By Sarah Currie-Halpern
When most people hear the term ‘waste management’ or even just ‘waste,’ they tend to imagine garbage collectors going around emptying bins into the back of a truck. That’s certainly not wrong, but it’s also revealing of a larger disconnect. People often don’t see waste as waste until it’s already in trash bags being carted away.
Thankfully that’s beginning to change. We’ve seen a rise in waste-related trends related not only to reuse, recycling, and general waste reduction, but to front-end waste prevention. Social media has been essential in spreading awareness and popularizing these trends, which are focused not on the complexities of the greater waste system but on simple, everyday actions and purchases. By presenting waste prevention, reduction, and management in individual and manageable terms, these trends are changing people’s behavior and perceptions for the better. Here are three trends changing the waste game—long before the garbage collectors show up.
Slow fashion
Fast fashion has come under serious scrutiny over the last decade, and for good reason. Brands like H&M, Zara, and Shein mass-produce garments using low-quality fabrics to sell at a bargain. This produces an incredible amount of textile and water waste and high carbon emissions, all for cheaply-made garments that end up in the landfill or incinerator, in short order.
As awareness of fast fashion’s detrimental environmental impact spreads, so has people’s interest in slow fashion, a way of making clothing that advocates using (or reusing!) high-quality and eco-friendly textiles in a manufacturing process that limits water usage and carbon emissions. The “slow” in slow fashion also refers to how these garments are made to last for years. Waste reduction often begins by simply slowing down the journey to the landfill—by years instead of after a few washes, in this case—and slow fashion brands are making that available to increasingly conscious shoppers.
Package-free shops
Although grocery stores across the U.S. and E.U. have made huge strides over the last decade by eliminating plastic bags in favor of reusable ones, these stores still produce an enormous amount of waste through plastic and cardboard food packaging, and food waste. This is where package-free shops come into play. The first zero-waste shop opened in London in 2007, and now there are packaging-free markets all over the world.
Since there’s always the question of convenience, many zero-waste stores have some purchasable packaging inside for first-time shoppers, and this packaging is often reusable and/or compostable or recyclable. Package-free shops don’t aim to replace the grocery store altogether, but they’re an excellent and accessible way for people to buy everything from fruit and pasta to coffee and toiletries without the extra plastic. Some of these shops focus on package-free food, while others focus on package-free home, personal and beauty products. They’ve already proven so influential and successful that major supermarket chains like Morrisons and Carrefour have started package-free initiatives in their own stores.
In the U.S. there are package-free shops in most of the major metropolitan areas, such as Package Free Shop and Precycle in NYC, Nude Foods Market in Boulder and Denver, Uvida in Boston, SustainLA in Los Angeles, ZEFIRO in Chicago, Verde Market in Miami and Ft. Laurderdale, and so many more. For more on package-free shops around the U.S., read our recently updated blog post.
Plastic-free gift giving
Before we even get to the gifts, let’s talk wrapping paper. Americans use a whopping 4.6 million pounds of wrapping paper every year. Doing away with wrapping paper (or replacing it with newspaper) is a great start, and many people are now taking it a step further with zero-waste gifts. Charitable donations have always been a good zero-waste option, but it’s no longer the only one. Opting for giving experiences instead of gifts is an exploding trend and one of the easiest ways to reduce waste. 92% of respondents to a 2023 GetYourGuide survey said they would rather receive an experience than an item as a gift. That same year, GetYourGuide’s experience marketplace saw a 63% year-over-year increase in total bookings. Experiences, once associated with vacations, have come closer to home: movie and concert tickets, museum passes, cooking classes, a spa day, or a local brewery tour. In other words, when we say it’s the thought that counts, we also mean thinking about the environment. For more on this trend, read my recent blog post about Giving the Gift of Experiences.
When it comes to weddings, expecting a first child, and other major life events, many people create a registry. A growing trend is more sustainable registries that encourage gifting money and experiences, over material items. Some of our favorites include HoneyFund and so kind Registry.
Thoughts or feedback for us? Send your comments to info@thinkzero.com.
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