Eps 1: zero waste
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Pick up a copy of Zero Waste Home in your language
"The Zero Waste movement is steadily picking up steam, and it's all thanks to Bea Johnson, authority on a waste-free lifestyle."
"The zero-waste lifestyle movement began in [Bea Johnson]'s kitchen and has grown to influence eight of the biggest plastic polluting companies in the world."
Host
Vincent Jensen
Podcast Content
In addition to the landfill diversion, Zero Waste should also include the use of recycled materials such as compostable packaging and food. Rather than just keeping items out of landfill, we should work to keep unnecessary products in the production stream by encouraging consumers to switch to long-lasting products that are used again and again. Solutions range from compostable materials, packaging and food to producers who recover, recycle and recycle durable goods when customers no longer need them.
Ultimately, achieving zero waste is a goal that involves diverting waste from the recycling bin and composting as much as possible, but diverting it is still the perfect place to launch this initiative. For this reason, while we do our best to reduce waste, the waste you see in your bin is only a small fraction of the total waste - less than 1%, to be precise. Material derived from natural resources and processed into finished products can end up in the waste.
If we could make everyone's habits more environmentally friendly, we would eliminate 87% of the waste that is generated before the product is even on the shelves.
We need to change our systems to avoid waste and protect our natural resources, and zero waste is a resource management strategy modeled on a self-sustaining system.
Rather than starting with waste reduction during production and moving forward by purchasing, using, diverting and using products, Zero Waste advocates waste disposal by treating the remaining disposable waste as an important resource that can be returned to the market through reduction, reuse, recycling and composting.
Zero Waste has become a guiding principle and the Zero Waste Community has achieved action plans and measures to significantly reduce waste and pollution. We support a resolution that will put the county on track to achieve a zero waste quota throughout Boulder County by 2025, including the unincorporated areas. The measure will include an obligation on residents, businesses and authorities to use materials prudently, as well as an obligation on production, production and marketing companies to reduce waste disposal and recycling to zero.
As outlined in the airport's Strategic Plan, SFO's goal is to become the first airport in the world to stop producing waste by 2021. The city sets a goal of reducing its waste stream in the residential area and achieving a zero waste target for the city of Boulder County and all non-incorporated areas by 2024.
As defined by the Zero Waste Alliance, Zero Waste can divert at least 90% of waste through recycling and composting of landfills and incinerators. A recent study confirmed that more than 95 per cent of waste was compostable or recyclable, putting the SFO's goal of achieving zero waste emissions within reach.
Zero waste means a future where incinerators and landfills are a thing of the past, where waste is recycled and recycled over and over again.
According to the Tellus Institute, 75% of all waste in the US would be recycled, creating about 1.5 million jobs. Changing the waste system to conserve resources on a continuous basis is also of great importance for the economy. Through the Zero Waste Project, CLF has raised more than $5 million in funding for research, education and zero waste advocacy.
We want to change that, and that means moving from our current unsustainable model to a zero waste approach that minimises the amount of waste we dump on landfills and incinerators.
Some communities around the world, including Nantucket, Seattle and San Francisco, have adopted zero-waste strategies as part of their zero-waste initiatives.
If a lifestyles without waste can save the environment, one might think that everyone would be inspired to try it, but harmful misconceptions about lifestyles keep people from taking the first step. There is a widespread misconception that zero waste costs more than it does, which, according to Johnson, could not be further from the truth.
Although zero waste will be different for everyone, all the influencers we spoke to said that their lifestyles have significantly improved their financial situation, and noted that buying food in bulk and making bags and containers save money. Given the excessive quantity of plastic products and packaging stored on store shelves, it is clear that consumers alone cannot achieve the zero waste target. Plastic is not a zero waste material, and in order to achieve zero waste, companies must stop producing so much plastic.