Consumables + Waste Breakdown

What is an Ecological Footprint?

Ecological Footprint is measured in global hectares (gha) per capita. A global hectare is the amount of land and water area needed for an individual to produce all the resources it consumes, and to absorb the waste it generates. Vancouver’s total Ecological Footprint is 1,820,000 gha, which is an area 170 times bigger than the City’s boundary.

What does this mean?

Based on current global population and biological productivity levels, an average of 1.7 hectares is available for each person on the planet. The ecological footprint of an average Vancouverite is 2.9 gha. So if everyone lived like Vancouverites do, we would need TWO earths to sustain the global population.

What are consumables?

A consumable is a commodity or a product that is inteded to be used up relatively quickly and then replaced. This includes things such as coffe cups, toilet paper, office supplies such as pens and paper clips, pop bottles, and the list goes on.

Bubble graph showing the ecological footprint of different materials. — Figure 1. Breakdown of the footprints of the different materials that go into making our consumables.

As you can see in Figure 1, Vancouver's consumables footprint is roughly 230,000 gha. That is 14% of Vancouver's total gha. It also contributes up to 0.4 gha per person.

The impact of consumables in Vancouver is dominated by paper. Examples of paper consumable products are coffee cups, paper napkins, printing paper and so many more. Plastic and wood waste fall in to second and third respectively and have just as much impact.

These numbers suggest a need for a shift in the way we think about consumption. They emphasize the necessity to prioritize reducing overall consumption through various means with a focus on recycling. Hence our approach of promoting zero waste involves the chance to win a zero waste kit.