We all live on this planet together, and while there are some forces that feel free to savage the environment for their own gain, most of us have at least some concern for the planet, the ecology, and the climate. We want to do something that can improve our situation in the world, but there are a lot of different ways to go about it.
One potential option is called Zero Waste. Zero Waste can be a philosophy and lifestyle for individuals, or it can be a goal for a business, and both share the same general principles. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea, but is it really all it's cracked up to be? Let's talk about it and find out.
What is Zero Waste and How Does it Work?
First, let's dig into what, exactly, the Zero Waste philosophy and lifestyle is, and how it works on a practical level.
The philosophy of Zero Waste is to live in such a way that you do not produce waste products. While that might sound like an unattainable goal, it incorporates far more than just your own individual existence and lifestyle. It's about whole communities.
When you think about day-to-day life, you can easily think of all the different things you might throw away throughout the day. It's often unavoidable on a personal level. How do you buy food without wrappers? You'd be very limited in what you could eat.
That's why there's more to it than just the simple definition. It incorporates elements of reuse, such as taking glass containers from products you buy and reusing them throughout your home. It incorporates elements of recycling, like recycling metal, glass, or paper products when you no longer need them. Even some kinds of unavoidable waste, like the inedible rinds of fruits, can be composted and used to fertilize future plants.
The "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" motto, with the added fourth R of "rot" for composting, is a core representation of the Zero Waste philosophy. But, the more thought that is put into it, the broader the framework becomes.
For a more formal definition, the international standardization of Zero Waste describes it as:
"The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health."
It's pretty complex and nuanced when you read a packed statement like that, but really, it all just comes down to avoiding as much permanent consumption or damage as possible. There is also a wide range of different statements, broadening or expounding upon the philosophy, as described by various communities across the country and around the world.
The Zero Waste Framework
You can generally think of Zero Waste as a funnel of priorities.
At the top, most broad level, where the most effort should be directed, is Rethinking and Redesigning the way we live in the world around us. It means looking into scientific innovation to create manufacturing processes that consume less water or produce fewer emissions. It means redesigning supply lines for shorter distances or to remove shipping and implement local production. It means looking at everything we take as a given and questioning if it can be done more effectively with less waste.
A level below that, when a process can't be avoided, is to reduce the impact it has. Finding ways to reduce usage of products with a lot of waste products, or reducing the waste products inherent to a product. Even something as simple as cutting back on wrappers-within-wrappers can be an impactful change across the whole of commerce.
The step below is reuse. Whether it's the glass jar example, taking worn-out clothes and using the fabric for other purposes, or just taking items that are meant for single use and using them more than once until they are no longer effective, it all helps cut down on consumption and waste.
The next tier below is recycling, which is also where composting is generally incorporated. Many different kinds of materials can be recycled, though recycling has many challenges and itself needs to be redefined. Part of the reason it's so far down on the list is because recycling is often inefficient, and it's not a perfect solution, so reducing the waste before it reaches the point of needing recycling is better.
Below that you get into smaller elements which help progress towards Zero Waste, but which are less desirable, less effective, or a stopgap until something higher up the chain makes them less relevant.
The first of these is material recovery. Material recovery is like having a sorting facility for refuse, to extract anything that could be recycled but wasn't properly sorted originally. Many communities that are focusing on Zero Waste have developed facilities, such as the MRF in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Since our current economy and state of industry is far from Zero Waste, there's an inevitable amount of waste that can't be picked up through the upper areas of this funnel. At this point, you get into residuals management. This is things like biological treatment, waste management, stable and safe landfilling, and the like. It's nearly a last resort, and it's not very desirable, but it's better than the final alternative.
That final alternative is burning waste, the "waste to energy" idea. While turning trash into energy might sound desirable, it's both a poor use of resources in that it takes more fuel and energy to do than it produces, it still leaves behind waste, and it generally produces dirty smoke that further pollutes the atmosphere. It's generally considered unacceptable.
Why Zero Waste Isn't Always Ideal
The concept of Zero Waste is admirable. It's a good goal to strive for globally. But, with our current technology, with the political and commercial pressures against it, and with the difficulty in initial implementation, it's largely unattainable.
More than that, though, it may not be all that it's cracked up to be.
One of the main issues with Zero Waste is that it doesn't necessarily consider other elements of ethical production. Would it be better to buy a T-shirt that isn't packaged in a disposable bag when you don't know the provenance of the shirt? Or would it be better to buy a shirt you know is produced in an ethical and sustainable manner, even if it has a bit of wasteful packaging? One option is Zero Waste, but the other has a more verifiably positive impact.
Much like many claims made around ethics and sustainability, Zero Waste is misrepresented and misused. Or at least, it can be.
The core of Zero Waste is something for a whole community, a city, a state, or even a country to aspire to. But instead of that, it's used as something a company could do.
And, sure, a company could be Zero Waste. By optimizing their operations, everything within their direct purview could be verifiable Zero Waste, or even a net positive in some respect. The problem lies with the people who supply them, the people who fulfill them, and even with other concerns beyond waste products.
The shirt example is a good one. A Zero Waste shirt might still be produced using cotton that shouldn't be farmed where it's farmed because of water consumption or because the cotton is harvested and processed by exploited human labor. Human labor is a huge concern, after all, but they don't have anything to do with waste. In fact, given how some recycling programs around the world are essentially using exploited labor to handle the work, it gets even worse.
Part of this comes down to the difference between what Zero Waste actually is and what people think it is. In the intro, we mentioned that Zero Waste can be a personal philosophy or a business goal, but the truth is that neither of those are the way Zero Waste is meant to be implemented or thought about. Zero Waste is meant to encompass entire industries or communities.
Consider: when you shop for a piece of clothing in a physical store, and you have the choice between one item hanging free on a rack and one packaged in a plastic bag, the one on the rack would be Zero Waste for your personal lifestyle. But the truth is, that piece of clothing was probably also inside a plastic bag before it was hung on that rack; while you are Zero Waste, the business you bought from is not. All you did was outsource your waste.
And, of course, we live in a world where some products are simply not available in zero waste forms. Yes, you can opt for products in glass jars instead of plastic bottles, but how many of those jars still have plastic lids? How feasible is it to recycle the label of the jar, even if you reuse it?
In pretty much all environmental and social movements focused on sustainability and an improvement to the way we treat the world, there's a constant bombardment of messaging about personal responsibility. Save the environment by recycling, by reducing your own consumption, by making this change or that change.
Meanwhile, a single company making a decision that prioritizes efficiency or profit over sustainability wipes out the cumulative efforts of thousands to millions of people in a week.
Fix your leaking faucets, switch to low-flow toilets and showers, turn the water off when brushing your teeth, and watch as the California almond farms slurp up as much water as Los Angeles would consume in three times as long. Wherever you look, whatever angle you take, the story is the same. Huge corporations and institutions far outweigh personal responsibility.
The Truth of Zero Waste
Zero Waste falls victim to an absolutist statement that, while it sounds good on paper, doesn't actually represent what it truly is.
We presented the funnel shape above for a reason. While things like landfills aren't ideal, they can still have a place in a Zero Waste framework. There's no way, so far as we know as a species, to exist in a truly zero-waste way. The goal of absolute zero isn't a goal at all. Even the strictest and most official Zero Waste authorities define it as 90% diversion of waste away from landfills and incinerators.
It's not about recycling everything, or somehow achieving the impossible. It's as much about rethinking the way we handle manufacturing, working on getting regulations implemented to prevent exploitation, and even about more responsible stewardship of natural resources before they're even extracted.
The issue is that none of that is accurately conveyed by telling someone they should work to be Zero Waste, or even by a small business claiming to have achieved it themselves. It's a society-wide goal, and not an easy one. It's an admirable goal. It's just not what people think it is.
How to Focus on Zero Waste
While the goal of Zero Waste is great, the practicalities vary depending on who you are and the perspective you're approaching it from.
As an individual, your contributions to Zero Waste don't necessarily need to be on a personal level. While it's good to reduce the amount of plastic you use and the amount of things you send to a landfill, there's only so much you can do on your own. Instead, a big part of your power is in choosing to change who you purchase from, in lobbying with politicians for stronger regulations, and the like.
As a small business, you can strive to be Zero Waste yourself, but a big part of your efforts should be focused on working with others who are also trying to be Zero Waste and putting pressure on those who are not. Innovation in your industry can also help.
The largest businesses, politicians, and others with significant influence are the ones who most need to change, and all the individual actions in the world won't manifest that change without significant pressure. That's the problem with Zero Waste.
Daniel Cardozo, CEO of Ethix Merch, is a passionate advocate for ethical promotional products. With a mission to transform global supply chains, he serves on the Labor 411 Foundation and Advertising Specialty Institute's Promo for the Planet Advisory Board. Daniel is dedicated to empowering socially and environmentally-conscious consumers.
