The average U.S. adult will produce 128,000 pounds of trash in their lifetime. Sure, it sounds like a big number. But what does it really mean?
Nick Huzar, co-founder and former CEO of used goods marketplace OfferUp, would like to provide some context.
Huzar this year launched StuffTV, a nonprofit producing videos that delve into the climate change impacts of the goods we buy and toss out, and steps we can take to reduce the damage from runaway consumption. The episodes feature Huzar interviewing experts, business owners and political leaders working to address waste. And the segments include photos and charts capturing the challenge.
“In order to drive real change and grab people, they need to see the problem,” Huzar said.
It also explains why he’s delivering the message visually, rather than as a podcast, though the episodes can be consumed as audio.
Today, the day before Earth Day, StuffTV released a short video illustrating the amount of trash generated annually by a single family by overlaying it on a football field.
StuffTV has nine full-length episodes and plans to release one per week over the year. Guests include Cayla O’Connell of Knickey, a sustainable undies company; Ryan Metzger of Seattle recycling startup Ridwell; and Surinder Singh of battery optimization company Relyion Energy.
Huzar is currently bankrolling the effort, which includes a team of four.
“Since I started OfferUp, I’ve probably seen over $200 billion worth of secondhand goods exchange hands,” said Huzar, who stepped down as OfferUp’s CEO in 2021 after leading the company for a decade. “I’ve had a front row seat to the circular economy for over a decade.”
In that time, he began wondering about his own waste impact. The information that he found about individual consumption tended to be scientifically dense or too dry for widespread appeal.
But the question was too important to leave unanswered.
The U.S. consumes massive amounts of petroleum-based plastics and only about 5% of that waste is recycled. The amount of electronic waste, or e-waste, keeps growing. Americans produced about 46 pounds of e-waste per person in 2019. All of these goods — including clothing, food containers, furniture and more — have significant climate impacts from their production, distribution and disposal.
Each StuffTV episode includes steps that people can take to reduce their harm to the planet.
Huzar and his wife and kids have started changing their own habits to live more lightly. That includes forgoing plastic water bottles and always bringing reusable bottles when leaving home. His kids no longer get Happy Meals and their plastic toys that were soon discarded. The Seattle-area family is more thoughtful about clothes shopping, skipping items like tourist t-shirts that they don’t need.
Individual actions like these admittedly won’t move the needle by much. But Huzar wants people to realize that everyone has a role to play. The situation won’t improve, he said, if everyone thinks it’s someone else’s problem.
In the Pacific Northwest, he’s not alone in trying to drive change. The region is home to numerous efforts aligned with the issue:
- NextCycle Washington is a statewide initiative promoting the circular economy, which includes efforts to reuse and recycle goods rather than send them to landfills.
- Washington lawmakers this spring passed rules boosting battery recycling, discouraging the use of plastic water bottles and phasing out the use of mini shampoo bottles at hotels.
- Startups in the region are helping people waste less, including Ridwell; outdoor equipment rental site GeerGarage; clothes recycler Evrnu; resale facilitator Sella; and dissolvable shoe manufacturer Woolybubs. The Oregon-based media channel The Cool Down offers entertaining climate education.
- Seattle’s Basel Action Network, or BAN, is a longtime global leader in recycling advocacy and a watchdog of computer recycling, and Zero Waste Washington does research and policy advocacy.
- Researchers here are working on better ways to recycle plastics, including turning them into fuels or new plastic goods.
Huzar also imagines StuffTV initiatives beyond videos. He would like to create an impact score akin to financial credit scores to help people to calculate their personal waste footprint. He envisions granting awards to honor companies having the biggest positive impact in the space.
It’s all about starting conversations and creating momentum that leads to a movement.
“The mission is really enlightenment and action,” Huzar said. “Because if you can do that, that equals the impact.”
