Zero waste
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Zero waste is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource-use systems in such a way that waste is reduced to zero. Put simply, zero waste extends current approaches to recycling by introducing the concept of circular systems in which as much waste as possible is reused, similar to the way that resources are reused in nature.
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[edit] Strategy
The zero-waste strategy is to turn the output from every resource use into the input for another use; in other words, outputs become inputs. An example might be the cycle of a glass milk bottle. The primary input (or resource) is silica-sand, which is formed into glass and then into a bottle. The bottle is filled with milk and distributed to the consumer. At this point, normal waste methods would see the bottle disposed in a landfill or similar. But with a zero-waste method, the bottle can be saddled at the time of sale with a deposit, which is returned to the bearer upon redemption. The bottle is then washed, refilled, and resold. The only material waste is the wash water, and energy loss has been minimized (see container deposit legislation).
Zero waste can make financial sense as well. The bottle shape accounts for almost all of the value of the item – as a lump of glass the 'bottle' might be worth only the final 2 percent of its value. In this case, a minimal resource (the glass) could be resold many times at up to 50 times its resource value each time.
[edit] Difference between zero waste and recycling
Despite the similarities, zero waste is not just another form of recycling; it involves changing things at the production level.
Take a personal computer: in its constituent parts (steel, copper, glass, etc.) fairly inexpensive, yet once built into a computer, worth much more. However, millions of PCs are disposed of worldwide each year (160 million in 2007)[1]. By adopting a modular design policy (e.g. each aspect of the computer is a separate pluggable element) old computer components can be reused in newer products.
Zero waste depends on the redesign of industrial, commercial and consumer goods. Recycling contents itself with attempts to deal with wastes as delivered, after goods have become waste. Zero waste does not accept the unthinking creation of waste, followed by a scramble to capture materials.
[edit] History
[edit] 1970s: Zero Waste Systems Inc
The term zero waste was first used publicly in the name of a company, Zero Waste Systems Inc (ZWS), which was founded by PhD chemist Paul Palmer in the mid 1970s in Oakland, California. The mission of ZWS was to find new homes for most of the chemicals being excessed by the nascent electronics industry. They soon expanded their services in many other directions. For example, they accepted free of charge, large quantities of new and usable laboratory chemicals which they resold to experimenters, scientists, companies and tinkerers of every description during the 1970s. ZWS arguably had the largest inventory of laboratory chemicals in all of California, which were sold for half price. They also collected all of the solvent produced by the electronics industry called developer/rinse (a mixture of xylene and butyl acetate). This was put into small cans and sold as a lacquer thinner. ZWS collected all the "reflow oil" created by the printed circuit industry, which was filtered and resold into the "downhole" (oil well) industry. ZWS pioneered many other projects.
Because they were the only ones in the world in this business, they achieved an international reputation. Many magazine articles were written about them and several television shows featured them. The California Integrated Waste Management Board produced a slide show featuring ZWS's business and the EPA published a number of studies of their business, calling them an "active waste exchange".
[edit] 1998-2002: peak
The movement gained publicity and reached a peak in 1998-2002, and since then has been moving from "theory into action" by focusing on how a "zero waste community" is structured and behaves. The website of the Zero Waste International Alliance has a listing of communities across the globe that have created public policy to promote zero-waste practices. See also the Eco-Cycle website for examples of how this large nonprofit is leading Boulder County, Colorado on a Zero-Waste path and watch a 6-minute video about the zero-waste big picture. Finally, there is a USA zero-waste organization named the GrassRoots Recycling Network that puts on workshops and conferences about zero-waste activities.
[edit] Present day
The tension between zero waste, viewed as post-discard total recycling of materials, and zero waste as the reuse of all high level function remains a serious one today. It is probably the defining difference between established recyclers and emerging zero-wasters. The tension between the literal application of natural processes and the creation of industry-specific more efficient reuse modalities is another tension.
By way of example, one may argue that the creation of biodegradable plastics is wasteful, not environmentally beneficial, because biodegradation means the destruction of the low entropy molecules of plastic, along with all of the expensive inputs needed to create them. The alternative is to create pathways which reuse those molecules over and over.
And finally, there is a tension between those who expect instant answers to even difficult questions of design and those who see progress toward real zero waste in the creation of extensive research establishments. The latter are not dismayed by the difficulties of achieving zero waste but see those difficulties as the natural accompaniments of any significant industrial redesign program.
[edit] 2005: "Getting to Zero Waste"
In 2005, Paul Palmer published a book which summarized and drew from his experiences with ZWS called Getting To Zero Waste.[2] This is not primarily a study of chemical reuse but applies the lessons learned there to the theory of universal reuse of all goods.
[edit] Reducing, Reusing and Recycling as an extension of Zero Waste
Major solutions for using zero waste is by enforcing the waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, and recycle. Zero waste has come to become a necessity for the success of the recycling movement.
The cooperation, cross-training and merging of bottom-up and top-down strategies, have been the main transition to broaden the movement from its solid waste management base to include issues that are similar to the community sustainability movement (Roper, 2006, p. 315). Zero waste requires that we maximize our existing recycling and reuse efforts, while ensuring that products are designed for the environment and having the potential to be repaired, reused, or recycled (“What is Zero Waste?”, para 2).
[edit] Landfills
Many landfills are currently exceeding carrying capacity.[citation needed]
[edit] Corporate initiatives
An example of a company that has demonstrated a change in landfill waste policy is General Motors (GM). GM has confirmed their plans to make approximately half of its 181 plants worldwide "landfill-free" by the end of 2010. Companies like Subaru, Toyota, and Xerox are also producing landfill-free plants. GM is supposed to have about eighty producing plants twenty months. Furthermore, The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has worked with GM and other companies for decades to minimize the waste through its WasteWise program. The goal for General Motors is finding ways to recycle or reuse more than 90% of materials by: selling scrap materials, adopting reusable parts boxes to replace cardboard, and even recycling used work gloves. The remainder of the scraps might be incinerated to create energy for the plants. Besides being environmentally friendly, it also saves money by cutting out waste and producing a more efficient production. All these organizations all push forth to make our world clean and producing zero waste.
[edit] Re-use of waste
The waste sent to landfills may be harvested as useful materials, such as in the production of solar energy or fertiliser for crops.
It may also be reused and recycled for something that we can actually use (Roper, 2006, p. 315). "The success of General Motors in creating zero-landfill facilities shows that zero-waste goals can be a powerful impetus for manufacturers to reduce their waste and carbon footprint," says Latisha Petteway, a spokesperson for the EPA (Carty, 2008, 1b).
[edit] Construction and Deconstruction
Zero Waste is a goal, a process, a way of thinking that profoundly changes our approach to resources and production. Not only is Zero Waste about recycling and diversion from landfills, it also restructures production and distribution systems to prevent waste from being manufactured in the first place. In addition, the materials that are still required in these re-designed, resource-efficient systems will be recycled back into production. Deconstruction is an efficient system and new that can be described as construction in reverse. It involves carefully taking a part a building to maximize the reuse of materials, thereby reducing waste and conserving resources. Deconstruction is a new process that the United States can use to exploit the reusing aspect of striving for zero waste. Dismantling carefully different parts of businesses and homes can maximize the reuse of the materials we use, and thereby reducing waste and conserving resources. The parts that we would be able to save would be architectural elements, windows, doors, and metals. The main parts that we wouldn’t be able to save would be wood flooring, brick walls, and structural timbers (Roper, 2006, p.326). As for the demolition of traditional buildings, workers would generally destroy buildings by wrecking ball or a piece of dynamite. Normally, the disposal costs are far cheaper because of the operating costs for demolition activities; then deconstruction. Approximately seventy pounds of the waste is generated for about every square foot of the residential building demolition. This is because the demolition of a building the non-zero-waste way would not be beneficial to the environment. The demolitions of buildings are completely cheaper in the aspects of money; but on the contrary, when it comes down to waste it produces the most amount of waste. In this situation the deconstruction method would probably be the smarter way in the environmental aspect of things (Roper, 2006, p.326).
[edit] Market-based Campaigns
Market-based campaigns like Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the Precautionary Principle have been developed to push for a policy of zero waste. Some examples of these market-based campaigns are Staples, Home Depot and computer take-back campaigns. These campaigns have been inspired by the successful campaigns to pressure McDonald’s to change their meat purchasing practices and also Nike to change its labor practices in Southeast Asia. They are both based on the idea that organized consumers can be active participants in the economy and not just passive subjects. In addition, the same strategy and environmentally/economic considerations are emerging in the construction industry to reduce or eliminate wasted materials in the construction process (Roper, 2006, p.315).
[edit] Corporations
Instead of market-based campaigns, there are corporations such as Wal-Mart, Nike, Toyota, and Ford that have set zero waste targets. Jessica Winter argues that zero waste is more spiritually ideal and not realistic (Winter, 2006, p.2)[citation needed].
[edit] Nike
Nike is the leader in the multinational for zero waste product design. Nike uses recyclable polymers, water-based solvents, and fabric woven from used soda bottles (Winter, 2007, p. 2).
[edit] Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has been working on making their whole company completely sustainable in about two years. Wal-Mart is striving to use less plastic, and removing all chemicals that contain in all of the products. Wal-Mart wants to demonstrate having no dumpsters or compactors behind their buildings at all.
In the computer and jewelry department, Wal-Mart is trying to find cost-efficient ways to recycle them. In the food department, Wal-Mart is trying to change the way they purchase seafood. Wal-Mart will set a standard on only buying from sustainable seafood vendors. Wal-Mart’s standard will only buy from fishing companies who do not steal or over-fish from the oceans (Willet, 2004).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Carty, S. S. (2008, September 5). GM plans to dump use of landfills. USA Today, p. 1b. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from Academic Search Premier database (J0E058745622408)
- Four new Wal-Marts to use 25% less energy. (2008, January 16). The Toronto Star, p. 1. Retrieved September 23, 2008, from LexisNexis database
- Roper, W. (2006). Strategies for building material reuses and recycle. International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 6(3/4), 313-345.
- What is Zero Waste California? (2004, December 6). Zero Waste California [Fact Sheet]. Retrieved September 29, 2008]
- Winter, J. (2007, March 11). A world without waste-The ‘zero waste’ movement imagines a future where everything is a renewable resource. The Boston Globe, pp. 1-3. Retrieved September 22, 2008, from LexisNexis database
[edit] External links
- Zero Waste Network
- Zero Waste International Alliance (ZWIA)
- Eco-Cycle
- GrassRoots Recycling Network (GRRN)
- Zero Waste Alliance
- Zero Waste Institute (Paul Palmer's organization)
- Zero Waste California
- Sustainable concepts towards a Zero Outflow Municipality (Zer0-M)
