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Deborah Munk
Bea Johnson was an au pair from France who went on to found her own company focused on personal sustainability. After her family was temporarily forced to live in a small apartment, she decided she liked it and that she wanted to create her own “Zero Waste Home.” While some criticized her sustainability ideas for being superficial, many of her critics seemed irrationally angry because they felt that by focusing on the home, Johnson was attacking their own consumerist values. Johnson represents the role that individuals and households can play in responding to the U.S. garbage crisis.
Bea Johnson Quotes in Garbology
The Garbology quotes below are all either spoken by Bea Johnson or refer to Bea Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 12
Quotes
That’s when Bea Johnson finally got it: There’s power in putting things down instead of putting them in your shopping cart. There’s power in saying no—the power to change a family’s life and fortune. Maybe a community’s. Maybe a whole country’s.
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Johnson and her zero-waste crusade are a whole different animal. She has identified a problem not on a campus or a beach but inside everyone’s home and lifestyle. And her family has responded by transforming itself in a dramatic way, becoming happier and more prosperous by rejecting the consumer economy and lifestyle most Americans live and breathe. Is there any wonder why this angers so many people? Agreeing with the Johnsons’ views means you either have to accept living a wasteful life, or change.
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Get the entire Garbology LitChart as a printable PDF.
Bea Johnson Quotes in Garbology
The Garbology quotes below are all either spoken by Bea Johnson or refer to Bea Johnson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 12
Quotes
That’s when Bea Johnson finally got it: There’s power in putting things down instead of putting them in your shopping cart. There’s power in saying no—the power to change a family’s life and fortune. Maybe a community’s. Maybe a whole country’s.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Johnson and her zero-waste crusade are a whole different animal. She has identified a problem not on a campus or a beach but inside everyone’s home and lifestyle. And her family has responded by transforming itself in a dramatic way, becoming happier and more prosperous by rejecting the consumer economy and lifestyle most Americans live and breathe. Is there any wonder why this angers so many people? Agreeing with the Johnsons’ views means you either have to accept living a wasteful life, or change.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
