A GUIDE TO ZERO WASTE
CONTENTS WHAT IS ZERO WASTE?
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WASTE HIERARCHY
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WHAT CAN I HOW ZERO DO? STORE WORKS
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WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT PACKAGING?
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WHAT IS ZERO WASTE?
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Zero Waste is a goal that is both pragmatic and visionary, to guide people to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to reduce 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 may be a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.
Definition of Zero Waste as adopted by the Zero Waste International Alliance
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ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS
The greatest value is obtained from unavoidable waste.
Fewer resources are consumed.
THE AIMS OF ZERO WASTE
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Fewer primary resources should be consumed, be that in the form of reducing demand for energy use or reducing the use of virgin raw materials. Where resources are consumed this should be done as efficiently as possible, maximising their productive use.
Where waste cannot be eliminated, we should seek to derive the greatest value possible from it through re-use, re-manufacturing and recycling.
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WASTE HIERARCHY
The Waste Hierarchy is the evaluation of processes that protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption to most favourable to least favourable actions. The hierarchy establishes preferred program priorities based on sustainability. To be sustainable, waste management cannot be solved only with technical end-of-pipe solutions and an integrated approach is necessary. The waste management hierarchy indicates an order of preference for action to reduce and manage waste, and is usually presented diagrammatically in the form of a pyramid. The hierarchy captures the progression of a material or product through successive stages of waste management, and represents the latter part of the life-cycle for each product.
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The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste. The proper application of the waste hierarchy can have several benefits. It can help prevent emissions of greenhouse gases, reduces pollutants, save energy, conserves resources, create jobs and stimulate the development of green technologies.
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WHAT’S SO BAD ABOUT PACKAGING? We live on one planet with finite natural resources. It would require the resources of nearly three Earth-sized planets for future populations to consume at the rate we currently do in Europe. The increasing global population means we cannot consume at current levels without a change in the way we use resources. Whilst some packaging is necessary in our modern and industrial food chain, unnecessary packaging is a waste.
£
COST
It increases the price of the goods you buy. You are charged twice – first when you buy overpackaged products and then through your council tax for disposing of your rubbish & recycling.
WASTE
It wastes resources at every level: production, storage, transport and disposal.
POLLUTION
Landfill and incineration are the two main ways of dealing with unrecyclable packaging waste. These are major pollutants for people, and the environment, as they leach toxins and release greenhouse gases. The unpalatable truth is that we’re running out of
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40%
of packaging waste isn’t or can’t be recycled.
landfill space – we will reach a time that the landfill holes in the ground are full with little mainstream impetus to find alternatives.
WHAT ABOUT RECYCLING?
While some packaging is recycled, most ends up in landfill sites and some is too complex to recycle as the facilities don’t exist, or aren’t cost effective. Recycling is part of the solution, but only if we use it as a stepping stone to a zero waste circular economy where we use less packaging and develop systems based on re-use & refilling.
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WHAT CAN I DO?
zero SIMPLIFY
REFUSE
BRING YOUR OWN
WHOLE FOODS
COMPOST
BUY BETTER + REPAIR
Edit your belongings. Understand your true wants and needs.
Become resourceful with food by learning to make easy & quick meals from unprocessed & unpackaged foods.
Refuse single-use disposable items. That’s anything you use once and throw away.
Separate your food waste. From backyard to worm composting, don’t let your food scraps go to landfill.
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Have durable reusables to keep single-use plastics away. Items like a reusable bag, straw, mug & water bottle are good examples.
Buy less, buy better. Seek multifunctional, repairable and lasting products.
change RECYCLE WELL
Recycling is good, but it’s not the solution. Reduce the amount you recycle by reducing the amount you consume.
USE YOUR VOICE
Kindly use your voice to express how you want products to be designed and recovered. Give companies, businesses and manufacturers incentive to make change.
NOT ACCEPTABLE
SUPPORT COMMUNITY Get to know your community. Shop local. Start a community garden. Walk, bike, bus. Create change. Be the change.
• Don’t support bioreactor landfills • Don’t burn mixed solid waste, tires, wood from mixed construction and demolition debris, or biosolids. High temperature systems volatilize heavy metals and produce dioxins and furans. Avoid: Mass Burn, Fluidized Bed, Gasification, Plasma Arc, and Pyrolysis. • Don’t give recycling credit for Alternative Daily Cover (ADC) or “beneficial use” of processing residues to build landfills. • Don’t allow recycling toxic or radioactive wastes into consumer products or building materials.
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HOW ZERO STORE WORKS
STEP 1 TARE
STEP 2 FILL
STEP 3 WEIGH
0000 PLAIN FLOUR 500g £1.20
STEP 4 LABEL
STEP 5 PAY
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TARE
Weigh your empty container, print tare weight label & attach it to your container.
FILL
Fill your container with your chosen product.
WEIGH
Key in the product type, enter the weight from your tare weight label & place filled container on scale.
LABEL
Print your product label & attach it to your container.
PAY
Pay at any till point.
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REFERENCES:
www.bezero.org/ www.zerowasteeurope.eu www.wrap.org.uk www.beunpackaged.com/
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ANTI-PACKAGING STORE