Hundreds of attendees converged at Metro Vancouver’s 2019 Zero Waste Conference: A Future Without Waste: Mobilizing for success in the circular economy, this week. Held on October 30-31, the conference builds on the work of Metro Vancouver’s National Zero Waste Council and offered thought-provoking ideas around the circular economy, from the likes of Skylar Tibbits, founder of the Self-Assembly Lab, who shared his vision where buildings, products and machines are capable of self-assembly without robotic parts. And Tom Szaky, Founder and CEO of Terracycle, who began with the challenge of recycling the “non-recyclable” but has now moved beyond recycling to a new zero-waste platform involving a coalition of major consumer brands.
Jumpstarting innovation was highlighted as being essential to moving to circular models of production, along with designing out waste and creating regenerative systems, tackling food waste on a national scale, and the global awareness amplifying around the great challenges presented by plastic waste. The conference wrapped up today with an interactive closing session that brought together a diverse range of perspectives, and engaged conference participants, to assess the scale and opportunity of the challenge and the leadership needed to accelerate Canada’s transition to a circular economy ahead of the 2020 World Circular Economy Forum and the 2020 Zero Waste Conference.