Reduce, reuse, recycle…and resell and refine: Since consumption has reached an all-time high, environmental consciousness has never been more crucial. Here's how to be a responsible retailer. Last December, the international scientific journal Nature published a research paper with a startling headline: “Global human-made mass exceeds all living biomass.” The paper quantified how in 2020, Earth reached a crossover point in which human-made mass, including buildings and infrastructure, now outweighs all the world’s trees and shrubs, and the planet’s plastic outweighs all the world’s animals. At a time when we as a species consume more stuff than ever before, and throw it away faster than ever, the concept of a circular economy has gained currency as a potential solution to some of the world’s most urgent environmental issues, including waste management and biodiversit