Zero Waste

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Zero Waste

• Shad Cup 2007

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Agenda

• Zero Waste as a Goal
• What is Waste?
• Examples of Waste
• Is Waste Always Bad?
• Whats Wrong with Waste?
• Why are we Resistant to Reducing Waste?
• Types of Waste
• Waste Solutions
• Brainstorming Strategies and the No Waste Theme
• Serious Waste Problems
• Some Ideas
• What ifs

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Zero Waste

• Zero waste is not possiblebut it is an admirable
  goal.

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What is Waste?

• Too much of any one thing at one time.
• A by-product of a process for which there is no
  immediate useor is in such a quantity that it
  overwhelms the natural systems for processing it.
• (When a system is overwhelmed, negative
  consequences such as pollution occur.)

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Examples

• Human waste is a problem when human beings live
  in large numbers in close proximity of one
  anothergenerating waste that pollutes, smells,
  and becomes a pathogenic problem.
• Lengthy wait times for anything caused by
  overloading a system (waiting in line at Tims
  while you could be effectively working on your
  Shad Cup presentation) is a waste of time
• Paper waste products produced by a
  disposal-oriented society newspapers,
  magazines, toilet paper, kleenex, cardboard
  boxes, fast food containers, food-packaging
  containers, retail packaging containers.
• Air-borne waste products too small to capture and
  use (sulphur dioxide and other particulate
  matter)
• Unusable industrial by-products such as, spent
  nuclear fuel rods, mine tailings, sawdust
  (particle board), treebark (landscaping material)

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Examples Continued

• Physical items that have been used and then
  discarded because they are obsolete, worn out,
  damaged, out of style.
• Can we
• Design products to minimize technological
  obsolesence?
• Design products to be more durable
• Repair/refurbish products that are worn out or
  damaged
• Reorient society to become less fashion/fad
  driven and therefore more practical?

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Is Waste Always Bad?

• One mans waste is another mans gold
• Yard sales are an attempt to formalize a market
  in used goods
• Other methods are pawn brokers and consignment
  houses
• eBay has taken this concept and made it possible
  to expand the potential audience for used goods
  worldwide
• People who pick through garbage dumps for wire
  for resale, etcare recycling materials that
  other people are simply too lazy to take care of.

ARE THERE ANY IDEAS HERE?
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Whats Wrong with Waste?

• Waste often requires the use of scarce resources
  in its productionso we are using more energy
  than what we shouldand ineffective in producing
  useful products per unit of input.
• Source of toxins, contaminants harmful to floral,
  fauna, humans, and the integrity of the natural
  world (for example the mine tailings from the Tar
  Sands project, or municipal effluent
  contaminating lakes, rivers, streams)
• In a finite world, in developed countries like
  Canada, we excessively consume the limited
  resources of the planet at the expense of less
  powerful nations and people. Is this responsible
  behaviour?

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Why are we resistant to reduce Waste?

• There are simply too many of us given the planet
  surface area, arable farmland, available
  freshwater sources, and capacity for the natural
  environment to clean up the effects of our
  activities.too many of us concentrated in close
  geographical proximity of one another.
• Many sources of waste (ie. Packaging and
  containers) are not just to contain or cover food
  or productsthey are the productthey are sources
  of promotion/advertising. Packaging is a very
  sophisticated businesspackaging is often the
  product so companies are loath to reduce its
  use.

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Types of Waste

• Solid waste
• Liquid waste
• Waste of time
• Retail waste
• Fastfood waste
• Industrial waste
• By products
• Energy waste
• Inefficiency
• Ineffectiveness

Look at the USEPA types of waste.
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Waste Solutions

• Biological treatment
• Electrical treatment (electrostatic precipitators
  in industry).electrostatic filters in the home
  airflow system
• Chemical treatment
• Mechanical filtering
• Reduction
• Reuse
• Recycle
• Computer modeling, planning and coordinating

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Brainstorming Strategies and the Zero Waste Theme

• Identify serious waste problems --- look for
  solutions (technological, logistical, biological,
  chemical, mechanical, behavioural, attitudinal)

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Serious Waste Problems

• Packaging
• Multiple stages of handling in transportation
  (containers have done much to address this
  problem, except for bulk cargo)
• Industrial waste and unusable by-products
• Human/municipal waste
• Over-consumption
• The world-wide plastic bag epidemic

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TRANSPORT LOGISICS LIMITED

• A business that offers a service that coordinates
  truck haulage across Canada across many
  carrierselectronically linkedtruck locations,
  ETAs, and speeds are followed real timeand back
  haul loads are coordinated such that no transport
  truck runs empty from one destination to another.
  (This idea focuses on inefficiencies inherent in
  any transportation system and seeks to correct it
  through improved information and planning).
• Potential savings to the industry and economy
  could be enormous.

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THE FAST FOOD FIX

• A new standardized product for even one
  mainstream fastfood retailer (for example a major
  franchisor such as McDonalds, or Wendys or
  Burger King) that is a customized, reusable,
  serving tray that is the packaging and used
  exclusively for in-store customers.
• Constructed out of molded heat-resistance,
  colourful, plastic, it contains standardized
  locations for a drink, fries and a
  hamburger/sandwich on the serving tray
  eliminating the need for paper cups, paper
  containers for fries and for paper wrapped other
  food products.

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What if ?

• Restaurants could predict accurately demand
  (amount and timing), and therefore only produce
  what would be sold with no waste?

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What if ?

• Food could be preserved so that there would be no
  spoilage regardless of shelf-life?

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What if ?

• We could extract ore and minerals without mining
  the rock?

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What if ?

• We could grow all of our food locally and there
  would be no need for extensive transportation
  networks to transport oranges from Florida to
  Thunder Bay?

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What if ?

• Packaging of retail products was eliminated?

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Crazy Thoughts

• It is OK to think of
• The Impossible
• The Impractical
• for seeds of inspiration

GOOD HUNTING!
RBC Shad Cup 2007