Over the past decades, a widespread consensus has emerged regarding the anthropogenic causes and negative impacts of climate change. For instance, the environmental pollution reaches alarming dimensions on a global level implying immanent dangers to the future of humankind and nature. The need to take action in order to maintain the integrity of human and environmental systems has long been recognised by most political elites, business leaders, activists and the scientific community. Yet, it seems that political and economic institutions do not move on fast enough from words to actions. At the same time, a depoliticisation of the public sphere is observed repressing a radical critical discourse. Several political theorists and philosophers debate about the emergence of a post-political and postdemocratic condition, implying a state of politics of consensus. The thesis at hand aimed to investigate the post-political condition of climate change activism in the online realm by means of the case of a rather recent trend of environmental activism, the zero waste movement. A quantitative content analysis was conducted studying 500 #zerowaste tweets that were posted in April 2018. The content characteristics of the Twitter postings were analysed and a coding system developed to measure the post-political condition of communication practices in the environmental pollution debate on Twitter.  The study finds that in particular civic actors (citizen and public personalities), commercial and nonprofit organisations engaged in the zero waste debate distributing informative content mobilising the public to make certain lifestyle decisions. It is furthermore revealed that the #zerowaste debate on Twitter is evidently depoliticised. The communication practices on the social media platform incorporated in many ways discursive strategies such as universalisation and externalisation resulting in a rationalised and moralised representation of the problem of environmental pollution.

This research analyzes the zero waste movement in Cologne, Germany, aiming to findout how media and communication influence pro-environmental (consumer) behavior ofan already environmentally aware target audience. A special focus lies on what dominantchannels and mediums are used as well as what role social media influencers play.Therefore, 15 interviews were conducted in two of the three existing zero waste stores inCologne. The material was subsequently analyzed with a qualitative text analysisaccording to Mayring (2014). The findings revealed that pro-environmental contentresearch online and offline through media and communication can indirectly influencepro-environmental (consumer) behavior of the zero waste movement in Cologne in termsof motivation, inspiration, for information research, or a lively exchange. This dominantlyhappened through the offline community and through face-to-face conversations, but alsowith the use of new and social media. To some extent, social media influencers affecteda younger audience, possibly leading to a consolidation of the individuals’ awareness andattitude as well as an encouragement to take action. However, media and communicationare not the only factors influencing the zero waste consumption behavior. Furtherinfluencers are environmental awareness and consciousness, education, and personalityfactors. Latter can also be an interior barrier, along with family, lack of knowledge, time,and experience. Meanwhile, exterior factors are the economic and organizationalinfrastructure, contradicting lifestyles of the community, and economic constraints thatcould possibly hinder the process towards pro-environmental consumption and behavior.Overall, this research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the zero waste lifestyleand its drivers as an ideal for pro-environmental behavior, enabling the fight againstclimate change on a local and communal level in Cologne, Germany.