As part of the Vancouver, Canada OSCE days challenge, we are brainstorming: how do we break down barriers to eliminate single-use, disposable products?
The production of single-use, disposable products has reached epidemic proportions within the past decade. Consumers flock to their use due to perceptions that these products make life simpler, faster, cleaner, and cheaper…but at what cost to the environment?
Many of these products cannot be recycled and are not designed to be reused, so they end up in the landfill. More garbage is created while valuable resources are being used to make these products.
Barriers to eliminate single-use, disposable products exist throughout the supply chain…from the manufacturers to the suppliers to the consumers. Where and how can we most effectively remove these barriers?
This challenge started as:
-Breaking down barriers to eliminate single-use, disposable products
This challenge ended as:
Describe the evolution of your group’s thought process, what you did during the day:
-following the facilitation format of the pro-action cafe, for each of the three ideas we focused on the quest of the idea, what’s missing, what help do I need, and what next steps we will take
Key things you learned:
-one of the key concepts universal to all 3 ideas is changing public perception that disposable products are “cheap and convenient” to “costly and wasteful”
The practical outcome of this challenge is:
-identification of pilot projects for deposit system for reusable containers
-identification for method to hold individuals accountable for their waste
-need to factor in true and full costs of disposable products (e.g. production, shipping, pick up, disposal, ecological costs, and remove oil subsidies)
The Future: What elements did you decide to: pursue, pivot, purge, pause?
-pursue pilot projects for deposit system for reusable containers
