Tag Archives: Zero Waste

ZERO Market – ZERO Waste

12 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by in design, environment, inspiration

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Here’s something we are really excited about – a zero-waste market in DENVER!

ZERO market aims to offer its customers a resource for ecologically and ethically sound groceries, produce, beauty, body and household products in bulk and without packaging. Packaging is the number one and fastest growing category of solid waste. More than 30% of municipal solid waste is packaging, 40% of which is plastic that is not or can not be recycled (Source). With this in mind, it makes perfect sense to remove this part of the waste stream a the source – the market.

To learn more about the project, watch the 5 minute video below, visit their website on indiegogo.com or find them on Facebook.

Currently seeking funding on indiegogo, ZERO market is hoping to open its doors by the end of 2014. If this is something you would like to see happen – even if you’re not in Denver, helping a project like this get off the ground will enable other places to start the conversation and, potentially, see similar markets crop up in other areas.

The Three Rs

24 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in environment

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I teach a lab section for an Introduction to Environmental Science course at UC Denver where we cover topics from water, food systems, and risk assessment to energy, climate change and personal consumption. This week’s topic is about waste in all its forms – landfill, recycle, compost, hazardous, electronic and sewage.

At the beginning of each semester I ask everyone to provide a personal historical narrative about their relationship with the environment. A common response from students is to write about their familiarity with recycling and the attitude their family has toward the act. If I were to consider my students from the past few years as a sample population of the world at large, recycling appears to have become the poster child of the environmentalist movement.

Which begs the question – when did the third “R” become the most recognized “R”? What happened to first REDUCING and then REUSING before RECYCLING?

According to greenwaste.com the average person generates 4.5 pounds of trash every day (or about 1.5 tons of solid waste annually). Although 75% of this waste is recyclable, the EPA estimates only 30% of this actually escapes the landfill. With these statistics in mind, it makes a lot of sense to reconsider our daily habits regarding what we use and throw away. After all, there is no such thing as “away” – just out of sight and, often, out of mind.

And if you ever wonder what happens within a recycling facility, I’ll leave you with this educational video from Boulder County Recycling Center about the single-stream recycling process:

 

— Amy DePierre