Chapter 9
From Trash to Treasure: Converting Waste into Products
IN THIS CHAPTER
Identifying how consumers can make money from waste
Examples of inspirational companies converting waste into new, exciting products
Exploring how businesses can transform waste into a business of its own
As the old saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” This isn’t true just for antiques — it also refers to sustainability and the circular economy.
In a circular economy, materials that would normally be thrown away and end up in a landfill can instead be reinvented and remade into new, useful products.
Not all waste is truly garbage. A lot of stuff is treated that way because it doesn’t fit specific standards or is part of the process of making something else, such as fruit peels and seeds discarded during the process of making fruit juice. Just because something is the unintended consequence of another process doesn’t mean that it needs to end up in a landfill. You can find a new path for waste (other than the landfill route you may already be familiar with) in one of these three main ways:
- Reducing the amount of waste produced at the source and across supply chains is the key ...
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