Think Green®

The cyclical qualities of natural systems are brilliant. Like a masterpiece symphony, each element and organism plays a unique role. The waste of one species is the food for another. A seemingly dead tree becomes an owl's home, mushroom fertilizer, and termite food. The same materials rotate taking on new forms and roles.

Human activities, however, often don't follow such cycles–waste is embedded in many processes. Most power plants are less than 40% efficient, as energy is wasted away in the form of heat. Many U.S. cities have waste diversion rates below 40%, thus valuable natural resources are not fully utilized.

Technology advancement, population growth, climate change, and higher standards of living are making zero waste achievements not just a vision, but also a necessity.

"We are both forced and inspired to live in more sustainable ways, where waste is much less an issue and much part of a natural ecosystem," said Nicholas Eisenberger, managing partner of the sustainability strategy firm, Green Order.

Defining Zero Waste

Zero waste occurs when a given process has no output that isn't used. Garbage to one is food for another. Although many think of zero waste as encompassing only solid waste, it can also include water, energy, and air pollution. A forest is a prime example of zero waste, where nutrients and water cycle over and over.

"Nature is really innovative in how it functions and how it designs its systems," said Hanh Pham, creator of Pretty Dirty, an art performance that uses trash. "It is a naturally evolving process that is intelligent."

Like nature, the zero waste vision also requires human actions to constantly evolve and improve. "Even if we're recycling something, how do we reuse it?" asks Harry Lamberton, vice president of Manufacturing & Industrial Segment for Waste Management. "If we are reusing something, how do we reduce what is being generated? A lot of our efforts involve finding the better economic and environmental option for that waste stream."

Such a complex concept does not present a one-size-fits-all solution. It requires numerous approaches, paradigm shifts and strategies to evolve towards the vision of zero waste.

Some of these include:

Constant Improvement and Review

By its very nature, zero waste is a vision and not a destination. Like the forest floor, it is constantly shifting and in a state of fluctuation.

"Zero waste is not a definitive state," explains Lamberton. "I'll contrast it with zero landfill. I'm not a big fan of the zero-landfill goal because it is a pretty concrete, definable end state. We've seen organizations that have established zero landfill goals and they will move materials to a waste-to-energy facility, but it may be more expensive from a cost perspective and more harmful to the environment from a lifecycle standpoint. The facility however is ultimately able to check that box and say, 'We're zero landfill.'"

Seeing Products as Services

Many people merely want the value that a product offers. They would be satisfied with the service that it provides without necessarily needing to own the product. In some cases, resources are better utilized and waste is reduced.

Let's examine Zipcar, a car sharing service, as an example. People can become members of this organization and use their vehicles as needed with a reservation. The vehicles are parked and returned to designated parking spots. While most personal vehicles are parked for much of the day and therefore provide little value during that time, Zipcars are frequently rotating among drivers. It makes it easier for some people not to own a car, while others may choose to have fewer vehicles or own a smaller car.

Corporate Leadership

Technological advances and consumer demand create a market rife with opportunity for corporations to take a leadership role in towards the zero waste vision. Their size and scope can be leveraged for such progress.

Reducing waste starts with products designed to minimal packaging, reusable parts, and with recyclable components. Xerox's cartridge-free printers reduce waste by 90% over other laser technologies. SolFocus Inc. manufacturers solar panels that are 95% recyclable.

Waste Management's Green Squad customizes green solutions for businesses. The Green Squad is a team of experts that assess the waste generated by large customers, such automotive facilities, steel mills, refineries, energy facilities, chemical plants and cruise lines. They create customized, holistic solutions to reach environmental goals while reducing the total cost associated with these activities.

Landfills themselves can be managed as more than just a graveyard for trash. Two Pine Landfill in North Little Rock, Arkansas provides wildlife habitat to endangered species. Alliance Landfill, in Taylor Pennsylvania offers educational programs to the community. In California, landfill gas is purified and liquefied to power trucks.

"Starting at the corporate level and the waste management industry level is a sensible way to start," says Eisenberger. "You have significant scale with a company like Walmart that makes a commitment to this area. If they are working with the waste management industry in a collaborative way, you can see some real progress that cascades across other industries."

Economic Incentives

Ultimately, the zero waste vision needs to provide economic benefit or else it will be merely a fad when the economy is strong. Diverting waste from landfills and reducing energy or water use can save money.

"In a time like today, where we are in a challenging economic environment, there is very little that is going to get done if it isn't cost-effective," says Eisenberger. "The key is to find ways in which being less wasteful is also less costly. Part of that involves the government creating policy to set the right price on waste and things that are not currently internalized in the market transaction. Part of that is using creativity and coming up with innovative solutions that make sense to reduce waste or that take advantage of waste to create a useful product. That is happening more and more across multiple industries."

High Value Products From Waste

Some items that are recycled are actually downcycled. This occurs when an item of lesser quality is created from the recycled materials. Plastics often end up in the downcycling category, as the recycled product is often of a lower grade.

Ultimately, more high value products need to be created to achieve the zero waste vision. By mimicking nature, companies can find new value in what is currently wasted.

"There's a lot of activity anticipating where materials will end up and how to avoid simply downcycling materials so they get only one or two reuses and then are no longer usable," explains Eisenberger.

Patagonia for example turns plastic soda bottles and used garment into new clothing. This innovative technology can even be considered upcycling, as a product of greater value is created. Over a 13-year period, Patagonia has saved 800,000 gallons of oil in the process and created a new recycling stream for plastic.

Similar examples of making valuable products from "waste" are plentiful. IceStone makes high-end countertops out of demolition waste and some cow farmers are using methane gas from manure to generate electricity. Agricultural waste can be used to produce cellulosic ethanol and composted kitchen scraps produce a rich garden fertilizer. The University of New Hampshire is heating and Interface's ReEntry program recycles or repurposes used carpet.

Although it is hard to say whether the original product or the recycled one has more value, it's clear that giving these materials additional life has more value than putting them in a landfill.

Learning About Systems

Can you imagine your house as a cell and a city as an organism? What resources go in and what comes out? How is energy derived and consumed? Can cell output serve as food for another? With nature as a guide, systemic thinking creates the paradigm shift required to achieve the zero waste vision.

"In school, are kids learning about systems?" asks Pham. "Are kids learning about how Mother Nature runs her forest? Can we run a city or your daily life in such a way that you have little or no environmental impact? The more different places that people are exposed to this concept, the more receptive people will be."

Creativity to Boost Awareness

The arts can be a fun and captivating way to raise awareness. "The environmental movement is good at telling people what they are not supposed to do in an authoritative way, but it doesn't meet people where they are," says Pham. "Art provides a friendly, approachable way to make them think twice."

Pretty Dirty for example is a street-art performance that piques the curiosity of passersby about what they throw away. The performance creates a dress out of trash along the street, from the ground, or out of public trashcans. Hanh Pham wears a base dress and the trash decorates the fabric.

"I'm the intersection of beauty and waste," explains Pham. "It is the concept of bringing something very different together–of trash, which people want nothing to do with, and a dress, which typically catches peoples' attention. It gets people to rethink what they throw away and captivate them in a unique and interactive manner."

Moving Forward

Considering the vast potential of the zero waste vision, current technology and practices are just the beginning.

"I think we are in such early days that we might not even recognize the future. I can envision a time when every property and every building is a net generator of energy. Every single square inch of this earth has potential solar, wind and geothermal energy. We've been learning more and more how immature our mimicking of that natural world is. As our pressure from our imprint on the world grows, we'll find more ways to get more efficient."