Some call it “spring cleaning”: Ademe, the Agency for Ecological Transition, has made it a full-scale operation to try to warn of overconsumption. Twenty-one families were therefore accompanied for seven months by a coach to sort through their belongings, with the aim of raising their awareness of more responsible consumption.
Overconsumption: families coached by Ademe to sort out their cupboards. Etienne Monin’s report
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If Amélie embarked on this funny adventure, it is more because she felt invaded by the mess in her house than by activism or by commitment to sobriety in consumption. This 40-year-old lives in a house in Brive-la-Gaillarde with her companion and the three daughters of this blended family. For her, there were too many things in the house. “It’s true that we had everything double at the start when we moved in, even if we had nevertheless sold one of the two sofas, one or two televisionsshe explains. But we still had a lot of things left: children’s things, toys, clothes, shoes, games…”
A coach from Ademe therefore came knocking on their door to offer them a sorting method. The idea is to open our eyes to what is not useful. And it’s pretty spectacular for the whole family, including the two big girls.
“The girls are young and at that age you don’t think you can accumulate so much stuff. At 13, they had a lot of clothes to sort through and it did them good!”
Amélie, coached by Ademeat franceinfo
According to Ademe, the accumulation is particularly high for toys, electrical appliances and clothing. The mode of consumption is no longer compatible with the resources, according to Pierre Galio, head of the responsible consumption department at the Agency for Ecological Transition. “The object of the study was to respond to one of the challenges of the transition, which is to limit flows, to pay attention to resources and greenhouse gas emissions, he underlines. This equipment item is very symbolic of our lifestyles.”
“This overconsumption, this very frequent renewal and this accumulation are very impactful. Realizing this means reclaiming one’s consumption and part of its environmental impacts.”
Pierre Galio, head of the responsible consumption department at Ademeat franceinfo
After this experience, Amélie says that she no longer uses the same way. Just sorting out the clothes, the family parted with almost half of what was in their closets. At the end of the sorting, the adults who participated in this work explain that they had twice as many shoes as they imagined.