Using examples of transport and reuse, the researcher and Chartered Waste Manager, Dr Purva Tavri, explains how reduced consumption is connected with improved wellbeing.
As a professional and researcher, I have been working with various sectors involving experts and organisations in sustainability, waste and resource management, as well as professionals and organisations leading on socio-economic agendas that have minimal or no interest or knowledge in sustainability and circularity.
Working with both ends of the spectrum has allowed me to learn and share skills and expertise in bringing transformations. Reflecting on experiences and a fast-changing landscape – including the climate crisis, digital transformation, rapid urbanisation, mounting resource pressures, shifting policy landscape, global pandemics, and Brexit – reminds me of the quote by Pearce and Barbier:
‘It is part of human nature to search for a new paradigm. But there is a risk that, as fast as we discover solutions, we reject them because they are no longer new. Huge energies are devoted to rethinking the problem rather than solving it. The real challenge is perhaps the one most people find the least exciting. We know what to do. We need to get into it and do it.’