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Individual efforts are important and valuable to preventing further waste production and working towards Zero Waste goals, however, the issue of waste production should be addressed at the origin of production.
Manufacturers should be held accountable for their contribution to waste production. Manufacturers' single-use products and lack of affordable Zero Waste alternatives make it harder for consumers to partake in Zero Waste efforts. By targeting the origin of production and demanding Zero Waste alternatives, that are recyclable, compostable, biodegradable, or have a longer lifespan, waste sent to landfills can be reduced or postponed. With more affordable Zero Waste alternatives, low-income consumers have a greater opportunity at reducing their own waste. Waste may still be produced in the long run, but intervention at the industrial level will help reduce that future waste production. Additionally, companies should be held accountable for their wasteful single-use packaging. Products that should essentially be Zero Waste, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, tend to be packaged in single-use plastic which introduces unnecessary waste. The excessive packaging and lack of eco-friendly products makes it harder for consumers to avoid waste production, thus the manufacturers should be held accountable and implement systemic changes to reduce mass production of waste.
Solutions:
Solutions:
Setting product policies that determine how products are designed, manufactured, used, and dealt with at the end of their lives and that will hold manufacturers responsible for considering the future disposal of a product.
Redesigning products and packaging to be reusable, recyclable, compostable, and/or biodegradable in order to minimize or eliminate harmful waste production.
Producing affordable Zero Waste alternatives to make good quality reusable products more accessible to low-income individuals.
Waste management at the industrial and individual levels.
Increasing investment in facilities and programs for recycling and waste management education.
An empowered community working to minimize their waste production can be built from the implementation of policies that strive for cleaner, eco-friendly manufacturing, that make Zero Waste efforts more approachable, and from the investment in Zero Waste programs and facilities that educate communities and help facilitate waste management.
With proper and effective accountability and initiative from the industrial level to make sustainable products, the consumer's role in waste prevention is keeping up with reducing, reusing, refusing, recycling, and composting correctly as much as they can to limit their waste, as well as limiting their consumption to a moderate level and focusing on increasing the demand of sustainable goods from companies.
Sources
Sources
Daly, Lizzie and Tom Hird, hosts. “Single-Use, Single Planet.” WAKEup and smell the coffee, episode 1, Simplecast, 20 November 2018, https://wakecupandsmellthecoffee.simplecast.com/episodes/305800c4?share=true
Hill, Julie, et al. What Is Zero Waste? Edited by Julie Foley, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), 2006, pp. 13–16, A Zero Waste UK: Institute for Public Policy Research and Green Alliance, www.jstor.org/stable/resrep15693.9. Accessed 22 Apr. 2021.
“Pollution & Health: Eco-Cycle Solutions Hub.” Eco, www.ecocyclesolutionshub.org/about-zero-waste/pollution-health/#:~:text=Zero%20Waste%20strategies%20help%20to,may%20all%20lead%20healthier%20lives.
Song, Qingbin, et al. “Minimizing the Increasing Solid Waste through Zero Waste Strategy.” Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 104, 2015, pp. 199–210., doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.08.027.
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