It is 3:30 p.m. on June 15, 2016 on St-Laurent Boulevard. The sun is hitting hard and we don’t complain about it. It’s summer in Montreal. Dorian tells us that he wants to open a zero waste cafe. Two questions arise.
Who is Dorian?
A young Montreal entrepreneur in his twenties, he recently graduated from ÉTS. Clearly, he is one of those whose smile seduces and whose presence delights. Optimistic, voluntary and laughing, he manifests the warmth of heart well recognized by Caribbean cultures. He enjoys cycling (summer and winter), dancing and music. He has been vegan for a while and leads a zero waste lifestyle. Zero waste fascinates him so much that he decided to open a business based on these values. In partnership with Simon Fonseca, in 2016 he opened the café le 5ième on rue de la montagne. He moved in 2017 with a new partner in Verdun, on Wellington Street. The 5th shares a room with the Loco grocery store, also dedicated to zero waste.
What is zero waste?
Zero waste is a strategy for reducing the amount of waste produced by industrial civilization.(wikipédia)
Blogger and speaker Béa Johnson, reference in the field (residual … sorry but it was impossible to remember), known for having popularized the zero waste movement, among other things, through her book Zero waste home, proposes an effective method based on the 3R rule, to which it adds a fundamental principle;
Refuse.
- Refuse
- Reduce
- Reuse
- Recover
To this, we can also add Valuation, which consists of transforming in order to create added value. These principles can be applied both on an industrial and individual scale. In his book, Béa explains how a citizen can drastically reduce their ecological footprint through small actions taken every day. It is an excellent initiation work that we highly recommend.
You can obviously dive into the zero waste universe by visiting our friends from Café le 5ième.
We will soon devote a complete article dedicated to zero waste. So stay tuned by joining our social networks and subscribing to our newsletter!