Small everyday gestures

- limit your water consumption (small tips: make the water run weaker when doing the dishes, or even turn off the tap while soaping yourself in the shower, reduce your time in the shower, shower rather than bath, put a bottle in your toilet tank to limit the liters evacuated ...) and electricity (little tips: turn off your multi-plugs at night or unplug unused objects to avoid "sleep" mode ", put low consumption bulbs, favor certain manual devices over electronic gadgets ...)

 

 

 

Life in society

1. Living without a car (Managing travel: not always possible to live without but ...)

We carry out our daily trips ... by bike of course!

But also on foot, and when it is necessary to go further, by tram, bus, stop, carpooling ... and sometimes by train.

So obviously, we have already flown, our old trips are not exempt from this mode of transport. However, this did not prevent us from becoming aware of the ecological impact of our trips, on the contrary, and this is in particular what led us to choose the bicycle as a means of transport for our journey to Asia.

 

2. Don't succumb to temptation

We are not big consumers.

It may seem trivial, but the society in which we evolve incessantly incites us to always more: buy more efficient, newer, prettier, in larger quantity ... So we try to go to the essentials as long as we do this may, by favoring barter and second-hand purchases, only turn to the new as a last resort.

And for this trip precisely, we had to make some concessions: we needed solid bikes equipped with several new parts, as well as a renewal of our bivouac equipment, not adapted to the great cold. But this is part of a sustainable use of our equipment, which we do not intend to replace and even less discard at the first opportunity.

 

Food

Little by little, we have become used to shopping in local shops, favoring short circuits and organic or sustainable farming methods .

This helps support local producers, and avoids participating in intensive agriculture which pollutes and depletes our land. It also allows you to live by the seasons, often forgotten in urban areas and in supermarkets. And above all, it's much better!

This interest in nature and the desire to preserve it gave us the desire to participate in eco-volunteering missions, particularly in the field of permaculture, in order to learn more about this way of life and promote it.

 

Zero waste

In order to go further, we have gradually moved towards zero-waste ... or almost!

In town, not so easy. We have already had to find a place to compost our food waste: and as vegetarians (or almost, because Antoine is not completely so), it makes quite a difference when the vegetable peelings no longer pile up in the trash can. Luckily, the neighboring residence had a composter (and even so, cities are installing more and more public composers; we also had them in a neighboring district).

We then continued our efforts with the purchase of food, household and cosmetic products in bulk, therefore without packaging. At first, we re-use our paper bags, but in the long run, they wear out, and we always end up taking up new ones. We therefore chose sachets made of washable and reusable fabrics: and there, we are starting to be pretty good in our reduction of waste.

Finally, to finish, our household and cosmetic products are homemade: detergent, toothpaste, moisturizer, deodorant, etc. And of course: no paper towels, plastic film, cleansing discs, cotton swabs and others at home (for tissues, this is not yet unanimous ...): we live very well without, we assure you.

 

Results

We do not hide from you a few small odd ones from time to time, just to have fun (after all, we remain human, and above all, we can always do better); but overall, we manage to reduce our household waste to 10L per month and 20 to 30L for selective sorting, and we have greatly reduced our carbon footprint, without remaining enclosed within 4 walls and forgetting our passions.

Efforts rewarded therefore, but above all a reward for our planet, and efforts that have become easy habits to maintain and almost a passion (for certain in any case).