Talkin’ Trash with Trent Huntington

Graphic novels are a big business. According to the July 2022 issue of Publisher’s Weekly, total comics and graphic novel sales to consumers in 2021 in the U.S. and Canada were approximately $2.07 billion, a 60% increase over 2020 sales.

One reason for the growth in popularity of graphic novels is increased interest from middle graders, where Victoria Jamieson’s Roller Girl, Dave Pilkey’s Dog Man, and Raina Telgemeier’s Guts (among others) have all been New York Times bestsellers.

While Trent Huntington (MBA 2012), co-author of the graphic novel Team Trash: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Sustainability, wouldn’t shake his head at a bestseller, he is aiming for a different goal. “It would be awesome to have a copy in every classroom across the country, where a kid reads it and says, ‘Hey, everybody, we need to wake up and do something about the environmental crisis that we face right now’.”

Early riser

Raised in California where he spent plenty of time outdoors, Huntington came to embrace sustainability from an appreciation of the nature and biodiversity he experienced while growing up.

In the late 2000s, after completing his undergraduate degree at UCLA, he had a lightbulb moment that sustainability was no longer a field limited to activists and policy wonks. “Businesses were realizing they operated at the size and scale to fight this existential threat. They were trying to find people to do it, and I wanted to be one of them.”

His passion and belief that business was crucial for addressing climate change led him to the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. He appreciated the region’s green-tech startup scene, Foster’s curriculum, and opportunities to focus on sustainability. “Seattle had a bunch of large businesses at various phases of their development of sustainability programs. I saw there was an opportunity from a career perspective.”

Huntington took full advantage.

Reasons to be optimistic

Before his foray into graphic novels, Huntington worked in multiple corporate sustainability roles at Amazon. During his nine years at the tech behemoth, many people questioned his choice of employers given Amazon’s environmental impact.

An optimist and forward thinker, he saw working for Amazon as an avenue to make a difference alongside other sustainability champions. And he did. Huntington’s LinkedIn profile is a KPI fiesta, but he can single one out when pressed for some of his proudest achievements.

“One of the projects that I spearheaded at Amazon led to a $10 million investment in the Closed Loop Infrastructure Fund to build more recycling infrastructure across North America,” says Huntington.

“There is a very clear impact to each dollar invested since it results in material being diverted from a landfill.”

The thrill of recycling?

While at Foster, Huntington did more than earn an MBA and land a job; he met his partner Kate Wheeler, a cartoonist whose comics have regularly appeared via The Washington Post, NPR, and The Nib.

One day when Wheeler was crafting a pitch for a creative director, she felt an imaginative ebb. “Hey, Trent, the creative well is dry,” she said. “You got any ideas?”

Falling on the ears of a sustainability nerd who’d been working in the packaging and circular economy space, Huntington replied, “How about the history of recycling in the US? It’s a thrilling topic.”

“Sure, I’ll include it in the pitch group,” responded Wheeler, “but I hope they don’t pick it.”

They did.

A book is born

Huntington helped Wheeler with the initial comic script, which The Nib published multiple times, including on Earth Day 2020 when it wound up in front of a VP at Holiday House, a large children’s book publisher.

Wheeler got a call. The publisher, with a line called ” Books for a Better Planet,” was keen on educating the next generation on environmental issues. She wanted a book on the history of global recycling through the centuries, not just from the ’80s in the U.S. but from Pompeii in ’72 BC.

Wheeler looked at Huntington and said, “If I’m going to make a full book on recycling, you better help me out.” Huntington replied, “I’d love to—as long as I get a co-authorship.”

In 2021, a confluence of the book offer, the opportunity to be closer to Wheeler’s parents, and a global pandemic led the two to Rome, where they researched, wrote, and sketched.

The result of their efforts is Team Trash: A Time Traveler’s Guide to Sustainability, published on August 1, 2023.

Time keeps on slipping

By the time the book was published, Huntington and Wheeler had left the Eternal City for Amsterdam.

There, Huntington returned to the business world, landing a new gig leading global packaging sustainability for the Kraft Heinz suite of brands, including Kraft and Heinz, Oscar Meyer and Capri Sun, Philadelphia, and Lunchables. “My role is focused on ensuring the packaging for all of these brands moves in a more sustainable direction and aligns with our goals on fighting climate change and driving towards net zero.”

Wheeler continues to create comics and recently began work on another graphic novel.

And the book? “Team Trash” received a starred review from School Library Journal and was later chosen as one of its Best Graphic Novels of 2023, calling it “A cute, smart, and incredibly informative book about recycling, upcycling, composting, and other STEAM topics.”

Learn more about the Foster MBA here.