Ecocentricity Blog - Front One: Zero Waste

Strap on your crampons and grab your ice picks - we’ve got a mountain to climb! That’s right, I just decided that Mount Sustainability is made of ice. Just go with it.

Up first, we have the Zero Waste front. Of all seven fronts, I would say that this one is the most well-traversed. That’s because waste is fundamentally inefficient and can provide immediate financial benefits to those who can reduce it. I mean, who wants to buy food, water, electrons or stuff and not get what he or she paid for? It doesn’t even matter if you care about the environment – it just makes cents not to waste (okay, okay, even I admit that is a bad, overused pun).

That said, despite being inefficient, waste has permeated our lives. At a high level, I see a few reasons for that. One, wasting things is convenient, and our society has certainly decided to prize convenience. Why carry around a reusable fork when your favorite fast-food restaurant will just give you a plastic one for free?

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