Zero Waste

What does zero waste mean?

Designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve all resources, and not burn or bury them

Sustainable Systems

Develop systems to be adaptable, flexible, scalable, resilient, and appropriate to local ecosystem limits

Destructive desposal

Discarded materials placed in a landfill or in an Incineration facility

Zero waste pyramid of importance 5Rs (top to bottom)

(Rethink) Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, Residuals

Residuals Management

-Examine materials that remain and use this information to refine the systems to rethink, reduce, reuse, and recycle in order to prevent further discards -Ensure minimization of impacts by means of biological stabilization of fermentable materials. -Encourage the preservation of resources and discourage their Destructive Disposal or dispersal -Plan systems and infrastructure to be adjusted as discards are reduced and its composition changes -Minimize Gas Production and Release and maximize gas collection -Use existing landfill capacity and maximize its lifespan. Ensure it is Responsibly Managed. -Contain and control toxic residuals for responsible management

Recover

-Maximize materials recovery from mixed discards and research purposes after extensive source separation -If conditions allow, recover energy using only systems that operate at Biological Temperature andPressure

Reuse

-Maximize reuse of materials and products -Maintain, repair or refurbish to retain Value**, usefulness and function -Remanufacture with disassembled parts; dismantle and conserve "spare" parts for repairing and maintaining products still in use -Repurpose products for alternative uses

Reduce

-Plan consumption and purchase of perishables to minimize discards due to spoilage andnon‐consumption -Implement Sustainable Purchasing that supports social and environmental objectives as well as local markets where possible -Minimize quantity and toxicity of materials used -Minimize ecological footprint required for product, product use, and service provision -Choose products that maximize the usable lifespan and opportunities for continuous reuse -Choose products that are made from materials that can be easily and continuously recycled -Prioritize the use of edible food for people -Prioritize the use of edible food for animals

Recycle/Compost

-Support and expand systems to keep materials in their original product loop and to protect the full usefulness of the materials -Maintain diversion systems that allow for the highest and best use of materials, including organics -Recycle and use materials for as high a purpose as possible -Develop resilient local markets and uses for collected materials wherever possible -Provide incentives to create clean flows of compost and recycling feedstock -Support and expand composting as close to the generator as possible (prioritizing home or on site or local composting wherever possible) -Whenever home/decentralized composting is not possible, consider industrial composting, or if local conditions require/allow, anaerobic digestion

Benefits of EPR

-reduces energy use, air and global warming pollution -saves taxpayer money and removes govt from waste business -creates jobs, business opportunities, and economic development -decreases toxic pollution -reduces the unsustainable extraction of virgin natural resources

What does EPR do?

-shifts responsibility upstream in the product lifecycle to the producer and away from municipalities and regional waste authorities -provides incentives to producers to incorporate environmental considerations into the design of their products. EPR also shifts the historical public sector tax-supported responsibility for some waste to the individual brand owner, manufacturer, or first importer

5 Stages of sustainability innovation

1. Viewing compliance as opportunity 2. Making value chains sustainable 3. Designing sustainable products and services 4. Developing new business models 5. Creating next practice platforms

Closed loop system

A system not relying on matter exchange outside of the system, as opposed to open loop where material may flow in and out of the system

Diversion

An activity that removes a material from Destructive Disposal

Do Not Export Harm

Avoid the export of toxic or potentially toxic waste or materials to areas with lower environmental safeguards and avoid the export of materials with limited, undefined recycling markets that will be either landfilled or incinerated in another region

Circular Economy

An industrial economy that is, by design or intention, restorative and in which material flows are of two types, biological nutrients, designed to re‐enter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients, which are designed to circulate at high quality without entering the biosphere. Materials are consistently reused rather than discharged as waste

cradle-to-cradle

Biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems. Models human industry on nature's processes viewing materials as nutrients circulating in healthy, safe metabolisms

Closed Loop Systems

Design systems to be closed loop rather than linear in their use of resources

Who's job is zero waste?

Citizen - buys, uses, disposes Manufacturer - sources, creates, packages, sells Government - collects, sorts, recycles, disposes

Information and Improvement

Collect information on systems and use as feedback for continuous improvement

Opportunity Costs

Consider opportunity costs of investments and ensure investments occur as high as possible on the Hierarchy

Highest and Best Use

Creating and keeping materials and products for a use as high on the hierarchy as possible and in the useful loop as long as possible. Keeping materials from being downcycled where the number of future uses or options are limited

Real life examples

Dell zero waste packaging, Taiwan legislation (govt agencies and schools stopped using disposable tableware/paper cups), MEC zero waste goal (92% diversion rate in 2007) and online gear swap, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Chico facility (zero waste, 99.8% diversion from landfill, incineration, and the environment)

Rethink

Design and purchase products from reused, recycled or sustainably harvested renewable, non‐toxic materials to be durable, repairable, reusable, fully recyclable or compostable, and easily disassembled

Precautionary Principle

Ensure that a substance or activity which poses a threat to the environment is prevented from adversely affecting the environment, even if there is no conclusive scientific proof linking that particular substance or activity to environmental damage

Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

Environmental policy approach in which a producer's responsibility (physical and/or financial) for a product is extended to the post consumer stage of the product's lifecycle

Incineration

Incineration is a form of Destructive Disposal via combustion or thermal conversion/treatment, using temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius, of discarded materials into ash/slag, syngas, flue gas, fuel, or heat. Incineration includes facilities and processes that may be stationary or mobile, may recover energy from heat or power and may use single or multiple stages. Some forms of incineration may be described as resource recovery, energy recovery trash to steam, waste to energy, energy from waste, fluidized bed, catalytic cracking, biomass, steam electric power plant (burning waste), pyrolysis, thermolysis, gasification, plasma arc, thermal depolymerization or refuse derived fuel.

Responsibly managed landfills

Manage landfills to minimize discharges to land, water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health. This must include plans for closure and financial liability.

Logic behind EPR

Manufacturers are in a better position than local government to manage product and packaging waste, as they have direct control over the design of these materials in the first place

Problematic for a closed loop system

Materials that make it hard to recycle or compost the materials themselves or other materials. These may be contaminants for a material (like some forms of biodegradable plastics or stickers on fruit and vegetables) or materials that clog processing systems (like plastic bags).

Minimize Dischanrges

Minimize all discharges to land, water or air that may be a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health, including climate changing gases

Herman Miller DFE

Mirra Chair: 96% recyclable, easy to take apart in 15 minutes, made with easy to process materials such as aluminum and PET

Conservation of Energy

More energy can be saved, and global warming impacts decreased, by reducing waste, reusing products, recycling and composting than can be produced from burning discards or recovering landfill gases

EPR in BC - consumables involved in toxic waste programs

Paint, tires, pesticides, computers, oil, pharmaceuticals, antifreeze, lead-acid batteries, and solvents and flammable liquids

Materials Are Resources

Preserve materials for continued use and use existing materials before harvesting virgin natural resources

Close to Source

Processes to occur as close to the source as practical

Engage the Community

Promote changes and systems that work with communities to facilitate meaningful and sustained participation, increase understanding, and influence behaviour change and perceptions

Local Economies

Support the growth and expansion of local economies (production, repair, and processing) in order to reduce greenhouse gases from transportation, improve accountability, and increase repair and parts opportunities

Biological Temperature and Pressure

The ambient temperature and pressure that occurs naturally without the use of added energy, or in any case not above 100C to change it such as anaerobic digestion

Value

The importance, worth, or usefulness of something that may be economic, social, environmental, or sentimental

Sustainable purchasing

The purchase of goods and services that take into account the economic value (price, quality, Availability and functionality) and the related environmental and social impacts of those goods and services at local, regional, and global levels.

Minimize gas production and release

This means keeping out source‐separated organics as much as possible and biologically stabilizing the materials that go into landfill. For existing landfill cells that already contain unstabilized organics, the gas production should be minimized by keeping out rainwater and not recirculating leachate. Minimize methane release by permanently capping closed cells with permanent covers and installing gas collection systems within months of closure (not years). Maintain high suction on collection wells and do not damp down wells or rotate off the wells to stimulate methane production. Filter toxins in the gas into a solid medium that is containerized and stored on site. Note that this is not considered a renewable energy.

Design for the environment (DFE)

Where a product's impact on the environment is considered May create products with less packaging, that are easier to repair, last longer, use less harmful materials, and can easily be recycled, composted, and use less energy Any product that remains as waste after composting and recycling options are exhausted is a candidate for redesign

Polluter Pays

Whoever causes environmental degradation or resource depletion should bear the "full cost" to encourage industries to internalize environmental cost and reflect them in the prices of the products

What is zero waste?

a goal to guide people in their changing lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use

What does implementing zero waste mean?

eliminating all discharges to land, water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal, or plant health