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The Rounds, a D.C. based company that delivers reusable and refillable household products, recently launched in Petworth in an effort to decrease waste in the neighborhood.

Alex Torrey, founder and CEO, said he decided to start The Rounds because the process of getting essential household products such as shampoo, soap and kitchen necessities like olive oil was 鈥渃ompletely broken.鈥�

鈥淧etworth, like other neighborhoods, has a big problem with waste,鈥� Torrey said. As more people rely on e-commerce to get everyday products, especially during the pandemic, it鈥檚 creating a tremendous amount of waste, Torrey said. According to the , packaging accounts for nearly 30% of municipal waste.

Alex Torrey, CEO and founder of The Rounds, talks about how E-commerce is not sustainable.聽

In order to combat this, The Rounds鈥� products come in refillable containers, eliminating packaging waste. Torrey said they鈥檝e also created an algorithm that generates the most efficient delivery routes depending on which customers need what products that week.

Members who subscribe to The Rounds鈥� services can save up to an average of 50 pounds of trash from their homes every year, according to .

The Rounds, along with other alternative waste services, are all part of how the District will meet its goal of hitting a 80% residential waste diversion rate by 2032. A residential waste diversion rate is the amount of waste from households that doesn鈥檛 go to landfills and incinerators. Instead, it鈥檚 converted to energy, composted or recycled. The residential waste diversion rate in the District as of June 2021 was 25.25%.

Additionally, when waste is sent to landfills, it is often incinerated, producing harmful methane gases in the atmosphere and contributing to climate change, Catherine Plume, the chair of the Sierra Club D.C. chapter, said.

Plume said though the waste diversion rate is 25.25% and there are almost 11 more years to meet the 80% goal, the current diversion rate is cause for concern. The waste diversion rate in 2015 was 20.93%.

鈥淲e just didn鈥檛 move the needle very far in the first 10 years,鈥� Plume said. 鈥淪o, with that track record, I just say the progress that we鈥檝e made is very minimal.鈥�

Plume said the city needs to do more in order to meet this diversion goal. She said the District鈥檚 Office of Waste Diversion has to implement any aspect of the which requires funding in order to increase the city鈥檚 waste diversion rate.

She said she鈥檇 like to see the Benning Road power plant reconstructed to allow for a composting facility 鈥� an improvement not currently included in the Department of Public Works鈥� plan.

鈥淐omposting just really reduces a lot of unnecessary waste from waste streams and can help regenerate soils and do all sorts of good stuff,鈥� Plume said.

She said the city should implement free composting services because it will motivate more people to compost, which is one of the best ways to raise waste diversion.

鈥淚f I鈥檓 already on a tight income, I’m not going to be spending money on a composting service, it鈥檚 not going to be high on my priority list,鈥� Plume said.

Though Plume said the problem of excess waste is not an issue unique to one ward, K茅thia Clairvoy, a Petworth resident, said since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic she鈥檚 seen more trash on the streets of Ward 4 than before. Clairvoyant said this is due to people being stuck at home and producing more trash, hence putting waste management services .

鈥淭he biggest culprits, most people can ascertain is, from the lack of waste management,鈥� Clairvoyant said. 鈥淓ach month of the pandemic there are fewer services.鈥�

Clairvoyant said the overflowing trash on her street has caused issues such as rodent infestations. She said she鈥檚 been trying to produce less waste because she鈥檚 scared of rodents and had a few run-ins with mice while taking her trash out in the past few months.

For Torrey, experiences like these point to the need for The Rounds, which was so popular at launch people had to join a wait list in Petworth.

鈥淧etworth is definitely one of those places where people are busy and are looking for convenient ways to get their essentials and because they’re producing and creating a lot of additional waste,鈥� Torrey said.

鈥淧eople are very open to a more sustainable alternative.鈥�