Zero Waste

Zero Waste should be a goal of every company on earth. Period. According to the Zero Waste Alliance,

“Zero waste suggests that the entire concept of waste should be eliminated.  Instead, waste should be thought of as a “residual product” or simply a “potential resource” to counter our basic acceptance of waste as a normal course of events.  Opportunities such as reduced costs, increased profits, and reduced environmental impacts are found when returning these “residual products” or “resources” as food to either natural and industrial systems.  This may involve redesigning both products and processes in order to eliminate hazardous properties that make them unusable and unmanageable in quantities that overburden both industry and the environment.”

According to this article published today by Fortune writer Marc Gunter, Wal-Mart is trying to become a zero waste corporation. The accomplishment would be earth-shattering – or hopefully the opposite, figuratively. For a company that large to set a precedent that amazing would change the landscape of capitalism. The article mentions this, and I actually had the opportunity to hear Mayor Gavin Newsome speak on this topic, but the City of San Francisco is trying to become the first zero waste municipality in the U.S., and perhaps the world.

I’m still torn about Wal-Mart as a company though. General, society puts the rights of people ahead of the environmental impact of business to the point where the environment is often an afterthought. How then, should society react to a company that is slowly trying to right its environmental wrongs while still treating its employees unfairly? If Wal-Mart were to achieve zero waste in its operations I’d be hard-pressed not to shop there from a sustainability stand point. But, if the people working at Wal-Mart (and the shopping experience itself needs drastic change by the way also) are still making minimum wage with none to few benefits, what’s a consumer to do? For as long as I know to be true, especially during the industrial height of the U.S., we were the opposite. Good wages and high productivity at any cost to the environment. Without preservation of the middle class the U.S. could turn into a idyllic land of fresh air and no land fills while its citizens struggle to afford anything. That scenario is very improbable but our responsibility is to accomplish both environmental and societal sustainability simultaneously. Say that really fast five times.