What is zero waste?

The simple answer: We aim to send nothing to a landfill. We reduce what we need, reuse as much as we can, send little to be recycled, and compost what we cannot. The less simple answer: It's really about redefining the system. We currently live in a linear economy where we take resources from the earth and then dump them in a giant hole in the ground. The goal of zero waste is to move to a circular economy where we write trash out of existence. The circular economy mimics nature in that there is no trash in nature. Instead of discarding resources, we create a system where all resources can be resumed fully back into the system. Check out this blog post for a detailed look at the definition of zero waste and the circular economy.

What's wrong with landfills?

The average american sends 4.4lbs of trash to the landfill every day. We live in a disposable society where we don't value our belongings, and we're consuming way too many resources. Each year we have Earth Overshoot Day to mark when we've consumed all of the resources the earth can sustainably produce for the coming year. Earth Overshoot day was August 2nd of 2017. We're essentially consuming 1.5 earths. Beyond our overconsumption problem, landfills are toxic. They're responsible for 20% of the methane emissions in the US, and they aren't aerated for proper decomposition of natural materials. Toxins from cleaners, batteries, small electronics (and other items that shouldn't be landfilled) leach into the soil and can run off into the ocean and ground water when it rains. A lot of trash doesn't even make it to the landfill. Instead it clutters the sides of roads and swirls in the ocean. Plastic is especially dangerous to the ocean, marine life, and our health. It doesn't biodegrade it photodegrades which means it only gets smaller and smaller. Each micro-plankton in the ocean has 36 micro-plastic pieces to match. Plastic breaks down so small that it's in drinking 90% of drinking water both bottled and tap world wide.