Lester R. Brown Quotes

What is urgently needed is a bold new move from a consumer economy to a conserver economy in all of the developed countries, and particularly in the United States.

We are often told we are materialistic. It seems to me, we are not materialistic enough. We have a disrespect for materials. We use it quickly and carelessly. If were genuinely materialistic people, we would understand where materials come from and where they go to. But, at the moment, the entire global economy seems to be built on the model of digging things up from one hole in the ground on one side of the earth, transporting them around the world, using them for a few days, and sticking them in a hole in the ground on the other side of the world.

People mean well. But there is an unintended consequence of giving people bigger recycling bins and more opportunities to recycle—soon they want to recycle everything.

Today's trend ends up in tomorrow's landfill.

The societies of consumption and squandering of material resources are incompatible with the idea of economic growth and a clean planet.

Going to a junkyard is a sobering experience. There you can see the ultimate destination of almost everything we desired.

We, the people, do have the power to stop the tragic waste of resources if we regard it as socially unacceptable to waste food.

Believe me, a grain is a terrible thing to waste.

If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.

It does seem really hard to get consumers to do the right thing. It is stupid that we use two tons of steel, glass, and plastic to haul our sorry selves to the shopping mall. It's stupid that we put water in plastic bottles in Fiji and ship it here.

I think we need to take responsibility for the things we put on this planet, and also take responsibility for the things we take off the planet. We need to have limiters on how far we allow ourselves to go - ethical, moral limiters.

If you're not buying recycled products, you're not really recycling.

At Natura, we have long been committed to measure and improve the impacts of our activities.

The purpose - where I start - is the idea of use. It is not recycling, it's reuse.

I actually believe 'Sustainability', as a concept, is one of the arteries leading to the heart of so many of our cultural transitions at play today. And it's this concept which leads me to bottled water, and its multibillion dollar industry.

One man's trash is another man's treasure, and the by-product from one food can be perfect for making another.

Sometimes I worry about the amount of paper I waste.

Pollution is nothing but resources we're not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we've been ignorant of their value.

Our entire economy is based on waste. We produce stuff we don’t need… How far is this going to go? I have a 5 word answer for you: Zero waste equals zero commerce.

I don't subscribe to the view some people have in the industry that you should purposefully design products that do not last that long. I don't think it is good for anyone.

Clothing isn't disposable.

Single-use wearables are tough to sustain from a user perspective.

Our myopic focus on producing and consuming as cheaply as possible has created a linear economy in which objects are briefly used and then discarded as waste.

Not using fly ash in our highways would just be a plain waste of taxpayers' money, which I find unacceptable. Most people don't realize that without fly ash, many of Montana's infrastructure projects simply would not have been possible - like the Hungry Horse Dam near Glacier National Park.

We face a simple choice. Either we go back to the days when everything was disposable and landfill dumps consumed our countryside at an increasing pace, or we recognise that we have limited resources and need to use them wisely and sustainably.