastic wrap or plastic bags.

For more advice, check out the tips page on Johnson's blog.

By the way, if you're wondering what's inside the Johnsons' wine glass of trash, here's a rundown: bubble gum, a plastic wrapper from a medicine bottle, varnish from hardwood floors, packaging from a pack of sewing needles, foil from a wine bottle, a candy wrapper, and bits and pieces from electrical work around the house.