Incinerators, even so-called state-of-the-art ones, that have pollution control devices, produce greenhouse gases and are a source of heavy metals, particulates and cancer causing dioxin. They poison the air, soil and water. Both systems are extremely costly and generate little local income.
Society has been stuck with these expensive, unsafe, 'quick-fix' waste management systems that perpetuate a mindless "throw away" mentality to what is a potential resource for too long. A new paradigm is required that looks at waste not as a problem to be buried or burned but as an opportunity to recover valuable resources, create jobs, save money and reduce pollution.
What is Zero Waste?
Zero Waste is a new approach being pioneered by leading corporations, municipalities, and progressive governments. It strikes at the heart of the waste problem by tackling the way products are designed and changing the way waste is handled so that products last longer, materials are recycled, or, in the case of organics, composted.
The philosophy has arisen out of the realisation that the wastefulness of our industrial society is compromising the ability of nature to sustain our needs and the needs of future generations. Zero Waste is a whole system approach that aims to fundamentally change the way in which materials flow through human society. The goal is an industrial system directed towards material recovery rather than material destruction.
Wasting versus recycling
Every day around the world, we burn and bury paper, metals and plastics that, if re-used or recycled, would lighten the ever-growing pressure on the world's forests, soils, and mineral resources by making more with less.
Doubling the life of a car saves the 15 tonnes of materials required to make a new one. Recycling paper gives wood fibres six lives rather than one. Increasing the productivity of resources in this way also leads to major savings in energy. Zero Waste could play a central role in cutting CO2 emissions and sequestering carbon in the soil.
Zero Waste also provides economic dividends. Redesigning production and increasing recycling to eliminate waste is stimulating a green industrial revolution. New materials and growth industries are emerging, together with a growth in jobs. Effective programmes for waste separation, as well as systems for composting of organic waste - which accounts for at least 50 percent of waste in most countries - also generate local income.
Governments that embarked on policies to reduce waste in order to combat pollution and climate change, are now realising that Zero Waste is a key element in any post industrial economic strategy.
In Germany recycling already employs more people than telecommunications. In the US, it has overtaken the auto industry in direct jobs. Local and national Governments in Australia, Denmark, the USA, New Zealand and Canada are already advocating Zero Waste policies.
Major corporations such as Sony, Mitsubishi, Hewlett Packard and Toyota are also supporting the principle. Some regions have reduced their waste problem by up to 70 percent by recycling alone.
Producer responsibility
Zero Waste is not reliant purely on recycling. The growing volume of waste is the result of wasteful production processes and excess packaging. In order to solve the growing waste problem, steps should be taken to reduce the amount of waste produced by industries and decrease the amount thrown out by consumers.
Source reduction is the most efficient and pollution-free approach to the waste problem.
Zero Waste is a total approach from the beginning to the end of the production process. It incorporates the principles of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which ensure manufacturers take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products and packaging. The cost of continuing to produce and package irresponsibly currently falls on the local community through waste management taxation. If a product and its packaging cannot be reused, recycled or composted then the producer should bear the cost of collection and safe disposal.
Government policy can encourage manufacturers to eliminate materials and products that are not reusable, recyclable or compostable. Careful segregation of remaining discarded materials is required to facilitate their recovery as resources ready for use by industry. Producer responsibility legislation is already emerging in Europe. The End of Life Vehicles Directive and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directives set high targets for reuse and recycling and exclude the use of hazardous materials.
Many household items, such as batteries, insect sprays, paper and plastic products, disposable razors and hairsprays, contain dangerous toxic chemicals that pose serious health risks and worsen the waste problem. Municipal solid waste that contains toxic chemicals or materials, is less likely to be recyclable and more likely to cause environmental problems in landfills and incinerators.
Manufacturers must ensure they stop producing items that contain toxic chemicals.
The key to Zero Waste is prevention: Preventing valuable resources from ever entering the disposal stream in the first place. Preventing the mounting volume of disposable products and packaging. Preventing the continuous use of dangerous toxic substances in every-consumer items; and stopping the head-long rush to incineration.
Until we achieve Zero Waste, we may need to landfill a small portion of our waste especially in the transition years. This should only happen after the maximum amount of organics and dry recyclables have been removed. This residual waste needs to be 'cleaned', that is made as biologically safe as possible to avoid the chemical reactions, methane emissions and leaching of poisons into soil and groundwater which makes landfilling of mixed waste such a problem.
Implementing Zero Waste
Governments' traditional role in waste management has been to put it out of sight through burial or burning, but shrinking landfill capacities, contamination, toxic emissions and hazardous emissions from incineration show that the problem never really goes away.
To address the growing problem of modern waste management, governments' must take a more active role in tackling the waste problem in the future. They must raise demand for recycled products, levy environmental taxation on bad packaging, implement education and assistance programs and establish economic incentives for disposal reduction and development of sorting, recycling and composting projects and facilities. Enlightened governments that are already following these policies have proved it can work if the political will is present.
Only well-implemented waste elimination, recycling and composting systems based on source separation will lead us down the path of Zero Waste and towards a sustainable future.