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Waste Not, Want Not: The Future of Zero Waste Living

  • Writer: horizonshiftlab
    horizonshiftlab
  • Feb 27
  • 15 min read

Updated: Mar 14

A reusable cup with a cork sleeve is surrounded by scattered brown disposable cups. The setting is a neutral surface, emphasizing contrast.
Source: cottonbro studio via pexels.com

In this episode we explore the challenges and opportunities of zero waste living—from behavioral shifts to breakthrough innovations and policy changes. We examine the impact of de-influencing, a growing movement helping consumers rethink wasteful purchases, and spotlight a paper-based electronics innovation that could reduce e-waste. We also discuss how extended producer responsibility laws are shifting the burden of plastic waste from individuals to corporations. Join us as we uncover how technology, policy, and social influence are shaping a more sustainable future. 





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Episode Transcript:

Raakhee: Welcome to Signal Shift, by Horizon Shift Lab. We're your hosts, Lana Price, Raakhee Natha, and Sue Chi. Each episode, we explore the latest signals in technology, culture, and society, uncovering insights that will impact our daily lives in the future. Join us as we shift perspectives, explore possibilities, and delve into real changes in our world. Curious to learn more? Go to horizonshiftlab.com.


00:40 The Hidden Cost of Weekly Waste


Raakhee: Hello and welcome to Signal Shift. This is Raakhee and I have Lana and I have Sue here. At the end of each week, right, I have to share this. So at the end of each week, I look at the trash that two adults, my husband and I produce in a week. And there is not a week where I'm just like, What? Like how did so much come from us in one week, right? And then I always do this, kind of like, I'm like, well, if that's us, then imagine our neighbor and then the street block and then this community in the city. And it seems really insane, really insurmountable. Yeah, and it's really food packaging and packaging that is just so much.


And it's disheartening because we know there's some real issues with recycling, right? It's pretty ineffective. So it does worry me. It makes me a little sad as well. And the truth is that it's not just bad for the planet. The plastic waste simply means more microplastics and more nanoplastics going into our bodies, right? They found all of this in our food, our water, our rain. We know this. We live with this reality.


In 2024, the Environmental Defense Canada published a study that showed that 70 % of products in the produce in the baby food aisle were encased in plastic. Why does 70 % of produce need to be encased in plastic? And while it's true that as people, I think we are all attempting to really recycle as much as we can. There isn't a store or restaurant where you don't see a recycling bin. Everyone kind of does it in their homes. 


But the statistics are pointing to like a different picture. So in 2020, we had 242 million Americans using like bagged or packaged salads. And that's risen now. So in 2024, there was 251.47 million, you know, small incremental, but big rises.


I think most people feel this. I think it's fair to say this, that we really want to live waste free. But it's not easy. It's really not easy. It hasn't been made easy. It's not convenient. 


So today we are going to look at waste free living. I'm really hoping that there are some interesting signals, maybe a trick or two.Or just to be inspired and feel a little bit more hopeful and better about this in the future. So with that, Lana, Sue, who would like to share?


03:29 Zero Waste Isn’t Easy--How Social Pressure Helps


Sue: This is a topic close to my heart because I've been trying to be part of the zero waste movement for a few years now. And you know, it's actually a very touchy subject for me because I keep telling people who are trying to do zero waste. It's actually not our group that needs a ton of help. It's everybody else. You know, it's families, people who are really busy, but they see the trash, but it's really low on the priority. 


And for example, this is actually a great week, Raakhee, to bring up this topic here locally, because it's zero waste week. And I'm supposed to go to this event later, and I'm like, I'm going to see the same exact faces who were there last year. What new things are you going to tell me about? 


And so when it comes to this, I think one thing I'm really passionate about is the idea of behavior change, really, that's what it's going to take. And there's a study by the National Academy of Sciences that said that more than education, more than financial incentives, social pressure was the most effective intervention to cause behavior change as it relates towards climate action and sustainability. So to me, this also is exactly related to zero waste. So I thought, Is there anything that is effective or just interesting that's coming out in terms of social pressure? 


And I found that once again, owing it to Gen Z, the digital generation, they are going in on this whole de-influencing movement. So if you think of the consumption that you have in your house, all the packaging related to it, so much of it is related to social media and influencers, right? 


And so now this de-influencing movement has over a billion views on TikTok. And a lot of it is driven for environmental reasons, but also other reasons like great way to save money, less social pressure on keeping up with the influencer lifestyle. You know, these videos are basically like reaction videos. So they take a lot of people who've gone through this, like, I got the 20 beauty products this influencer told me to get. And not only did it not work, I used a bunch of money and now I have all this garbage in my house. And so they're kind of helping people to understand, you know, why it's worth it. Just like, don't buy this stuff to start with. And that way you'll have less trash in the end. 


And it actually turns out that they're having some kind of impact. There was a marketing survey done saying that de-influencing has actually a significant impact on brand perception and purchase intent, which I thought was, you know, it's worrisome for companies for brands, but it was encouraging to me. 


And so I like it because, know, again, number one influence on this behavior is your friends and family. And a lot of people include creators in that bucket. Right. And so if you're thinking that social media is a good place to get advice on sustainability, on zero waste living, the more people who are bought into this de-influencing movement, I think the better, because I think they're not going to be at the zero waste talk.


Later tonight, they're gonna be on their feed scrolling through TikTok, through Instagram and what they can do. And so the more that there are not just like de-influencers for climate, but they're like the CrossFit buffs, the chefs, the fashionistas who are already in these channels, but are saying like, why you shouldn't do this or how you can do zero waste packaging here. I think that's the better. So that's my signal for the week.


Lana: I love it, too. I can really see the, like your passion and enthusiasm for it. And I think that in itself is also infectious, right? Like, and inspiring.


Raakhee: Yeah, totally, totally Sue. Thank you. Lana, yeah, what is yours, piggy backing off Sue? 


07:21 Breakthrough Innovation: Paper-Based Electronics


Lana: Yeah, so guess mine is… My signal, it's an invention. It was one of the national winners of the James Dyson Award in 2024. And if you want to see like some really, really cool cutting edge things, that's like a great website to look through kind of all the winners. It really blew my mind. 


But this invention is paper-based small electronics. So imagine your Wi-Fi router is made of paper with a dissolvable and recyclable circuit board. So these are engineered, these small electronics are engineered to dissolve entirely after use. And so that's like a closed loop material cycle. 


So after they're done, consumers can disassemble them, they can return them to the manufacturer, all the materials are dissolved, recovered and used to create new devices. And so it completely eliminates electronic waste. So it's like a cradle to cradle solution for small e-waste, which is, electronic waste is 50 million tons generated globally per year.


And if you can think about all the various types of electronics that we have and that we keep getting new ones, right? So this just is a big problem. But one of the best things that I thought about this solution was that it was invented by a college student, an Austrian college student, and she did this, you know, developed this as part of her bachelor's thesis. 


So I think that kind of speaks to, Sue, kind of what you were talking about as well, about sort of this generation really kind of taking matters into their own hands and sharing the work that they do with the world. And so I thought, I thought that was really inspiring and I was very touched to see that.


Raakhee: That's awesome. Gen-Z for the win with this episode. Yeah, you know, nothing gets my goat like when I see people actually take batteries or things like that and put it with their normal waste. And Sue, that speaks to kind of what you were talking about and just the typical sort of household where people just don't have time or have bought into the belief of not having time and, know, habits like that.


It's such a simple little thing to do and there's recycling bins everywhere, right? So I love that. That is pretty exciting and so amazing to hear about the innovations happening in this space. So that's a lot of electronic waste. So that's pretty incredible. 


10:13 Rethinking Grocery Shopping: The Bulk Revolution


So, I will share that I struggled with this one in the sense that I was very optimistic and I stepped in and was like, I'm going to find some really great innovation. Having just spoken about that food packaging, that was really where my thing was like, oh my gosh, if we can just reduce this. 


You know, again, Sue, I think about the households you were talking about and the average person in our home, we pretty much eat everything from scratch. And it's a lot of just pure produce, which shouldn't be largely packaged, right? We shouldn't have a lot of packaging. And yet I'm so curious to know how much packaging you both have or come out with, right? But we have like a whole bin, a bag of recycling at the end of each week. It's just know, your almond milk cotton, spinach bag, those kinds of things. 


But in a week, that stuff adds up to, you know, a bag, which is just you know, just wild. So I think about people who are not being conscious about this, to your point, Sue, right, which is probably lot of homes that must be a lot more. 


So, yeah, I went in and I was like, there's got to be something, there's all this new stuff about, you know, things that are just dissolving the plastic as well, right, and creating, Lana, to your point, circular economy. But, you know, everything I read and what I found out is even with these sorts of solutions for plastic, particularly, even when it can be recycled and can be created into plastic again, the kind of energy that is used in the process just creates more carbon emissions and, and, and, right? It's not even that simple. Very little of the plastic that is recyclable can actually go through the process and be recycled ultimately. And so there's truly a lot of challenges there.


I came back to then something we know about, very traditional, and I think may really have to be a thing we think about, which is kind of the bulk grocery stores and the buying without packaging, and really grocery stores leading the way on that. So I know there's probably a couple of spread out in all of our cities, probably just a handful. LA has a couple. 


There's one particular one called re_ grocery. And they did pretty decently. They have diverted about 250,000 items from packaging from the landfall since about 2020. Doesn't sound like a phenomenal number, but at least it's something, right? 


There's a lot of issues why grocery stores don't do it, operational efficiency, food safety, all those things. But I really think about the fact that we now have much more intelligent systems, right, that can help that. 


So I kind of wanted to paint a scenario of imagine taking your shopping cart, kind of is automated, it's like automated little robot shopping cart that comes to, you know, your booth, takes in all these containers that are containers that sit in your house anyway, like your pantry jars, takes it through the store for you. You have these bins that kind of just push over and you don't have to touch anything. You don't have to contaminate anything, right? So just even imagining for a little bit, I was like, come on, with what we have now, it'll take a bit of shift, right? But grocery stores can evolve. So I do think that before we get to some sort of solution around dissolving plastic or recycling it in a way that is not still hurting the environment.


There's something around these bulk grocery stores and hopefully them becoming more popular and hopefully technology helping them do this a little bit better. I think the message is that recycling is the last resort. We kind of use it as, I'm recycling. And it's like, no, it's reduce, reduce, reduce, reduce. Find every possible way you can, like you said, Sue, de-influence kind of thing, right? Less, just less.


14:11 Can New Laws Fix Our Plastic Problem?


But there's some hope. In 2024, the European Parliament approved a rule around reducing plastic packaging. And it's basically, it's a rule that's called the Extended Producer Responsibility. And it puts the recycling responsibility onto every producer of that product that you buy. And sure, everyone's like, hey, they're going to put that cost back into the consumer. I know that doesn't sound fair, but that's going to force the behavioral change.


So I think these laws, legislation working with the behavioral change will help make kind of a difference. So a couple of states have adopted it, California has as well. So yeah, I'm really excited about that. But that was where I actually landed on with my signal. And I think these three speak to really different and critical solutions that come together. So what's coming up for you guys? What are you thinking?


Sue: That's the thing. It's like so much of the pressure is on us as individuals. And like we said, we're so busy with so many other things to think about. Why isn't some of this born on the companies as well? Right. And it's going to take all of us really to do something about it. So that is encouraging to see how people and companies can actually partner together along with government policy to get something done. 


Yeah, I think overall, so what's interesting, I did a little survey around zero waste last year to try to design a challenge. The ones I've been a part of, they don't work. What was interesting was one of the insights I took away was that the plastic packaging, there is so much perceived value around plastic, in that plastic wrapping means it's hygienic. Plastic wrapping means that it is new and so that it is higher value than something that is not wrapped in plastic, right? So there were some of these perceptions that are very ingrained in our society.


But I think one of the questions for me is maybe there is a de-influencer who can show that buying in bulk is actually not a problem. And you still have all the value that you put into something that is plastic wrapped, for instance. Or, Lana, like you're saying, this whole paper and reducing e-waste, how can we make that really cool?


That's just as functional as any other electronic gadget, right? I think that value piece is something we really need to work on. 


16:39 The Digital Waste You Can’t See


Lana: Yeah, if I could jump in, I think if I can make a special request to the de-influencers out there, because Lord knows I'm not an influencer or a de-influencer. Something that I was reading about that was related to the e-waste is the actual waste generated by data. And so it's files. Like if you think about all of our electronic files, our photos, the videos, but also now AI, right? All of that data, the storage, to your point, Raakhee, about recycling and sort of how much energy that takes.


It is a little bit scary to think about how much energy and water it takes to run all these AI data centers. in a very similar fashion of how we're talking about reduce, reduce, reduce, we also have to reduce our electronic footprint, like the last thing I can think about. you know, it's, it's out there also, we just don't see it because like storage is very cheap, right? And so we, feels like our storage is like unlimited. But, you know, at some point, I mean, we are paying a cost for all of these, all of our electronic activities.


So I love a de-influencer to also take that on. Like maybe we have files that just disappear. You know what I mean? Like do we need to have all of these electronic records? Do we need to have all these emails? Do you need 200 photos from the last vacation? So I don't know, just something to consider.


Raakhee: Oh, gosh, Lana, I'm like, this is in opposition to what we discussed last week. And I'm like, digitize everything. I thought about that. I mean, there's small, some things are small scale, right? But some things are big. And so obviously, we got to tackle the big things. So yeah, maybe it's OK to have thousands of photos.


I guess it's just recognizing that they are taking up space somewhere. Yeah, yeah, I think I just think of sorting through digital stuff is harder, right? Because you can't see it.


It's way harder to organize digital products than it is. So you rather just have your dumps, right? But I hear you. I mean, AI servers, I mean, what that is going to cost in AI farms and what it is costing us, right, in terms of energy. I mean, that is a whole, that's a podcast episode on its own, right? Like, don't even know how you wrap your head around it, but it's hard because, you technology also brings the solutions, right, without it. And without everything digital, we we don't get to move forward or create some of the solutions we want to. So it's a, I hear you. It's just, that's a tough one. 


Sue: Yeah. I feel like in the grand scale of things we need to go zero waste, that's like the advanced level course. Like let's get some low hanging fruit on food, for example, and then work our way up there. But it's a, it's a really good point and something you don't think about very often because it's not, it's not in your immediate vicinity. You can't see it. You can't feel it. So you don't know. Yeah. 


20:09 How Small Shifts Can Reduce Waste-For Good


Raakhee: Yeah. And so going back to your point, because when you said this, I was like, and you spoke about behavioral change, I was like, you know, I know we have this perception of, OK, I'm buying the packaged spinach. And it is it looks better. It looks washed. It's and it is right. 


But I've definitely had an incident where I had a pre-washed spinach bag. And those little green things that look like spinach popped out. It was only once, right? This is pre-washed everything. So one is don't ever assume that those things are clean. We see enough outbreaks of everything like wash, everything you consume, right? Just general sort of announcement. 


But I think the second thing though is to remember how much of plastic is getting into our bodies. So when you buy that package and that's sitting in your car and that heat is releasing some of those chemicals into that food that you're consuming. So if it does help, use that juxtaposition to get you to change your behaviors.


Sue: That's a great point. And maybe, you know, if your value is on the whole idea of hygiene and health, I mean, that would trump anything of value, right, of putting this in packaging in the first place. That's a really great point.


Raakhee: Yeah, so gosh, I mean, there's so much we could talk about here, but I think I wanted to feel inspired and better. And you both have definitely done. I really do think between what technology is going to bring, Lana, the way you spoke about it, through the behavioral change, which is so critical, we have got to change. 


And hopefully, I guess what I'm saying is, you know, policy and law and producers taking on responsibility. I mean, if those three things can come together really well in the next few years, we can start making some dents into this really, really big problem. 


I hope everyone listening feels that way and you too are inspired to maybe think about, you know, what is your waste footprint and what are little ways, you know, it's never overnight. You can't just say I'm becoming, you know, zero waste overnight, like all things. Start with one thing and then add on something else in two or three weeks when you have the capacity.


It is important. It's important for our planet, for our health, for our future. It's a value system I think we all want to live by.


Well, thank you so much for tuning in and we will be back again next week. Have a fantastic weekend ahead and bye for now.


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