[Music] there is almost this taboo of discussing waste and since I was a kid I was imagining where would it go where does it go and the answer is always to the landfill to the landfill but no they don't just go away there is no away where are these things going trash it's a necessary byproduct of our existence I pretty much considered a landfill this like chaotic sort of just dump unorganized smelling apocalyptic walking on piles and mountains can you recognize the things across the field but it's a lot of environmental activism there that I think was shocking for everybody I think one of the biggest myths is that landfills are just big holes in the ground the materials get dumped into that might have been true ages ago but a modern landfill is really an engineering marvel three generations grew up on this property working here living here my grandfather grew up digging the lakes and then my father worked on the farms that were located here and then subsequently we came in and started working on the landfill on the same piece of property so we're working on our fourth landfill since I've been here through technology and reuse or recycle I'd be happy not to build anymore these landfill's as museum is a way for us to start meditating on the end of life of products it is today's story oh you don't we still have people to feel that these operations are leftovers from the 50s where there's no technology there's no environmental controls in place but people come out for a toilet just overwhelmed Wow by the advances that we've made in managing waste over the years and a lot of folks sort of I perceive us to be the bad guy we're not you just that are enrolling in design programs in fashion before they start imagining new products they have to be able to imagine life cycle assessments from a point of view that is a lived experience so someone ate some fries there's grease and there's ketchup and so this will never get recycled they thought of environmentalism at the front end and don't buy this but I don't think they realized how much environmentalism comes at the end of life through organizations like waste management and how much of a feat of engineering is [Music] we are one of the largest recyclers in the country if not the largest recycler in the country I left with the sort of amazement of how productive they actually are car goes to be recycled this is all the interior film products and plastics and stuff is not recyclable we actually bring it back to the landfill this is a good material for the trucks to be able to drive through because they can absorb the rainwater and the trucks can still get through it guys look I didn't even know that they produced you know energy that went back into the grid that was so cool I just expected to see a bunch of steamy like what you know garbage and I was so pleasantly surprised see how beautiful honestly it was like how well it's maintained there are things that we do really well but there are some parts that we need help on and so this is a perfect time to be working with fashion designers textile designers to rethink about how garments are being designed so that by the time they get to us we know that there are some other options for them that can extend the life and reduce the environmental impact of that garment so if we can do something up front in a design that's going to make it easier for a company like ours to reuse that product and get it back into more debt I think it's important for corporations to understand where the products end up us big companies we have the power and responsibility to change things waste management mentioned there were 600 trucks that dumped a load just in that one day it sort of reaffirms that trying to design things to stay out of the land fellows are the most important thing these students are the future they're the ones who care they're the ones who are mad about the state of the world they were born into I feel that we had a number of students that were volunteering their own time to be there to learn about circular systems so that they can create and that connection is really what we need it's up to younger generation who's coming up with these new technologies that maybe can help you know fashion it's very attractive it's glamorous everyone wants to design a beautiful collection it's an actual product consider the lifespan especially and where you want your garment to be in 50 years as a designer I commit to mindful design and mindful appropriation of material each person plays a role in making it successful I think there's this thought that well just put it in the can sort of out of sight out of mind instead of realizing that every purchasing decision that you make has an impact and I think just made me like think beyond the fashion industry need to observe waste as a new resource and we have to think of waste as an asset this has to stop becoming a polarized issue in a political issue and start to become a human issue hi everyone I'm Sophia Lee I'm a journalist and I was the one who directed this short documentary about landfills just quick shout out we have our stars of our short documentary over here hi Bobby hi guys at the end I'm gonna quickly introduce our amazing panelists we have Selene saman [Applause] we have Jay whose environmental manager for waste management and then I you show Martin she's the director of global purpose at adidas so thank you everyone for being here and everyone for watching that short documentary about waste let's build a better relationship with waste so can we all introduce ourselves really fast and then talk about your first memory with trash because I know we come from all over the world and to be at a landfill that was that beautiful and organized is a privilege actually that was like going to Disneyland for us it was so much fun Jay should we start with you sure thanks for having us here as waste management we're extremely honored to be part of this and be partner with slow Factory so I am Jay Kaplan I'm the environmental manager for waste management and I'm based here in Brooklyn and when you think of my title you're probably wondering what does that mean I don't know I don't either but I do a lot of things an environmentalist I'm an engineer I do permitting I'm a mentor I'm a mentor II I'm a student and teacher and all these different things at waste management and when you're in the waste industry you have to be able to transform and be resilient so that's what we do hi hi everyone so my name is Aisha I'm actually originally from South Africa so it definitely was a privileged thing waste managed in this way I work for editors in the global purpose team and really everything that we do is anchored in creating movements and the actions on the ground so as opposed to just making bold statements our team are really focused on social impact initiatives and creating change that we want to see and I'm sitting say man I don't think I need an introduction now but I'm so honored to be sitting between Adidas and waste management my two partners on this crazy adventure when I first pitched it to Jay I was like I'm gonna turn the land fields as museums and he's like no no it can't be because it's not a museum and then over and over we tried to explore the idea of the important idea of bringing students or at least design students to live the experience of being in a landfill and I come from Lebanon as you heard before and like I inside for me the landfills in America they're also like Disneyland because in Lebanon it's not as organized we don't have the same technology we don't even have the same resources actually waste for me is a very personal issue because I don't know if you follow the news but not too long ago two years ago there was a waste crisis and in my country where there was waste literally everywhere like on the streets everywhere we had nowhere to put it we had ran out of landfills landfills were not organized or designed the same way waste management organizes and basically there's an anatomy of the landfill really that we learned together right that you guys structure it in a way where it can collect like slowly collapse release energy and recycle that energy and so landfill as museums is a big learning experience and diving deep into what circularity means from the end-of-life perspective thank you are you sure did you want to elaborate more on your first memory with trash while growing up in South Africa yeah I mean when I think about it actually giggle a little bit which maybe isn't I don't know maybe that seems weird but for me growing up we were actually taught to value everything and so a waste became or perceived waste became a resource for us so for me when I hear that question I think about maybe coming home from school and thinking yes I saw an ice cream tub in the freezer I'm gonna have a nice scoop and then open and it's my mom let's reuse the container to have something else so for me we were taught from a young age that waste is not necessarily like products things shouldn't just be discarded we had to be resourceful because we had to make the most of what we have so that really makes me think of my mom so Jay any first memories with trash well I I encourage everyone to think about their first memory of the trash - it's quite a interesting narrative it is and that that store actually reminded me of something I had something else I was going to say that I've changed my mind when I was 12 and 13 years old in my neighborhood they had bulk collection every summer and I would go out of my bicycle through ball collection and I would bring home all sorts of things old lawn mowers and tractors and I'd fix them up and I'd put him in the front yard and I'd sell them and my mother always we used to say well you know what are you gonna do with that what are you gonna do with that I'm like it's going it's going it's gonna be sold and everything's sold and eventually that's how important bought my first car just getting a job and going I want to ask the audience really fast raise your hand if you know where your trash specifically goes which landfill raise your hand high and waste management does not count waste management you can't raise your head over there can you where does your trash go yeah okay amazing anyone else no okay so one person in this entire audience all right oh sorry one here where do you live in Brooklyn Oh Berkley I was like wow you're trash from Brooklyn goes to California got it Berkeley cool this film talked about it a lot how when we throw something away we have the separation with waste when we throw it away it just goes away right and then we don't think about it anymore and I think landfills as museums brings it full circle so I wanted to ask you three is trash a necessary byproduct of life I guess I'll take that first well there's always going to be some residual material generated from whatever you were doing and just you know as a consumer packaging is if you think about it today there's so many different types of packaging and it's hard to even decide what to do with half the things that we have and you know we're going to talk about recycling later I don't want to go jumping too far ahead but when it comes to landfills and residuals you need for it I think indefinitely I think what we need to do and what what we're doing here today is really talking about how to design things so that we're using less reusing what we can and then whatever can't be reused or or used by someone else let's just say is finely recycled is trash a necessary byproduct of life of life so I guess we can go on a deeper philosophical understanding that you know every time you breathe out you create something that could be considered trash carbon dioxide yes but that nature uses as food right for the plants and so on and so when we look at it this way is it really trash what we're doing or can we start looking at it as a resource more importantly and so I would address any designer to really think the way that we design think the way that we even consume things the way that we live our lives does it really have to go in a linear format or could we start thinking of micro circles that we start creating for instance like washing the tub of ice cream and using it as a Tupperware rather than tossing it in the recycling and buying Tupperware for example and for instance the way that we approach trash and snow factory is not so much as trash but can it be a resource can we start closing that loop you know on little things that we do every day as consumers of course larger things that we can influence with in the instance tree and I really don't believe in trash I don't think trash exists it's just the system that is designed in a linear way it the end product is not trash yeah I also agree and thank you for your comments but I think it's also about reframing waste specifically and finding value in the end-of-life of products and how do we work to extend the life of products through reuse or recycling I also think that it's really important to use it as an opportunity to get creative like the powerful nature of this collaboration here was just because we use our platforms to inspire and enable people to take action around what is a really wicked problem because we can't solve it individually and we have to be open to collaboration so I think yeah waste maybe you shouldn't be deemed as something detrimental because reframing it makes us all feel more inclined to think about possibilities and together we can try and work things out together so that actually is my next question Selene how do we make a linear system that you mentioned into a circular system with all of us working together I always make a comparison that it's like taking a tube and trying to bend it in a circle and start especially if you have zero muscles like me and but it is a collective effort for instance like this little collaboration we just went once I mean we went more than once but with the students we as I went two times and but with the students where we are having an entire program for the next months to come 8 to 12 months even and with my colleague dr. Tian Shi Rose who I don't know she was sitting here oh here she is that dirty and sheers is including it as part of her class at MIT with lifecycle assessment so this idea of bending the linear system like this feels a little less hard to do on your own because you have someone like Vianney of someone like J of someone like Aisha and it's a human chain honestly it's not like adidas and waste management these obscure entities it's very much like individuals within every single organization there's always a champion in an organization that's going to listen to you that's going to open up the door for you and allow something to change it could be a small project hopefully it leads to a second and we create like a Rube as Ayane was saying this morning a wave or a ripple that goes into a wave and it's it's a chain of people holding each other so let's start that ripple effect mm-hmm Jay you mentioned which cycling before and I wanted to a lot wanted you to elaborate on it one what is wish cycling and how do we combat that as consumers so which cycling is really simple and I think everyone in this room may be guilty of it at one point or another it's when your expectation of recycling material or something you have at home exceeds the ability of the recycling facility where that material is going to ultimately go so for example you have a pizza box that gets stained with oil and cheese and whatever and you put it in your recycling bin and you say that's gonna go and it's going to become another pizza box well it's not what's going to happen is it's going to go on a conveyor and someone's gonna see it's contaminated and they're gonna take it off it's gonna go into the trash and then it will never get recycled so that's like one example I could give you of many but like for example you have a toaster that breaks metal and you think well I'm gonna recycle it right it's metal or then well it's not it doesn't fit that traditional form of recycling and really the issue is on the education side when people are trying to determine what should go where whether it's a recycling item garbage item they don't really think about it in those terms they just say it's metal maybe there's some plastic an extension cord has metal in it right and they throw it into the recycling bin and then it goes to a recycling plant and it gets wrapped around the conveyor belts and it takes an employee three hours to take it out and and there the system's down for hours right so that's sort of like painting the picture of why all this contamination is really challenging and and what which cycling it is really doing to the system it's really slowing it down and making it really hard to recycle and through education and understanding we can make it better ultimately however I think what we really need to do is really take a look at what are we buying as consumers what makes sense is is the item that we're gonna buy do we really understand what the lifecycle of it is is it gonna be something that will have a long life or is it a single-use you're gonna throw it away or you're gonna try to recycle it can it even be recycled so you know we really need to ask ourselves these questions and think as consumers and how do we really want to invest our dollars because those dollars can drive the industry to make adjustments and make improvements so that there's less which cycling so which cycling starts with really good intention but then your greasy pizza box might have shut down the recycling facility center for hours and stopped the entire system yeah absolutely okay so which cycling has large consequences negative consequences what are some other just really fast name them off the top of your head products that people usually wish cycle that can't be recycled any sort of let's say like a paper that has like a foil attached to it or a plastic that has you know like multi type multi-layer coffee cups with plastic yes that's a great one any any sort of appliance toys what about in the plastic realm in the plastic realm so like the peel-off sticker type of thing on like a yogurt container is not recyclable very containers they can be they can't be yeah most cartons are not recyclable anything that's got food in it I think the number one thing I would want everyone to think about is when you have a food container and you want to recycle it you have to clean it your hummus container your peanut butter container which takes so long to clean by the way you would spend 20 minutes cleaning that peanut butter container but it's worth it exactly okay so just a quick raise your hands who has wish cycles in the past Wow recycle okay you wish cycle I do I can't help like a confessional the wish cyclers I you show why is it so important for a brand like adidas or any brand to understand the lifecycle assessment of a product and to understand where their products could end up I think again it's just thinking about things at the start of the journey and sort of reassessing the paths that we would take so thinking about sustainability upfront and that's really something that we adopt and it's not just something that we talk about it's the culture of the brand internally as well it's not just about how we innovate and create technologies and products that stand up to the performance standards that is expected from our brand because we have athletes who are superpowers and/or have superpowers and we support them with our product and we need to uphold that so it's really taking the approach from the from the outset and thinking about sustainable product is not sort of a diffusion line but how do we introduce it into and across all categories and I think that really talks about how we behave internally but then externally its how do we use our platform and understand and acknowledge that yes we are part of the problem so how do we build the solutions and how do we inspire and enable the next generation everybody here people to take small or big actions take them with us on the journey there's actually an article in the zine which is a reflection from the designers on future craft loop which was scaled to today and is still scaling it's a beta test at the moment and it's ultimately a shoe that's made to be remade but the beauty is that that started 10 like years and years ago but we're only now able to bring it to install a storyteller or under to test it and then I just also want to say like part of the power and truly I believe this as a person as a human I am a human being that works for a big brand so my beliefs my values they come with me to work and unlocking purpose unlocking purpose in my everyday is my job and I'm grateful for that but it's fostering relationships with our partners with creators with people like Celine talking to the students to the next generation and like there's a group of students from our seed program in the audience there's just so much to do and I think we also have to be open to learn by doing and I'm just really grateful that we have that opportunity and to be here today thank you lene what was the most surprising sustainability engineering feat that you discovered at the landfills but it wasn't so much of a discovery rather than it was like a thesis we had that we have to push for design for this assembly it has to be am norm and wasteland design the whole process of it the entire sort of education curriculum around waist led design was to be reinforcing design for disassembly understanding not just recycling reuse repurpose like the normal RS that we're all accustomed to but how do we design for that toaster to be taken apart so easily how do we design for the phone that when you are discarding in the system is ready to receive it and so we can take it apart and reuse it and evaluate quickly which parts are still good to be reused which parts are meaning to be melt down because when we think of recycling we really imagine that it's all going towards this tunnel of shredder the shredder you know you're putting in there it's gonna get shredded and then it's gonna become something new magically it's like a dr. Seuss machine where on one end you put in your stuff and on the other end comes like everything fun and the idea for me I've always drew that that machine and we've tried to do it in several instances with previous projects that I was doing just as an awareness you know machine when we went to the landfills what we discovered is that unfortunately like we are putting things out and no one or the system is not ready to receive them or if they are they don't have the tools because we're how it's designed it's designed in such an opaque way that it's not open it's not ready to be dismantled it's not designed for this assembly so what we saw there was the it was more even it was reassuring us that this pieces needed to be pushed as an agenda for the industry to start implementing immediately notions of design for this assembly thank you so one of the most surprising things I learned though at the landfills was in that film we circled the methane pipe so methane is a natural emission from landfills and methane is a gas that's 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide so it's actually even worse for our ecosystem but what Waste Management does is they use that pipe and they extract a methane and put it back into the power grid so Jay I wanted to talk about what is the circular surplus economy mean and how does waste management accomplish this sure so great point on and there's many of those wells that that was circled on that video if you didn't notice it every landfill has potentially up to hundreds of those extraction points where we're pulling methane gas out of the landfill mass and pipelining it to engines that generate electricity we also clean it and compress it and use it to power our collection vehicles that go out and pick up trash and you know and we're continuously looking at new and different ways to use that gas on the power generation side that power that we make runs our facility and as you mentioned there's a surplus of energy which we then put back into the grid and it runs and powers thousands of homes in the community in which we operate the electricity right now could be powered by waste management yes technically yep that's amazing you show how has the responsibility of brands evolved as sustainability has come into the forefront and how does a brand that relies on business profit balance that with consumerism and sustainability I think that's a really good question I do think that there's power in community and so the community of consumers have been a lot more vocal about what they expect and demand from big brands and I think from an auditors perspective we've taken on initiatives for many years but not necessarily spoken about them and so now is the time to really speak our truth internally and externally and that's great I also think that as a big brand we have the responsibility to start inching towards different changes so one of the big changes that we're gearing towards is coming off virgin polyester by 2024 and I think that for the sports industry is a huge move in itself it's about changing behaviors but also the way that we essentially approach everything around creating product I do also think that what's really important is to again from a global purpose perspective think about how that inspiring and enabling part is true and authentic and so what we're really focused on as well is not just talking about things but doing the things like how do we actually get out there and go to a landfill and equip students how do we do things like host one of the biggest events ever to get people running for the planet I also really love and we've heard it a few times today but truly our approach to sustainability is from a people and planet perspective so we care for the planet but we also care for people and we've been doing lots of work in that realm too I also think a lot of the journey is going to be about shifting norms and we need everyone's help to do that so an example and you can read about it as well but with made to be remade future craft loop shoe part of the test was seeding the product and then having consumers return that and some consumers didn't return the product so we do have work to do as a group as a collective to change our behaviors and shift mindset because it essentially to be a circle we all have to act together thank you I want to ask each of you as we're wrapping up how do we build a better relationship with waste on an individual level J we can start with you okay so I go back to what I mentioned before I think the first thing we really need to take a hard look at as an individual is what am I really buying as a consumer you know do I really need it and if I do need it what is its life expectancy how is this item going to look when I'm done with it can I reuse it now you let someone else reuse it or what is the what is the ultimate fate and the second piece of that would be if I can't reuse it can't give it to someone else to reuse is it recyclable at all and I think that we need to as a culture just focus on it and and make that change very quickly I have two kids so the relationship with waste is exponential because like they make so much waste even just a crafting session is like I feel so bad I'm I'm not an environmentalist my relationship to sustainability goes down to like below ten you know you're like but they're having fun and they're creating so waste is like a constant conversation to me and I feel that we have to remove the stigma and the shame around that for sure because if we are overwhelmed with shame and stigma there's going to be very little creativity that we're going to be able to do about it or very little problem-solving and so I work on not having too much shame around it I too have a son so for me I think what's really important because I have to first acknowledge my privilege as well and that the way that I live today is very different and my son's life is very different to how my life was so I think for me what I really want to think about is how do I stay connected to my community my culture and how do I take the lessons that my mom and her mom taught her and ingrained them within my son and that is about spirituality it's also about just being really conscious and mindful about behavior the way that we use things the way that we essentially treat ourselves and the products around us and I think by instilling that and sort of hopefully all the ancestral spirituality and seeds of goodness that we no longer should ignore and should embrace I think that we could really shift things just by finding the human connection to things and ourselves yeah [Applause] one of the things that Selena and I always talked about when we went to the landfills was how meditative it was so I want to close out this panel with a quick meditation on trash if we can all close our eyes and have your posture beulah straight your feet should be firmly planted on the ground so you feel connected to the earth and then your palms should be either facing up or down so take a deep breath in through your nose here and hold it here and I want you to think about an item you're going to throw away today and breathe out through your mouth and take another deep breath in through your nose and think about all the hands that how to touch this item so you can able to use it or wear it and now throw it away and how it's connected to you you could breathe out your mouth now and breathe in through your nose again and think about how you will no longer wish cycle and you'll understand that waste is not separate of us it's a part of us and it's part of humanity and you could breathe out through your mouth thank you so much [Applause]