Zero waste ideology reimagines products from the outset— from design and production to distribution and disposal — in a way that eliminates all resources that cannot be reused, recycled or composted. Rather than treat sustainability as an afterthought, the zero-waste movement focuses on prevention, creating an economic system designed around reuse and a circular economy. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/zero-waste-with-jenny-chiu/
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/zero-waste-with-jenny-chiu/
Ethan: How are college students reducing waste on campus? This is Ethan Elkind of Climate Break. I spoke with Jenny Chiu, Zero Waste Research Lead for the Student Environmental Research Center at UC Berkeley, to learn about the impacts of municipal waste — and what students are doing to help.
Ms. Chiu: When you're drinking water from a plastic water bottle, the plastic water bottle actually took two times as much water as the water inside the plastic water bottle to make. We think, usually, about waste as “that plastic water bottle” and how it ends up in landfill, but there was the whole resource extraction that started with fossil fuel in order to make that plastic. How did the water get there? What communities were impacted?
Ethan: Chiu points out that, often, this plastic is simply non-essential.
Ms. Chiu: Why do we have so much waste? Thirty percent of our waste is packaging. We don't really need that much packaging.
Ethan: At Berkeley, students have undertaken projects in peer waste education, vermicomposting, e-waste disposal, and reuse of 3D printer filament. The goal: close the loop for waste on campus. Chiu emphasizes that, while it may require more effort from students, managing waste responsibly is important.
Ms. Chiu: Someone walks up to a trashcan and they're like, all right, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just going to toss this in the landfill. Or they're like, well, that compost bin is kind of far away, I'm just going to toss it in the landfill. That actually has really tangible impacts on our climate.
Ethan: For more information on waste diversion at UC Berkeley, and for more climate solutions, visit climatebreak.org or wherever you get your podcasts.