“Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, [...] where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them. Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.” (Zero Waste International Alliance definition)
Circular recycling solutions provide a path to keeping waste out of our natural ecosystems.
In addition to avoid pollution, the circular economy induces “waste recovery”; which means properly treating waste produced for it to be converted for a specific purpose (to obtain new raw materials or to generate energy, for example).
Zero Waste relies on a set of prioritized solutions to efficiently address and tackle waste.
The primary emphasis is placed "upstream" to prevent or diminish waste production. The initial strategy involves exploring alternative resources and methods through eco-redesign and rethinking processes. This is crucial to limiting resource usage (reduce) and enhancing efficiency (reuse) as secondary and tertiary strategies before considered "downstream” solutions. Recognizing inevitable resource use (as it can be inherent to the service provided, the nature of the business or needed for security or sanitary reason for example), recycling is then the solution to turn waste into new resources as part of the circular economy.
Facility waste results from a lack of efficiency of the resource management. According to the TRUE Certification program, taking a Zero Waste approach means:
The TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) certification is a program developed by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) in partnership with the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council (USZWBC).
It's designed to assess and validate an organisation's commitment to sustainability and waste reduction.
