Zero Waste Oahu

Zero Waste Hawaiʻi was co-founded by a handful of folks to support equitable and healthy communities and ecosystems in Hawaiʻi by minimizing the negative impacts associated with our linear economy. Linear economies operate in a take-make-waste framework and are associaited with the kind of hyperconsumerism and over-production that have damaged the health of people and the ʻāina (here in Hawaiʻi and across the globe). To achieve this, we design and support models of business and economy that (re)build circular and regeneartive models of living. These models operate in balance with the well-being of ʻāina and the health of our ecosystems and communties. At its core zero waste is about doing more with less and living with the limits of the land, values that were well imbedded in ancestral systems across the world--including in ʻike of Hawaiʻi's kupuna.

Our partnership with Frost Family Foundation and has focused on building capacity and foundation to do this work on Oʻahu an Maui. In our 2 1/2 years of operation we have:

• Connected with thousands of community members

• Supported the start up of Zero Waste Oʻahu and Zero Waste Maui

• Held the an inter-island Hawaiʻi Zero Waste Summit, which brought together over 40 leaders, thinkers, and creators from across the Pae "ʻĀina to focus on zero waste solutions

• Completed waste audits and waste stream reduction recommendations for the Marriott Maui Ocean Club and the Hawaiʻi Vistor Convention Bureau

• Played key role in passing Oʻahu's Bill 40 (one of the strongest single-use plastic reduct bills in the world), of our island communties. a take-make-founders in order to elevate low-impact consumpwanted to elevate

• Secured a federal grant to pursue a demonstration project for Oʻahu's first reusable take-out container program