The document discusses strategies for reducing waste and fighting climate change in New York City. It notes that NYC generates 6 million tons of waste per year but only recycles 17% and aims to divert 90% of waste from landfills by 2030. However, the city is facing challenges in expanding recycling and organics collection. The document advocates addressing these issues by bringing industry stakeholders into the solution, aligning policies with waste reduction goals, and encouraging New Yorkers to reduce consumption and share resources through items libraries, tool sharing, and other community initiatives.

1. What Comes After Shopping?:
Strategies for Fighting Climate Change,
Creating a New Consumption Culture
Presented to 350.org
by Jacquelyn Ottman
June 27, 2018

2. Jacquie Ottman

3. What Comes after Shopping?

4. Road Map
NYC’s Bumpy Road to Zero Waste
Opportunities for Action

5. NYC Residential Waste: A Snap Shot
25,000 tons/ day of waste per day — 6MM tons/ year
Half at home/ half commercial
~800 lbs per year — or nearly one ton
17% is recycled — out of a possible 77%
17% is incinerated (in Newark);
The balance is landfilled upstate and in ten other states.
Source: DSNY 2015, 2017 Waste Characterization Study

6. NYC Residential Waste: A Snap Shot
25,000 tons/ day of waste per day — 6MM tons/ year
Half at home/ half commercial
~800 lbs per year — or nearly one ton
17% is recycled — out of a possible 77%
17% is incinerated (in Newark);
The balance is landfilled upstate and in ten other states.
Source: DSNY 2015, 2017 Waste Characterization Study

7. 42% of What We Throw Away is Food Waste

8. Issues and Risks
• Environmental: Natural resources depletion; pollution
• Ethical: Waste is shipped to mostly poor counties
health and environmental risks (air, water);
risks to marine life and health from ocean plastics
• Long Term Financial Risks
• Climate change
- Processing waste creates emissions (2.2MM tons of carbon/yr)
- Organics degrade in landfills into methane
- Embedded carbon in products and food

9. Issues and Risks
• Environmental: Natural resources depletion; pollution
• Ethical: Waste is shipped to mostly poor counties
health and environmental risks (air, water);
risks to marine life and health from ocean plastics
• Long Term Financial Risks
• Climate change
- Processing waste creates emissions (2.2MM tons of carbon/yr)
- Organics degrade in landfills into methane
- Embedded carbon in products and food

11. GHG: 87.6 lbs.
Water: 76 gals.
Trees: 126
Solid Waste: 12 lbs.
Using One Cup Every Day:
Source: ReThink Disposable, a project of Clean Water Action
and Clean Water Fund
A Case for Reduce and Reuse

12. Introducing NYC’s
‘Zero Waste x 2030’ Plan
Announced April 2015
Goal: 90% diversion from
landfill by 2030 (‘0 by 30’)
LA, San Francisco, Austin,
Minneapolis, Seattle have
‘Zero Waste’ plans

13. Zero Waste x 2030 Hitting Some Bumps
• Recycling stuck at 17%
• Recycling in Schools and NYCHA slow
• Electronics OK; Clothing not so
• Organics expansion on hold
• Industry not cooperating (short term profits)
Plastic bag bill held up in Albany by industry;
Styrofoam ban didn’t pass;
• Government has little/no $$ for education and
culture change; Meanwhile, massive ad campaigns fuel
consumption

14. Four Solutions
1. Address equity issues – NYC, Newark, other states
2. Bring industry to the table; promote “Circular Economy”
• Deposits, Bans and EPR (E-waste take back), Right to Repair
• Encourage technology (digital/newspapers), innovative
designs and materials (compostables, recycled content); new
business models

15. Four Solutions
3. Align regulations and policies with zero waste goals
• New Plastic bag bill intro’d by Liz Kreuger, Brad Hoylman
• More support for consumer outreach & education and
consumption culture change (smoking, seat belts)
• Holistic solutions (Not just the Sanitation and Solid Waste
Committee)
4. Start by Reducing, Reusing, Recycling in our own backyards (in
that order); Influencing others

17. Reduce and Reuse

18. Why Reuse?
• Need to use the stuff we already have more intensively
• Need to stop “buying new” as the default option

19. Share/ Reuse Within Buildings & Neighborhoods
Share
Swap
Borrow/ Lend
Donate
Gift
Rent/ Lease
Buy/ Sell Used

21. Sharing Can Help Us Live Better
Build Community
Save Money
Declutter

22. Libraries of Things

23. In-House Libraries

24. “FREE STUFF” Box or Shelf

25. Umbrella Share

26. Leftover Pooling

27. Community Refrigerators

28. How to Monetize and Scale?

29. How to Monetize and Scale

30. How to Monetize and Scale

31. How to Monetize and Scale

32. How to Monetize and Scale

33. How to Measure Success?
Recycling rate? And/Or…

34. How to Measure Success?
Reuse Index % of consumption that
represents used versus new?

35. How to Measure Success?
Product Longevity Index How long does a
‘basketful’ of product last here versus other cities?
Product longevity is a function of:
• quality; design
• maintenance
• repair services
• will

36. How to Measure Success?
Sharing Index
% of products used in a year that are not owned
but shared, borrowed, etc.?

37. How to Measure Success?
Connectedness Index # of our neighbors each
of us interacts with over the course of a month?

38. Conclusions
• We live in a very wasteful city; and our waste is creating many
issues
• We have a Zero Waste plan in place – that needs attending
to, or we will put ourselves at risk in the future
• We can all do our part as individuals, as citizens, as consumers
— and as leaders in our communities and buildings
• Get up to speed on the issues; work to make lasting change
through policy and innovation

39. Conclusions
• Let’s start to accelerate cultural and social change by starting
to Share, Swap, Borrow, Donate, Gift, Rent, Buy and Sell to Each
Other.
Let’s start in our buildings, improve our lives, and prove the
concept and invite the market to bring it to everyone.

40. The Sharing Closet to Be
One of these days the closet down the hall that’s now marked
‘Compactor and Recycling’ will be labeled ‘Sharing Closet’.
The trash chute will be boarded up. The closet will be freshly
painted, smelling like new.
In that closet will be a Miele vacuum cleaner, an iron and ironing
board, a 30 cup coffeemaker, a deck of cards, an espresso
maker, and a toolkit. Residents will be free to borrow stuff as
they choose, putting it back in a timely manner for others to use.
The building — or Home Depot — will be responsible for
maintaining the stuff.
And everyone will say ‘Why didn’t we think of this sooner?”

41. Jacquie Ottman
Jacquie Ottman is on a lifelong quest to eradicate waste. At age 4, she dragged home board games
from the neighbor’s trash. In the 1970’s she became the the recycling czar in her NYC high school.
Since 1989, as an independent consultant, Ottman has been applying what she learned about
marketing at Madison Avenue advertising agencies to helping businesses and the U.S. government’s
Energy Star label persuade Americans to select environmentally preferable products.
Today, she runs a website called WeHateToWaste.com, where she shines a spotlight on the best ideas
from around the world for changing consumption culture by demonstrating how people can live what she
calls ‘trash-free and happy, too. ‘
She is also member of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board. The Board consists of 30 citizen
volunteers who advise the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, the Department of Sanitation and the City
Council on solid waste issues. She is the founding chair of the Board’s Residential Recycling and Reuse
Committee. They are currently addressing the particular challenges of encouraging residents in multi-
family buildings to recycle, compost and reuse.
The author of seven books and articles too numerous to mention, her latest book is called “If Trash
Could Talk”, and it contains 60 poems, stories and musings that are designed to provoke, amuse, delight
– and change perceptions about waste.

42. Presented by Jacquelyn Ottman,
Founder, WeHateToWaste.com
212 879 4160
Info {@} WeHateToWaste.com
Copyright © 2018 Jacquelyn Ottman