We, as consumers, are increasingly becoming aware of the threats we pose to our environment by the choices we make. Knowingly or unknowingly, our buying behaviour has been instrumental in generating tonnes of waste each year. So this is all about eliminating the idea of waste for a sustainable world.
Did you know? As citizens of planet Earth, we are believed to generate 1.3 billion tons of solid waste! According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, “The OECD countries are responsible for 44% of waste, and in the U.S. alone, the average person throws away their body weight in rubbish every month.” When it comes to countries like India and China, India tops the list in generating waste over the populous China. As per a study conducted by World Bank, India is the largest producer of waste, producing 277 million tonnes of solid waste every year (as per a 2016 estimate) However, India stands the lowest per capita generators of waste. The region of North America (Bermuda, Canada and the USA) is reported to generate the most waste at 2.2kg per person per day whereas, South Asia which includes India, was reported as the second least waste producing region at 0.5kg per person per day.
Which brings us to the question on how could we mitigate waste and get companies to innovate towards developing sustainable products and waste management technologies? So we should discuss how we all can work together for eliminating the idea of waste.
How we can work for Eliminating the Idea of Waste for a Sustainable World?
It all starts with us. Today, consumers are not looking to buy just a product. They look out for brands which, resonate with their personal values at the same time deliver on the functionality and efficiency. This has resulted in major companies embracing the idea of sustainability and driving businesses with a purpose. According to a survey, which witnessed participation from 54 of the world’s leading brands, almost all of them reported that consumers are showing increasing care about sustainable lifestyles.
With the digital revolution over the past few years, people have come close to realising the impact of waste on our environment. In the early 2000s, garbage was merely problem overlooked, which is turned to a full-blown crisis. Look at the impact of plastic on oceans and seas. Justin Hofman’s photo of a seahorse swimming with a discarded cotton swab in a reef generated a lot of buzz globally on conserving marine ecosystems from waste. A compelling visual with an emotional connect, the image was widely circulated on social media, featured on various news outlets and got people to relook at their plastic consumption.
Adopting eco-friendly and sustainable products gained prominence over the past few years. With the shift in consumer preferences, companies and brands needed to comply in order to stay relevant in the markets they operate in. While sustainability has been a fairly recent topic, it has widely gained prominence over time. Companies have now started to evaluate their role in waste management and their impact on the environment they operate in.
Recycling the Non-Recyclable
While some customers today have become conscious about what they buy, it is not possible for companies to burden their customers with managing the waste remnants upon usage or recycling of the product. Hence, many companies are now looking at getting their customers interested in preserving their products and preventing remnants that still have value from going to the landfill. Enter TerraCycle, a waste management company, which is helping businesses across the globe to mitigate waste through “Recycling the non-recyclable.” This will help in eliminating the idea of waste.
Led by the visionary Youth Icon, Tom Szaky, the company has been collecting and recycling a few million kilos of hard to recycle waste such as cigarette buds, dirty diapers, flexible food packaging and on so every week! This will play a important role in eliminating the idea of waste.
Linear vs. Circular Product Cycle
Adopting to a circular economy is quite in vogue these days. If one were to differentiate a linear cycle from a circular one, the former usually ends up in a customer disposing off the product.
Today, companies play an instrumental role in creating a circular economy. Many companies, such as Adidas, have gone on to introduce recycling programmes for customers. By offering recycling initiatives, brands are promising quality and durability to consumers and in turn reaping the benefits of being called environment friendly. The underlying principle of TerraCycle is to partner with companies to empower businesses to evolve from a linear product concept to a circular one.
With TerraCycle, Tom aims to partner with businesses in order to lessen the need to extract new resources and get more from getting better use out of the resources available through waste during production. While looking at creating a circular product concept, Tom and his team at TerraCycle look at – whether the waste can be recycled into a new utility or use the remnants of the waste to recreate the same product. At the same time, Tom also believes that shrinking the circle by closing the loop in few steps is critically significant. Through TerraCycle’s Loop™ Initiative, Szaky looks at shrinking the recycling loop into a reuse loop by devising durable, reusable packaging for customers, ordering their favourite products from trusted brands online. This will contributes to eliminating the idea of waste.
Now we know how some people are working towards eliminating the idea of waste.Brands like TerraCycle are indeed helping companies make the best use of the resources available to them in the form of waste and help conserve resources for future generations. In the end, it is all about preserving our environment by embedding sustainability at the core of our existence. Besides eliminating the idea of waste, Read also : The Best Practices in Waste Management