The idea of waste, something that gets discarded, is fundamentally incompatible with a holistic and optimized natural system. Everything transitions between states and between different life forms but nothing is "waste".
Approximately one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption—nearly 1.3 billion tonnes—gets lost or wasted every year. Food that deviates from what is considered optimal in terms of shape, size and colour, or beyond the “best-before” date is often discarded by retailers or consumers.
Reducing trash at the household level is a first step. However, more than 80% of wastage happens before a product gets purchased. To go beyond landfill culture one must go beyond participation in the industrial product market.
Principals for transitioning to a wasteless culture:
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Reduction of resource extraction, production and consumption of new products.
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Redesign of products and methods of production to eliminate waste by designing for longevity, modularity, and indefinite closed-loop reuse.
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Avoidance and reduction of single-use materials such as packaging and convenience products.
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Convert "waste" to resources for the benefit of local production and the creation of a sustainable society.
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Clean, sort, store or re-use any not-yet-recyclable "waste" to enable future re-manufacturing .