Activity results in wealth, benefits and waste. Our present capitalistic structure of civilization takes waste for granted. This is one of the features that makes it obsolete. The groupthink that waste can't be avoided is harmful to you and your environment. Waste products are increasingly dumped into the air, water and on land.
All forms of life including humans absorb harmful doses of waste without their consent or knowledge.
Food stripped of essential nourishing qualities, contaminated with shelf-life extenders, is dumped in supermarkets to feed the activity level. Much activity goes into the production of weapons. Weapons are pure waste, good for nothing, only destruction. The biosphere, showing us how to do it right, has a circular stream of resources. Each output of a utilization or process is the input of another utilization or process.