When Did the Idea of Zero Waste Start? | April 20th, 2021.

 

In 2016, blogger Lauren Singer went viral with a picture of her garbage.

The catch? The image she posted was a single 16-ounce mason jar containing all the waste that she’d generated over four years. With this simple illustration, Singer highlighted the importance of being accountable to the planet for the waste that we produce.

 

Social media often gets credit for launching today’s waste-conscious movement, but the Trash is for Tossers founder is far from its first pioneer.

 

Social media platforms have certainly played a role in broadening awareness. Influencers today help make zero-waste living simpler, more accessible, and cost-effective. The fundamental idea of living without waste, however, extends back centuries — if not millennia.

 

Prior to the advent of mass production and global trade networks, communities had limited resources available. For these earlier civilizations, a sustainable lifestyle wasn’t just a choice. It was vital to their survival.

 

The history of zero-waste originates with civilizations that had to fulfill this ancient need, including:

 

  • The Aztecs: They turned compost into crop fertilizer and transformed human waste into fabric dye.

 

 

  • The Japanese: Over the course of centuries, they perfected the technique of shredding and reusing sheets of paper.

 

  • The Native Americans: They maintained a traditional dedication to using every part of an animal killed for meat.

 

Today’s zero-waste lifestyle is simply an evolved version of these earlier principles. The lifestyle’s challenges, vision, and mainstream acceptance have advanced alongside modern changes, yet the central idea is no different than its archaic counterparts.

 

The Rise in Consumption

The modern history of zero-waste takes us back to the 19th century and the Industrial Revolution. This time of rapid development introduced profound socioeconomic and environmental changes.

 

New technologies made goods more affordable and more accessible than ever. Alongside this development, rising wages brought about a boom in commerce and consumption. Populations exploded thanks to this improved quality of life — and better medical care — creating a global cycle of supply and demand that continues to this day.

 

This period ushered in many of the world’s modern environmental problems in order to fuel its growth. Although habitat destruction, fossil fuel use, and pollution grew more widespread, these also inspired environmental advocacy.

 

As early as 1859, scientists like John Tyndall began to recognize the signs of human-caused climate change. By the 1890s, environmentalists started to organize socially. Through groups like the Sierra Club, the desire to return to humanity’s zero-waste past expanded in scale and influence as never before.

 

Social Environmentalism Gains Steam

Waste reduction goals in the 19th century were less about sustainability and more about managing public health risks. However, by the mid-1900s manufacturers had begun to recognize the cost-benefit of reusing materials.

 

Programs like soda bottle recycling deposits reinforced the idea that day-to-day products had lifespans beyond their initial use. Once World War II began, the habit of re-use became more commonplace as governments called on the public to aid in the war effort by providing recyclable materials for supplies.

 

Happily, this shift in public perception didn’t slow down after the war. It became mainstream, entwining with a growing public appetite for environmental sustainability.

 

The Advent of Modern Zero-Waste Living

 

Multiple milestones characterized the 1970s as an era of social activism, including:

 

 

 

  • The pesticide controversy prompted by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring

 

By the 1980s, this growing public awareness advanced to calls for actionable change.

 

Municipalities across the U.S. began to implement programs to meet this demand. With better access to composting and recycling programs, a waste reduction philosophy became standard across American households.

 

Even so, as consumerism continued to grow, the limitations of these efforts became clear. Waste soon outpaced recycling efforts — requiring unsustainable management methods like incinerators and landfills.

 

In 1980 Daniel Knapp introduced the concept of “total recycling,” an ancient take on a new challenge. Along with his wife, he opened the Urban Ore Ecopark in Berkley, California, a scavenger organization dedicated to giving community waste a second life.

 

Knapp helped popularize the idea that recycling alone isn’t enough. Urban Ore refined the approach with programs and campaigns designed to eliminate burning and landfilling in favor of maximum material recovery.

 

This culture’s momentum laid the foundation for the zero-waste lifestyle ideal that is splashed across social media today.

 

A Movement Gone Global

Daniel Knapp continued to consult on waste management solutions throughout the United States during the 1990s. In fact, his approach is still the basis for many zero-waste initiatives country-wide.

 

Knapp’s total recycling philosophy quickly reached foreign shores. In 1995 he arrived in Australia just as the country was launching its “No Waste by 2010” program. While he worked with the government on its waste reduction strategies, the lifestyle concept spread throughout grassroots communities.

 

Advocates and academics alike began to view unsustainable waste as a societal program. During the 2000s the term “zero-waste” began popping up at conferences worldwide. Supporters soon joined forces to form the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZIWA).

 

ZIWA’s work has since helped formalize the movement. With its extensive partnership network, policy agenda, and education initiatives, the group has become a change agent. It continues to scale up Knapp’s concept by:

 

  • Setting standards

 

  • Coordinating research

 

  • Building capacity at the international, national, and local levels

 

From Policy Agendas To a Lifestyle Goal

At the turn of the 21st century, the zero-waste movement focused on driving scaled change. It was about, first, inspiring a culture that worked to align policy with zero-waste goals, and then designing the systems to get there.

 

In 2008 Bea Johnson made it personal.

As one of the first people to document her zero-waste living on social media — popularizing the mason jar challenge — Johnson’s message was about the power of individual responsibility. She championed a new version of the longstanding recycling motto, upgrading it to “refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot.”

 

This simple directive transformed vague policy ambitions into bite-sized lifestyle goals, inspiring a new generation through the power of collective action. Her work at once made the lifestyle more accessible and emphasized the personal value of the journey.

 

Johnson encouraged a decade of development in her wake, with the zero-waste movement evolving into a full-blown industry.

 

As public awareness spread via hashtags, vlogs, and social challenges, environmental entrepreneurs emerged. Today, more and more advocates are developing niche zero-waste products and resources, including:

 

 

 

  • The duo behind Woke N Wasteless, who underscore the intersection of sustainability and social justice

 

From groceries to beauty, entertainment to fashion, almost every industry now has advocates participating in this zero-waste movement. At Miniwiz, we spent 15 years researching how to apply these concepts to the construction and design world.

 

Our projects reflect today’s zero-waste lifestyle, offering sustainable solutions to architecture, design, and consumer products. From Knapp’s total recycling to Johnson’s 5Rs philosophy, we aim to uphold the legacy of zero-waste history, encouraging a truly circular economy in everyday life.

 

We do this by harnessing the unlimited potential of waste in our solutions — assisting other businesses to serve their market through a greener lens.

 

Get in touch to become a part of this culture shift, joining businesses around the globe in their committal to reducing the waste footprint of today’s industries.

 

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