I’m all for real solutions and businesses doing their part to decrease their environmental impact on our planet. Companies that understand Earths resources are limited and want to continue doing business in the future will have to take action by implementing more responsible ways to manufacture, produce and package their products. This will have a positive impact on their company’s success, decrease their expenses and even increase profits.
As people become more aware that our personal health is directly related to the health of our planet, people will decide on whose products to buy based on a company’s ability to create quality products that are built to last and are repairable instead of disposable.
Corporations that package and manufacture products, produce massive amounts of garbage in the process, this process is wasteful and pollutes our air water and soil. Some CEO’s will argue that in order produce anything, garbage and waste is and always will be created... But, is there a way to change that? Is it actually possible to end garbage?
So I searched online to find the answer to that question and found a great article written by Marc Gunther titled "The End of Garbage" through a website called DIGG. The article describes that in the future putting an end to the garbage corporations produce can become a reality, in the very distant future. Currently zero waste is a goal, a goal shared by some big names in the corporate world. Were talking huge corporations like Wal-Mart, Toyota, Nike and Xerox.
Some of the content in the article reads a bit like a PR Campaign for HP and Wal-Mart because both companies have previous environmental records that weren't very good to say the least. Despite that, I give "Marc Gunther" the writer of this article allot of credit. He wrote it in a manner that was insightful, positive and optimistic for what the future holds. He also sought out the opinions of professionals, went to the source for information and concentrated on the solutions these corporations are now trying to achieve.
The part that I like the most, is this excerpt: “Zero waste is just what it sounds like - producing, consuming, and recycling products without throwing anything away. Getting to a wasteless world will require nothing less than a total makeover of the global economy, which thinkers such as entrepreneur Paul Hawken, consultant Amory Lovins, and architect William McDonough have called the Next Industrial Revolution.”
The part that I like the most, is this excerpt: “Zero waste is just what it sounds like - producing, consuming, and recycling products without throwing anything away. Getting to a wasteless world will require nothing less than a total makeover of the global economy, which thinkers such as entrepreneur Paul Hawken, consultant Amory Lovins, and architect William McDonough have called the Next Industrial Revolution.”
The article did help answer the question “Is it actually possible to end garbage?”
Yes! But we have a very long way to go because at this moment, even recycling creates waste and environmental degradation. Ending garbage may be a dream at the moment, but then again don’t all of our greatest accomplishments start with a dream?
I believe we have to dream big sometimes and just because the dream is big, doesn’t mean we can’t achieve it and despite our current limitations, I think some day zero waste is possible. So dare to dream and Dream BIG! Lets shoot for the Stars… Perhaps we can, achieve zero waste by 2025?
Sadly I do not think we will see zero waste in our lifetime. The size of the worlds garbage piles are a direct result of our ever growing appetite for consumption.
ReplyDeleteThe efforts of cities like San Francisco are commendable and encouraging. However when I look to countries like India and China, countries that for hundreds of years had self enforced grassroots recycling systems, systems that have been abandoned in the name of consumerism it is quite disheartening.