Reduce, Reuse, Confuse

even prints them in his own 3D printer. Bastian puts his worn single-material sneakers into his grinder and chooses a new shoe design on his Smartpad, which notifies him that they should be printed in about 7 hours. Looking forward to his new shoes, the endless discussions of that day come to his mind - what a waste of time.

Signposts

■ In 2025, the number of extreme weather phenomena has increased by 200% compared to the year 2010. ■ “Zero-Waste” is the social media channel with the most traffic in 2027. ■ Apple reacts to public pressure by introducing bi-yearly release cycles, reverse logistics, and right to repair. ■ Second-hand arrives at the stock market with the initial public offering of Kleiderkreisel. ■ Government Election 2029: The Green Party has achieved over 50% for the first time. ■ Scientists still remain uncertain about the best recycling material. A new study proves that glass recycling is not effective. ■ Recycling efficiency stagnates: Mechanical methods reach productivity plateau. ■ New EU legislation enforces laws for “right to repair” and

“product composition standards”. ■ EU study reveals that market fragmentation and high research and development (R&D) costs are the major roadblocks for data-driven waste solutions.

WASTELAND

The Combination of Consumers Preferring Convenience over Sustainability and the Lack of Data Exchange between Companies lead to a Wasteful Future of Waste Management

7:00 a.m. The rain is pattering gently against the window as Andreas’ alarm clock awakens him. He quickly switches it off and goes downstairs - it is time to make breakfast for his family. After taking out some bananas, apples, and oranges and unwrapping them from plastic, he starts cutting the fruit. Finally, the bowl is full. He sits down at the kitchen table made of rare rainforest wood to read the newspaper from Friday, September 13, 2041.

“Annalena Baerbock, former head of Green Party, resigns as chief executive officer (CEO) of Zara Germany” - Andreas has to read that headline twice to remember who Ms. Baerbock even is. The Green Party was disbanded after failing to get 5% of the vote to enter parliament in 2029 and 2033. Its leaders tried their luck in the corporate world but only enjoyed mediocre success. The industry was reluctant to become sustainable. The next page reads: “Bulgaria soon to be Europe’s biggest landfill.” Under the headline is a picture of huge mountains of garbage with some happy garbage collectors in the background. “At least they have some kind of work,” Andreas murmurs as he gets up to leave the house and gets into his car. Andreas grins as he starts his car and hears the roar of the internal combustion engine.

On his way to the office, Andreas is thinking about the upcoming weekend when he stops at a red light on his way to the office. He looks around and spots a lone Friday for Future protester on the street corner with a sign that reads “The End is Near.” As the traffic light changes, Andreas continues on his way to the office where he works as a logistics manager at one of the very last recycling plants in Munich.

After Andreas parks his car and enters the office, he is greeted by bad news from his secretary: “The new quarterly figures are in, Andreas, and we are making even more losses than last quarter. The board is not happy.” “Well, ask the board how they would turn this company profitable in the face of policies that offer no support whatsoever and citizens who could not care less about sustainability,” Andreas replies as he sits down in his chair.

Reluctantly, he begins a task he has been putting off all week: planning the new routes for trash delivery. Andreas picks up a pen and paper and begins sketching out the route plan for the upcoming months as the servers for the online route planning system have crashed as always. Frequently, he pulls out his phone to call countless customers, suppliers, and logistics partners to confirm their availability. Andreas grows increasingly annoyed. Again and again, he has to redefine routes or delivery days due to scheduling conflicts. Andreas finishes another never-ending call about the route and glances at his watch. It is time for lunch. Quickly throwing all his notes into the trash, Andreas heads to the canteen. On the way, he sends a quick text to his wife: “When is Lisa done?” He is still getting used to picking Lisa up from school after being moved to part-time. How could that even happen? He was loyal to his company for 15 years, and yet, he was collateral when the company was desperately cutting costs to keep afloat. His phone buzzes: “2:20 p.m.”

Andreas gets in line, picking up his plastic tray and cutlery. All food looks delicious – he fills his plates to the maximum and plunges at one of the tables. “We were just waiting for you” –

his colleague Martin frees space at the table and leans closer: “So tell us – is it true that Procter & Gamble (P&G) returned all the recycled products and is planning to sue us?” Andreas shrugs his shoulders – the news travels fast in this company. “True, they complained that the quality of our recycled materials is absolute trash. But what could they expect? Not that we are getting any improvement in recycling technology any soon. The government has cut all the R&D funds since CEAP fell through in 2030.” Andreas quickly finishes the soup and discards the rest of the food, rushing back to jump on another call with the sorting companies. Each of them is the size of a fly, yet they truly believe that they can dictate their rules since the consumers have stopped sorting the trash themselves. 2:00 p.m. Time to go. As soon as Andreas parks by Lisa’s school, his daughter jumps in the front seat. “Dad! My phone just died. I swear, I did not drop it!” Lisa pulls out the phone and shows a black screen without any signs of life. “Not a big deal, right? I wanted a new one anyway. I was the only kid in school that had an old phone for longer than six months. Everyone was laughing at me even harder than at that lunatic Roger, whose parents make him patch his clothes. I’ve heard that his family used to offer repairing services, but now they are bankrupt. Imagine, they even tried to repair his phone once!” Half-listening to her chattering, Andreas signs and nods. “We will get you a new one, sweetie.” As Lisa picks out a new phone, Andreas watches an extensive line in another part of the store. Apple just released a new watch. All the teenagers were eager to get one, pushing each other to get in front like a pack of hungry animals. Waiting for Lisa, Andreas grabs an ice cream at a cafe with a giant polar bear on its logo. What a marketing campaign - Andreas was sure that all the children drag their parents to the store to ask about the polar bears that exist now only in textbooks. The salesgirl politely smiles and offers him a tiny complimentary cookie accurately packed in plastic to preserve the fresh pistachio taste. On the way to his car, Andreas remembers that he promised his wife, Maria, to bring groceries for dinner, but decides to skip the task. They will order it from a 10-minute delivery company - he is not in the mood to go through twenty types of Greek yogurts in the store. Back at home, Andreas notices that his driveway is once again littered with trash. Illegal trash pickers have scoured his garbage cans for valuable resources, spreading the trash everywhere. Furious, Andreas rings his neighbor’s doorbell to ask if he has seen the trash pickers. His Bulgarian neighbor tries to calm Andreas down: “Don’t worry, Andreas. It’s even worse in Bulgaria. Did you read the newspaper today? In Bulgaria, the garbage is simply everywhere because everyone in the EU sends their waste there to get rid of it. The EU has been talking about this issue for years, but what are companies supposed to do? You see for yourself how expensive and inefficient recycling is. No one in the EU has any idea about this problem or collects data about it.”

Andreas nods and goes back into the house to relax in front of the TV. The news is again full of criticism of the German government as people are concerned about rising prices for electronic products. The prices of REE, which are needed for many electronic products, have risen to record highs – the ominous charts showing their climbing prices have appeared too many times on TV recently. He switches the channel just to find out that the chancellor is now backing asteroid mining as “the key to infinite resources.” Andreas is about to continue jumping between the channels when he hears a journalist asking why companies should not be obliged to recycle more. The chancellor laughs: “In the past, bans and regulations on companies have never proven effective. Recycling would not only harm our economy but is also technically infeasible. Asteroid mining is the future.”

Enough about resource scarcity, Andreas turns off the TV. He still vaguely remembers that twenty years ago, when he had just started working at the local recycling company, people were not talking about asteroid mining. Recycling and a circular economy were the future. Unfortunately, ever since CEAP fell through 11 years ago, there has been nothing left of that dream about a circular future. Already tired from the long day, Andreas reaches for his phone to set the alarm - but the screen is pitch black. Time to get a new one.