The annual leadership meeting of the United Nations General Assembly concluded in New York last week. The Secretary General of the UN had aimed to make Climate Change the focal point of the deliberations. While there was modest movement on carbon mitigation efforts, and in some cases even a retreat from prior pledges by countries like the United Kingdom, there was quiet success on another neglected environmental issue. Waste management is in many ways the primordial environmental issue for humanity. Climate change is a manifestation of what may happen to global systems if we are not careful about managing waste flows.
Earlier this year, the UN Secretary General initiated a new “board of eminent persons” on “Zero Waste.” I have the good fortune of being a member of this board and at UNGA we had an opportunity to have the first informal meeting of the members hosted by the Turkish Mission to the United Nations. The Executive Directors of the United Nations Environment Programme and the UN Habitat (the agency working on sustainable cities) as well as Mayor of New York Eric Adams were in attendance.
While physical laws suggest that we will always have some “waste” in either material or the energy generated in any process, such ostensible waste could potentially be used by someone else or for other purposes. “Zero waste” refers to minimizing as much waste as possible through a systems-level redesign of production and consumption mechanisms. Such a “systems-level” approach goes beyond individual solutions that respond to a particular symptom but rather looks at all the connections between various production and decision points. Such an approach to interventions is likely to prevent one solution from creating another problem. The term gained popularity in 2010 with the publication of “Zero Waste Home” by activist Bea Johnson.
We used to think of the three “R’s“ in waste minimization, but Bea Johnson added two more and now we have the five “R’s”:
- Refuse the things that you do not need
- Reduce the things that you do actually need
- Reuse what you consume
- Recycle only what you cannot refuse, reduce or reuse
- Rot (compost) the rest of your waste
Ultimately, if we start to think of “waste” as either an economic liability or as a resource, we will find that it makes economic sense to move toward a zero-waste and what is often termed “a circular economy” society, where the reuse and regeneration of materials is key. Plastic bags are a classic example of this — they are a cost to someone even if it is not the direct user. This effort would thus also have resonance with the development of a new Global Plastics Treaty whose “zero draft” was also circulated last week.
Humans resist changing habits until economic incentives and education work in tandem. An example of hope, building on the plastic bags example, is how fast people have embraced a change in habits. Costco and other wholesale warehouses have done a great job with behavioral change. People have figured out that they can save money on quality products by carrying groceries in used crates or bringing their reusable cloth bags. The momentary irritation passes and you feel good about how you are helping the planet and society. It is through such a confluence of policy reforms and consumer education that the Zero Waste Movement might also carry forth many broader environmental objectives.
The United Nations Board of Eminent Persons on Zero Waste comprises: Emine Erdoğan, first lady of Türkiye (honorary chairperson); Jose Manuel Moller, chief executive officer and founder, Algramo; Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus, co-founder and chairman, Yunus Environment Hub; Carlos Silva Filho, president, International Solid Waste Association; Laura Reyes, Directora Ejecutiva, Cempre – Economía Circular; Lara van Druten, chief executive officer, The Waste Transformers; Hakima El Haite, founder, EauGlobe; Gino Van Begin, secretary general, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability; and Vijay Jagannathan, secretary general, CityNet Asia Pacific and Saleem H. Ali, member of the United Nations International Resource Panel. Additionally, Melissa Santokhi-Seenacherry, first lady of Suriname, and Fatima Maada Bio, first lady of Sierra Leone, will serve as honorary members. Guy Ryder, under-secretary-general for policy, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, will be the U.N. liaison for the board.
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