A zero-waste life is a lifestyle that hardly creates any rubbish. “Zero waste” was first suggested by a French woman called Bea Johnson. Her idea is: live a life and try not to create any rubbish; use different kinds of ways to save the environment, such as stopping the use of one-off objects; giving unwanted things to others or donating these things to organisations like the Red Cross.
零浪费生活是一种几乎不产生任何垃圾的生活方式。“零浪费”最初是由一位名叫碧·约翰逊的法国女士提出的。她的理念是：过一种尽量不产生任何垃圾的生活；通过各种方式来保护环境，如停止使用一次性物品；将不需要的东西送给他人或捐给红十字会等组织。
A zero-waste life follows the 6R rule--Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle and Rot. Chen Yuan, 27, is deeply interested in this idea. She and her boyfriend Joe have lived in Beijing for many years. Over August-October when Chen followed the rule of zero waste 6R, she and her boyfriend both produced only two cans of rubbish. Now the couple have opened a small shop in Beijing, where they use wood products to take the place of plastic ones and cloth bags printed with environmental logos. The store also has second-hand books and CDs to make the best of the used things.
零浪费生活遵循“6R”原则--Refuse（拒绝）、Reduce（减少）、Reuse（再利用）、Repair（修理）、Recycle（回收）和 Rot（堆肥降解）。27 岁的陈媛对这个理念非常感兴趣。她和男友乔已经在北京生活了很多年。在 8 月至 10 月期间，陈媛遵循了零浪费“6R”原则，她和男友只产生了两罐垃圾。现在，这对情侣在北京开了一家小店，店里用木制品代替塑料制品，还使用印有环保标志的布袋（代替塑料袋）。店里还有二手书和光盘，以充分利用已使用过的物品。
“The zero-waste lifestyle is not for ascetics. It is just around us.” Chen is devoting herself to the zero-waste lifestyle. She expects some of her friends to join her on the road to zero waste.
“零浪费的生活方式并不是给苦行僧们准备的。它其实就在我们身边。”陈媛自己正致力于零浪费的生活方式。她希望她的一些朋友们也能加入她的“零浪费”之路。