So I was at a fairly big event the other day, and it was officially labelled a “Zero-Waste Event.” Awesome! The world needs more of those… Except, it wasn’t REALLY zero waste. They were handing out water in non-recyclable cups, people were bringing in non-recyclable crap, and organizations were handing out various things that, despite best intentions, can and will end up in the waste. What they meant by “zero-waste” was that they didn’t put out any waste cans… Every other type of garbage can under the sun (organics, paper, recyclable plastics, metal, glass…) but no straight-up waste. So attendees were left to set their waste on whatever surface would hold it, or throw it into another garbage can, screwing up the whole system.

Good try, but…