How to Build a Zero-Waste Economy
Joseph Winters | June 21, 2023 | Grist
It wasn’t until Sarah Paiji Yoo became a new mother that her journey into plastic-free living really began.
Specifically, it was the switch to baby formula that changed her worldview. Yoo had been breastfeeding her son for a few months and was looking to transition him to a dissolvable formula in 2018. But she found herself wondering what kind of water to mix it with — bottled or tap.
There were no good options. “I was horrified to learn that regardless of whether you drink tap water or bottled water here in the United States, our water contains hundreds of pieces of microplastics per liter,” she said.
Yoo began connecting the dots, tracing those microplastics — tiny shards of plastic that form from the breakdown of larger plastic items — back to their source. Or rather, their many, many sources. Yoo was soon seeing plastic throughout her life: It held her child’s vitamins, her toothpaste, the ketchup she kept in the fridge. “It’s really everything,” she said.
The next few years would bring a deluge of new and alarming data about plastic’s impact on people and the planet. Scientists began finding microplastics everywhere: in deep ocean trenches, near the tops of remote mountains. In 2019, researchers in Australia estimated that we ingest a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week, with unknown health effects. Other reports documented the ballooning impact of plastic pollution on marine life, as well as plastic production’s growing carbon footprint and disproportionate harms against poor communities of color.
Yoo was determined to do something about it. A self-described serial entrepreneur, she ended a self-imposed break from starting new businesses to co-found Blueland in 2019. The company’s mission is to eliminate unnecessary plastics from familiar cleaning and personal care products like dish soap, toilet bowl cleaner, and body wash — all of which it sells in concentrated tablet form, shipped directly to customers in recyclable paper packaging.
The tablets dissolve in water and can be used to refill Blueland’s durable glass or ceramic bottles. Yoo said the bottles are intended to be “the last set” of cleaning containers her customers ever buy: No more disposable plastic, no more pollution, no more hazardous tap water. “We don’t take that lightly,” she told Grist.
Yoo is among a growing number of business owners who have aligned themselves with activists and policymakers who want to move the global economy away from plastics, which are rarely recycled and are laden with toxic chemicals. The broader movement seeks to reduce plastic production, an urgent priority considering petrochemical companies’ plans to triple the amount of plastic they make by 2060. That scenario could cause more than 44 million metric tons of aquatic plastic pollution every year.
But these advocates and entrepreneurs are also envisioning a future free from single-use items altogether. By promoting a “circular economy” — patterns of consumption that reduce waste generation of any kind — they hope to eliminate not only single-use plastics, but also disposable products made from paper and metal. Their vision will require whole new business models and supply chains that prioritize reuse — containers and dishware and shipping packages that can be used again and again rather than discarded after just a few minutes.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, or EMF — a nonprofit that advocates for a circular economy — estimates that businesses have an opportunity to save some $10 billion in material costs if they replace just 20 percent of their single-use plastic packaging with reusable alternatives. But the shift will also require buy-in from customers, who will have to embrace a host of unfamiliar products and practices. Some of these reusable solutions are relatively new inventions, like lightweight, concentrated formulas of familiar body care products, while others represent a return to systems that have been around for a long time: say, bringing your own container to the bulk aisle at the grocery store, or leaving glass bottles curbside to be picked up for cleaning and reuse, à la the milkmen of generations past.
American culture needs to “dispose of that disposable mindset, where everything is to be used and thrown away,” said Linda Corrado, a board member for the reuse nonprofit Upstream and an independent consultant in sustainable business strategies. She said she dreams of a day when plastic-free shopping is the default, where customers shop in stores that are “just one bulk bin after another.”
EMF has broken down the reuse market into four models defined by who owns the packaging and where it gets refilled. To get a better sense of how the reuse revolution is taking shape, Grist spoke with representatives from businesses — some of which were previously highlighted in an EMF report — that are turning those models into a reality, and to customers who have tried their products. Some companies, like Blueland, are making plastic-free refills for soap available through the mail so customers can fill up their own empty containers. Others are setting up “reverse logistics” infrastructure so people can borrow takeout containers and later return them to a dropoff location. All are trying to strike a balance, nudging consumers toward new habits while also making their systems as convenient as possible.
“With all of today’s technology and innovative solutions,” Corrado said, “the possibilities are endless.”
Broadly speaking, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation classifies reuse systems based on two factors: who owns the containers and where they’re filled. With companies like Blueland, the customer owns the container — potentially one sold by Blueland for $8 to $11 (although, for many products, any old container will do). And because refills are ordered online and delivered straight to people’s doorsteps, the system is labeled “refill at home.”
The concept works for a wide range of products, particularly those that can be dehydrated into tablet or powder form: toothpaste, mouthwash, dishwasher detergent. Getting rid of the water in these products means they don’t have to be shipped around in huge plastic containers; customers just dilute them at home with water from the tap.
These lightweight products take up less space and are easy to move around, said Jennifer Congdon, deputy director for the advocacy group Beyond Plastics and an avid user of low-waste products. Although toothpaste and detergent refills ordered online often come with a small amount of paper packaging, she said her family prefers them to traditional items from the store, which often come with a larger plastic footprint. “We’ve reduced so much of our plastic consumption, which feels really good,” she said.
There are refill-from-home systems that go beyond cleaning and body care, including some familiar ones that allow customers to re-create their favorite soft drinks and other beverages. Sodastream, for example — which was acquired by PepsiCo in 2018 — sells a machine that lets customers make their own carbonated water, which can then be turned into a sort of DIY root beer or cola with the addition of some concentrated flavor droplets. The brand Bevi brings this concept to office spaces, dispensing customizable drinks from a contraption that looks kind of like a high-tech espresso machine.
Companies like these refill-at-home models because they can boost brand loyalty. Once customers have made an initial investment in a company’s reuse system, buying their containers or technology, they’re less likely to switch to another one — at least in theory. Congdon says she feels “some pull” to return to her favorite reuse brands, but that she often switches between several options for different refillable products. Which one gets refilled is a matter of convenience, and sometimes, she opts for products that can be refilled on the go — in a grocery store.
