Executive summary

Humanity’s current rate of resource consumption eventually means we will run out. Meanwhile, we produce “waste” unlike any other species on the planet – it is a man-made problem. Future of Waste is an initiative that focuses on creating the right conditions for addressing this challenge and triggering change towards more resilient consumption and production patterns. We are by your side to co-create a stable future for the generation to come.

What do you get out of it?

A connected human tissue around you ready to take the dive towards an economy that preserves future generations’ ability to thrive on the planet. A facilitated transition. A tested social innovation process. An opportunity for resilience in business and to be amongst the pioneers of green innovation.

How do we get there?

To safeguard the neutrality of the process, the intention is to finance our work and its initiatives through the contributions of all stakeholders. Co-funding this process is key to its success for no one is more willing to participate and contribute in a meaningful way than people who have a vested interest.

We estimate that this initiative will require XX’XXX CHF to be a success.

Our Story

Why

Why does it matter?

We leak 8 million tonnes of plastic per year into the oceans. That is one garbage truck per minute. Focusing only on cleaning up is therefore insufficient: we need to be more ambitious to prevent this pollution from reaching the natural environment in the first place.

Our initiative partners

Initiative aims and deliverables

This project aims to rethink our relationship to waste and its creation to limit the staggering leakage of plastics and other wastes into the ocean at the source and empower every stakeholder along the product’s life cycle to make a difference. We want to achieve this by shifting the mindset from seeing waste to seeing resources and connecting every stakeholder to the root cause of the issue but also to each other in a more meaningful and human way. In doing so, we nurture human connections and explore what circular economy collaborations could look like.

Action

We structure our work in 3 steps:

Understand/Identify
Fully understanding the ecosystem in which you stand is the start of our work and arguably the most important step for success.
This could be businesses, shops, consumer organizations, waste treatment or recycling facilities as well as local politicians and administration employees. We reach out to all the people in your ecosystem and interview them to get a sense of what they are doing and what their obstacles are. Connecting on a human level as much as possible is what we aim for.

Communicate
We communicate about what we have learned to civil society and other stakeholders by means of events, blog posts, podcasts, videos, social media posts. This allows for the whole community and ecosystem to be aware of the challenges that pivoting into a circular economy can bring and therefore prepare the mindsets to have a generative discussion about the future.

Connect
We invite the stakeholders identified at the first step to participate in a series of (ideally) physical dialogue sessions where through mindful facilitation we get to explore together collaboration and solution potentials to shift into a circular economy at the local level. and maybe even looking out to a broader vision.

Output

The work we will be doing will give some clear outputs:

Reports and documents such as a stakeholder map of the local ecosystem, process report, graphic recording of the dialogue sessions, and an insights report.

Multimedia content for our knowledge platform. We will be creating articles, videos, podcasts, and other content that will aim to raise awareness and increase knowledge in the general population about the issue of waste. It should make it easier for individuals to understand the importance of co-creating a generative economy and, therefore, make it easier to understand some implications that may arise from the process.

Physical encounters of important stakeholders along the value chain. Through our research, we will be reaching out to many people working directly or indirectly on the waste issue. Maybe you are one of them. We intend to invite you to meet as some of you may not know each other or might never have met on neutral grounds. The aspect of neutrality is important to us so that a common understanding and vision can emerge going beyond the current status and obstacles.

Events to gather the general public and invite them to the action. We will be hosting with partners a series of different events to give visibility to what is already being done and what is coming. You may be one of these partners and may want to contribute to some of these events. They will give you visibility and show you as part of the stakeholders that are already in action.

Outcome

The project we are working on is expected to have some outcomes in the long run:

• A deeper understanding of the local ecosystem. We hope that at the end of our cycle, all stakeholders have a better understanding of who is working in the same direction and what needs to happen before a common vision becomes a reality.
• A common vision of the future of waste. We are rooting for a common vision of what the system wants to see happen in the near future. We hope that by discussing the future of waste, we can explore how to see waste as a resource for business and in so doing eliminate the notion of waste altogether
• A mindset shift on circular economy. We expect that through our communication, knowledge platform, events, and dialogues, both civil society and stakeholders will have a broader understanding of what circular economy actually is and how far it can reach. Our work is done when the system is moving naturally and on its own to overcome all obstacles and transition into circularity and regeneration.

Impact

Rethinking the way we do business and shifting into a regenerative and circular economy means we, as a society, have a massive impact on many levels:

• Reduction of resource consumption.
• Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Water use and pollution reduction as well as energy consumption.
• Long-term cost lowering.
• New business opportunities, new customer journeys, and new customer acquisition.
• Preservation of the natural environment allows for an economy that can continue to thrive while not exhausting our resources.
• Happier workforce, retrained skills, enhanced talent acquisition in the new generations.

Budget and funding

From Local to Glocal

The circular economy does not happen in boxes, it is a systemic approach.

While we chose to operate at a local level to make the system identification manageable and allow for connection on a human level to happen, we strongly believe that in line our approach needs to grow into a global movement. This is why Future of Waste St-Gallen is not a one-shot initiative, it is one of many initiatives to come. Currently, we are exploring the possibility to run an initiative in Nyon and Geneva.

We intend to multiply the cycles in many more cities and to eventually build enough knowledge to be able to connect them and grow to the cantonal and then national level. We bet on glocal.

Future of Waste is a collaboration between Boryana Milova and Julia Bodin, acting in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland at the same time. We hope to grow in a larger core team that can also explore other regions.