The End of Waste
This post is based on an interview I conducted in 2017 as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s ‘Disruptive Innovation Festival’.
The discussion was called ‘The End of Waste’. I explored the question ‘how do we reach the end of waste? Is it personal behaviour change that is important or is it the system surrounding a consumer that needs to change?’.
Despite our best intentions, as individuals, how much can we actually contribute to addressing consumer waste? Or do we need to look at the root cause and start focusing on fixing the system surrounding a product and a consumer?
My two guests were:
- Adam Hall, the head of Sustainability at Surfdome, an online retailer of active and extreme sports clothing and equipment. Under his guidance the business has completely replaced plastic packaging and introduced 100% recycled cardboard packaging.
- Alden Wicker, a freelance Journalist living in Brooklyn. She is the Founder of ECOCULT, a blog that focuses on sustainable fashion and living.
Question 1: Adam, you have said in the past that ‘as a retailer, we’re not going to solve the world’s problems ourselves, but we certainly shouldn’t be contributing to any of those problems’, can you elaborate on the role of the retailer in addressing the issues of waste and unsustainable consumption? Why is it not the role of just the retailer — who else needs to be involved?
Adam: As a singular business we are obviously not in the position to solve all the world’s problems. However, if we’re talking about retailers as a whole, is a different question. Retailers are in a unique position, sitting between the consumers and the brands. They have the power to alter the mind-set of the consumer, giving them better choices whilst at the same time they are also in a position to stipulate to the brands that they need to be stepping up, putting better packaging and better products onto the market. Retailers form the link between consumers and the brands that decide what products are going to be available.
Question 2: Alden you have been quoted as saying that you believe ‘conscious consumerism is a lie’. Could you please elaborate on this statement and explain how the public, despite their good intentions, may be oblivious to their own lack of impact?
Alden: Let’s approach this question by thinking about the ocean litter problem. The ocean isn’t filled with waste because of people like us (beach lovers and people who care about the environment and who have access to functional, government-led waste management systems). The bulk of waste that enters the oceans comes from countries with poor or no formal waste infrastructure. So when we decide ‘I am going to stop using plastic straws, I am going to stop using disposable plastic’ we are only addressing a very small part. The focus should be on why the countries that contribute the most are putting stuff into the ocean, and how we can change this. It is not because they are worse people, or necessarily lack an education, it is because they lack the resources and government supported infrastructure to deal with the large amounts of waste that big(international) corporations are selling to them. Trying to address this by worrying about what we personally consume is very ineffective. The greatest use of energy is to think about how to support some of the worst performing countries to do the right thing.
Question 3: Whilst this example is certainly fitting for the issue of ocean litter, does it side-step our responsibility to reduce overall waste? Despite the fact that we may not directly contribute to ocean litter, we still use our resources incredibly poorly. There are reports that 60% of all clothing ends up in incinerators or landfills every year and that Americans are throwing away the equivalent of more than 200 men’s T-shirts per year, per person! We obviously exist in an economic model based on high volumes sold and therefore high volumes discarded. This waste gets collected, meaning it might not be contributing to an environmental disaster such as ocean pollution, but it is still not the right way of operating with the resources and materials we have. Can we envision an entirely new model of consumption and what could this look like, as opposed to just operating in a wasteful model and reducing impact through good waste collection for items that are thrown out?
Alden: We need to start from the design stage, to design things that can be endlessly used in a cycle — emulating nature. Unfortunately, right now there is no incentive for companies to do better as they have no responsibility for the item they created and the waste it becomes once it is thrown out. A way to start changing this is to introduce producer responsibility, mandating that when you create something you also need to figure out what to do with it once it reaches its end-of-life.
Adam: It’s very important not to disconnect. People start to think it’s another country or someone else will sort it out, but not being the cause of the biggest problem, doesn’t mean you aren’t the cause of a problem. I agree with Alden about producer responsibility, and the job of the retailer to lead the customers down the right path. The retailer has the power to disrupt the system by not buying or selling certain things. These decision need to be made at a higher level than the consumer — when Surfdome changed their packaging they got the response that many customers hadn’t seen the connection between what they bought from Surfdome and environmental impact.
This highlights the idea that it’s not just up to a consumer to solve the problem of waste. For example, it is easy to demand change of companies like coca-cola (where the waste their product creates is extremely obvious), but what about products that have a more ambiguous nature? It is hard for a consumer to tell where many of the things they buy come from, and what the supply chain looks like. It is then the role of the retailer (or middle-men businesses) to demand change, not necessarily the role of the consumer.
Question 4: I believe that humans are fundamentally good and for the most part do want to make a change and feel a sense of worth in the system. Speaking as a consumer, I know how important it is for me to feel like I am making a difference, however small. Is there a role for this? Or is there a way that conscious consumerism can morph into something more effective whilst still allowing consumers to feel a sense of empowerment?
Alden: Let us use the example of microfiber pollution due to clothes washing. The most important step isn’t necessarily to stop buying polyester. You can have much more impact by:
- Finding out who the lead researchers and organisations are in this area and donating to them (e.g. Who is figuring out how the microfibres wash off and where the input sources are?). This then allows you to have a much broader impact than just personal behaviour change.
- Trying to direct money to experts and non-profits who can fix the problem for everyone, and even campaign on the behalf of people who aren’t even aware there is a problem.
- Learn about things like carbon pricing, policy, legislation that will aim to solve the problem at a higher level.
These are empowering ways to get involved. Root your efforts in trying to solve the broader problem rather than beating yourself up about every single purchase you make and tying all your decisions to ‘am I a good person or not?’. This doesn’t end up helping people and can in fact make people disengage.
Adam: Changing consumer perceptions is very slow, so this is where I again advocate that businesses have the power to do it a lot quicker as they work quarter to quarter. It shouldn’t be the consumers’ job to make a decision on every item they purchase , and even the most ecoconscious consumer makes mistakes– there should be more businesses providing them with the right options.
More businesses need to get involved to prove that considering the environment can work economically, and this then gives government the push they need to legislate.
This is where we left the formal conversation, but I hope it is where the informal one begins.
I believe that sharing a message is more powerful than many small, individual purchasing actions. After the conversation, I actually felt relieved that reaching ‘The End of Waste’ wasn’t purely down to my individual purchasing decisions. However, I also felt that it is now imperative to find the Adams and Aldens in key positions in businesses with the power to have catalytic change — improving the outcome for a many individuals at once.
Try having a discussion about the role of the consumer in ending waste with your friends. I found it led to some very interesting conversations… and maybe the message will make it to someone who has the power to initiate systems level change.
*This is not a word for word transcript. I have summarised and paraphrased all of the text to make it easier to read and present just the essence of the talk. Please listen to it in full if you would like to check the exact meaning behind each of the speakers’ comments (see the top of the page for a link to the video).
