Zero waste, or waste minimization, is a set of rules that aim to stop waste from being created. It encourages changing how products are made and used so that materials are reused or repurposed in new ways. The goal is to keep trash out of landfills, incinerators, oceans, and other places in the environment. Right now, only 9% of all plastic worldwide is recycled. In a zero waste system, materials are reused until the best possible amount of them is used.

Zero waste focuses on stopping waste before it happens, not just dealing with waste after it is made. It uses a method that looks at all parts of how materials move through society to make sure no waste is created. Zero waste includes more than just reducing, reusing, and recycling. It also changes how products are made and sold to reduce waste. It gives rules to help people work toward stopping waste over time.

According to the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA), zero waste means using all parts of a product again without sending harmful materials into the air, water, or soil.

Supporters believe that rules from the government are needed to help industries choose better designs for products, packaging, and materials.

Supporters also say that stopping waste can lower pollution and save money because fewer raw materials would be needed.

Cradle-to-Grave

The cradle-to-grave model is a straight-line process that starts with taking natural resources, moves to making products, and ends with the product being thrown away in a landfill. This model is different from cradle-to-cradle, which focuses on reusing materials to create new products so no waste is left behind.

Cradle-to-cradle aims to design systems where materials are reused in cycles, reducing waste and allowing materials to be recycled or reused. This approach solves problems before they happen by changing how products are designed. It supports sustainability and protects the environment for future generations.

The cradle-to-cradle idea has moved from being a theory to being used in real industries. It changes how materials are handled, similar to how nature works. In nature, waste from one living thing helps another. Cradle-to-cradle materials follow this pattern, being reused in cycles to help the environment or industry.

As industrialization grows, more waste is produced. In 2012, the World Bank reported that cities created 1.3 billion tons of waste, and this number is expected to rise to 2.2 billion tons by 2025. More waste means more landfills, which are often built near communities. These landfills are more likely to be located in areas with lower incomes and mostly non-white populations. These areas are often chosen because it is easier to get permission and because there is less opposition from the community. In the past five years, over 400 hazardous waste sites have been punished for risks to human health.

The world’s growing population faces limited natural resources. To reduce pressure on these resources, waste must be prevented. To reach zero waste, systems must shift from using resources once to reusing them in cycles. Materials should be chosen so they can safely return to the environment or stay useful in industry.

Zero waste encourages reuse, recycling, and designing products to last longer. It focuses on using fewer materials, using recycled materials, choosing safer materials, making products last longer, and ensuring they can be repaired or taken apart easily at the end of their lives. Zero waste helps protect the environment, saves money, and creates jobs by managing waste in ways that support industry. It can be used in businesses, schools, homes, and communities.

Advocates of zero waste say it has several benefits:

• Saves money. Waste shows inefficiency, so reducing it lowers costs.
• Encourages progress. Zero waste improves production and environmental strategies, leading to bigger, better changes.
• Supports sustainability. It helps achieve economic, environmental, and social goals.
• Improves material use. It uses fewer new materials and sends no waste to landfills. Any waste is reused, recycled, or turned into compost.

Health

A major problem with landfills is hydrogen sulfide, a gas that forms when waste breaks down naturally. Research has found a link between higher levels of hydrogen sulfide and increased rates of lung cancer, as well as more cases of illness and death from breathing problems. These studies also showed that people living closer to landfills are exposed to more hydrogen sulfide.

Household chemicals and medicines are often found in large amounts in the liquid that leaks from landfills, called leachate. This raises concerns about whether landfills can safely contain these materials and whether they might pollute groundwater and the environment around landfills.

Zero waste encourages reusing materials repeatedly, which reduces the need for landfills. This approach would lower the amount of harmful substances released into the air and water. It also involves checking products to learn which chemicals are used in their creation.

Health issues linked to landfills include:
• Birth defects, low birth weight, and exposure to tiny particles and nitrogen dioxide, which are connected to living near landfills.
• Respiratory diseases and lung cancer, which are tied to hydrogen sulfide released from landfills.

Promoting zero waste helps reduce the need to build and fill landfills. This can lower the risk of health problems like respiratory diseases and birth defects caused by harmful substances from landfills. Zero waste also helps protect local environments and clean water supplies by keeping pollutants out of ecosystems.

History

In 2001, the California Integrated Waste Management Board set a goal to achieve zero waste. In 2002, the City and County of San Francisco's Department of the Environment also set a zero waste goal. This goal led to the creation of the City's Mandatory Recycling and Composting Ordinance in 2009.

In 2002, a group that later became the Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA) held its first meeting. The meeting was led by Robin Murray, a British economist and environmentalist.

In 2008, the term "Zero Waste" described methods for managing manufacturing and municipal waste. In 2009, Bea Johnson, a French American woman living in California, began using the term to describe waste practices in her household of four people. She started the blog "Zero Waste Home" in 2009 and was featured in The New York Times in 2010.

In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly officially adopted the International Day of Zero Waste. The event has been celebrated annually on March 30 since 2023. During this day, United Nations member states, organizations, civil society, businesses, schools, youth groups, and other groups are encouraged to participate in activities that promote awareness of zero-waste efforts. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) work together to support the observance of this day.

Packaging Examples

Milk can be transported in different ways. One traditional method used glass bottles that could be reused, often delivered by a milkman to homes. Although some places still use this method, other options are now more common: one-time-use paperboard cartons, aseptic cartons, recyclable glass bottles, milk bags, and others. Each method has benefits and challenges. From a zero-waste perspective, reusing bottles helps reduce material use because fewer resources are needed per delivery. The main material used to make glass bottles is silica, a type of sand. The glass is shaped into bottles, filled with milk, and sent to customers. A system collects the used bottles, cleans them, checks for damage, and prepares them for reuse. Eventually, the bottles may no longer be usable and are recycled. Waste from this process includes water used for cleaning, detergents, transportation, and bottle caps. While complete zero waste is not possible, a life cycle assessment can measure waste at each stage of the process.

Online shopping orders often include an outer box to hold multiple items for easier shipping and tracking. This creates extra waste, especially when only one item is ordered. To address this, some products are now designed to be shipped without an outer box, a feature called "ships in own container."

Recycling

Recycling and zero waste are different ideas. Recycling usually means putting items like bottles, cans, paper, and packaging into curbside recycling bins. However, modern recycling involves more steps, such as money and help from the government. For example, a 2007 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that the United States recycles 33.5% of materials nationally, including composted materials. Large companies that work with materials from around the world now manage recycled items. Sometimes, recycling rates are reported incorrectly, such as when soil and organic matter used to cover garbage dumps are counted as recycled materials. In states with recycling rewards, local groups may push to make recycling numbers look higher than they are.

Recycling is not the same as zero waste. For example, in the computer industry, millions of personal computers are thrown away as electronic waste each year. In 2016, 44.7 million metric tons of electronic waste were created worldwide, but only 20% was recycled. Some companies fix old computers to sell them again. Community groups also help by repairing donated computers and giving them to people who need them.

A clear example of the difference between zero waste and recycling is in the software industry. Zero waste design can be used in software development, where programmers create new code for specific tasks instead of copying and reusing code multiple times. This saves time and effort. Software storage has also changed from reusable diskettes to internal drives, which are more efficient and cheaper. This is a physical example of zero waste, as it avoids unnecessary use of resources.

Zero waste is not well supported by laws that enforce the waste hierarchy. A key feature of zero waste is that it can be used in any situation, whether dealing with harmful chemicals or harmless plant matter. It applies to problems like pollution from burning coal or waste from nuclear power plants. Every process can be designed to reduce waste, both in how it operates and how people use its products. Recycling, however, only deals with simple materials.

Zero waste can also address issues like poverty and lack of education, which waste human potential. It includes designing products to use less energy in industries or transportation and to protect natural resources like rainforests. Zero waste is a general idea about using all resources efficiently.

The recycling movement is slowly expanding beyond waste management to include issues similar to those in community sustainability efforts. Zero waste, on the other hand, does not rely on waste management limits. It focuses on maximizing reuse and creating new methods to avoid harmful practices like burning waste or recycling. Zero waste aims to design products that can be repaired, reused, or remade instead of being thrown away.

Significance of dump capacity

Many landfills are becoming too full to hold more waste. This situation is sometimes used as a reason to support Zero Waste efforts. Some people argue that there are large areas of land in the United States and other countries that could be used for landfills. Many ideas have been suggested to solve the waste problem. These ideas often claim that all or most garbage can be turned into oil. Some proposals even say that this process could create so much oil that the world would have plenty of fuel. One such idea, called Anything Into Oil, was shared in 2004 by Discover Magazine and Fortune Magazine. It claimed that a refrigerator could be changed into a type of oil using high-pressure steam.

An example of a company that has changed its waste policy is General Motors (GM). GM plans to make about half of its 181 plants worldwide "landfill-free" by the end of 2010. Other companies, such as Subaru, Toyota, and Xerox, are also creating landfill-free plants. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked with GM and other companies for many years to reduce waste through its WasteWise program. GM’s goal is to recycle or reuse more than 90% of materials. This includes selling scrap materials, using reusable boxes instead of cardboard, and recycling used work gloves. The remaining waste might be burned to create energy for the plants. This approach helps protect the environment and saves money by reducing waste and improving production efficiency. Microsoft and Google are also working toward Zero Waste goals. Google aims to keep all waste from six of its locations out of landfills. Microsoft has a similar goal but aims to keep 90% of its waste out of landfills. These organizations work to make the world cleaner and reduce waste.

A garden center in Faversham, UK, has stopped giving customers plastic plant pots. Instead, it reuses the plastic pots only within the garden center. When selling plants to customers, it repots them into paper pots. The center also sells plants wrapped in hessian and uses other methods to avoid giving customers single-use plastics.

Waste sent to landfills can be used to make useful materials, such as solar energy or natural fertilizer for crops. It can also be reused or recycled into items that people can use. "The success of General Motors in creating zero-landfill facilities shows that Zero Waste goals can encourage manufacturers to reduce waste and their carbon footprint," says Latisha Petteway, a spokesperson for the EPA.

Market-based campaigns

Programs that use laws and market strategies, such as extended producer responsibility (EPR) and the precautionary principle, are often linked to the Zero Waste slogan. However, these programs do not necessarily lead to policies that fully achieve Zero Waste. Currently, there is no proof that EPR increases reuse, as it may only shift waste management responsibilities to private companies that handle disposal. The precautionary principle aims to require companies, rather than the public, to prove that new chemicals are safe. This does not clearly support Zero Waste goals. Many organizations, cities, and counties use the Zero Waste slogan but do not push for major changes needed for true Zero Waste. Often, these groups focus only on recycling as their main goal. Some businesses, such as Staples, Home Depot, Toyota, General Motors, and computer take-back programs, claim to support Zero Waste but typically mean they are increasing recycling efforts, not redesigning products. In the past, social justice campaigns successfully changed practices at McDonald's and Nike by showing that organized consumers can influence economic decisions. However, the specific goals of public campaigns are important. A campaign focused only on recycling to reduce waste cannot be called a true Zero Waste effort, as it does not address product redesign. In EPR programs, producers should be held responsible for product packaging, not consumers, to encourage greater involvement from companies.

How to achieve

National and provincial governments often set goals and may offer some money, but in practice, waste management programs—such as pickup, drop-off, or containers for recycling and composting—are usually handled by local governments, sometimes with shared facilities in different areas.

To reach the goal of zero waste, products made by manufacturers and designers must be easy to take apart for recycling and reuse in nature or industrial systems. Making products last longer and easier to repair helps reduce waste. Using less packaging also helps solve problems early in the supply chain. Even without government rules, choices by stores and customers to support zero-waste-friendly products can affect what is produced. More schools are encouraging students to live differently and think carefully about actions that create pollution. To stop materials from becoming waste, people, businesses, and non-profits must learn how to reduce waste and recycle properly.

In the book Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste, the author, Bea Johnson, explains a version of the 3 Rs called the 5 Rs: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Rot. This method, developed through years of living without waste, helped her family reduce their yearly trash to fit in a small jar. It is now used by many people, businesses, and cities worldwide.

The Zero Waste Hierarchy outlines steps to support a zero-waste system, starting with the best use of materials and moving to the least. It is meant for everyone, from leaders to individuals. It adds more detail to the well-known 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) and encourages actions and investments at the top of the hierarchy. It also helps people create systems or products that move closer to zero waste. Around the world, pollution prevention hierarchies are included in recycling rules, waste management plans, and resource conservation programs. In Canada, a pollution prevention hierarchy, called the Environmental Protection Hierarchy, is used. This hierarchy is part of all recycling rules and resource conservation methods followed by government waste prevention programs. While adding a fourth R (recovery) before disposal was a good idea, many groups focused on this step instead of the top of the hierarchy. This led to expensive systems that harm materials rather than reduce waste and environmental impact. Because of this, along with other systems that harm resources, Zero Waste Canada and the Zero Waste International Alliance have adopted the only internationally reviewed Zero Waste Hierarchy that focuses on the first three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, including compost.

Zero waste jurisdictions

Many governments have set a goal of achieving zero waste. Some examples include:

• Brazil: Florianópolis, Santa Catarina
• Canada: Vancouver (see Zero Waste 2040 Strategy)
• Italy: Capannori, Tuscany
• Japan: Kamikatsu, Tokushima (recycles 80% of its waste at the Kamikatsu Zero Waste Center and aims for zero waste)
• Sweden (nationwide)
• United States: Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; Fort Collins, Colorado; Chula Vista, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Francisco, California; San Jose, California; Oakland, California

In the United Kingdom, the New Labour government suggested forming groups in different regions to bring together people and organizations involved in waste management, such as local government officials, waste industry workers, and government offices. These groups worked together voluntarily. There is no clear national rule for how to reduce waste sent to landfills, which gives local and regional groups more freedom to decide how to meet goals. The government sets the overall aim, but it does not decide the specific methods, allowing groups to plan how to reach the goal.

Zero Waste is a plan supported by environmental organizations. However, the waste industry prefers using expensive methods to create energy from burning waste. Studies often show that public support is important for success. In Taiwan, public opinion helped change how businesses use materials, which is necessary for Zero Waste to work.

California is a leading state in the United States for having zero-waste goals. It has the most cities in the Zero Waste International Alliance. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, many cities have explained what it means to be a Zero Waste community and set goals to reach that status. Some of these cities include Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, Pasadena, Alameda, and San Jose.

San Francisco defines zero waste as "zero discards to the landfill or high-temperature destruction." The city uses a three-step plan to reach its goal: prevent waste, reduce and reuse materials, and recycle and compost. Los Angeles defines zero waste as "maximizing waste diversion from landfills and reducing waste at the source, with the ultimate goal of striving for more-sustainable solid waste management practices." To reach this goal, changes must be made to how products are created, used, and disposed of.

Zero-waste stores

Retail stores that focus on zero-waste products and practices have opened in several countries, such as Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. As of October 2024, there are more than 200 stores in the United Kingdom that sell items without packaging or with very little packaging. These stores allow customers to bring their own containers to carry their purchases.

Zero-waste restaurants

Since the middle of the 2010s, more restaurants in countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, and Finland have started using zero-waste practices. These restaurants reduce food and waste from their operations by using whole ingredients, composting waste on-site, and turning leftover scraps into new food items for their menus.