What Zero Waste is not?

For the 21st century, zero waste has become the motto of a philosophy. We can divide this slogan into two groups as an economic or visionary target. Because now the term has quite different meanings.

 

From North Carolina to Canberra, from Buenos Aires to Argentina, from Alappuzha to India, many cities and regions develop and implement various zero waste strategies. Toyota, Nike, Xerox, and many other large companies are also pursuing zero waste. However, zero waste means many different things in different parts of the world and various institutions and organizations. Some have irony under the name of sustainability. For example, consider Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and a symbol of globalization and cheap manufacturing for most people. The company has significantly reduced its solid waste. They use corn-based packaging material instead of plastic, composting unsold foods. What's more, they use old cooking oils in their green department stores in Colorado as fuel for heating the building.

 

Deflection Rate Is Not Zero Waste

While the company uses the deviation rates in its advertisements as a sign of success, it says it targets to achieve zero waste in all its global operations. The deviation rate increases the waste that any institution sends to the landfill and sends it to recycling. So high waste deviation rates are a sign of success. However, deviation rates are not identical to recycling, and recycling agendas do not constitute a real concept of zero waste. Because sending the same amounts of waste to different locations does not mean reducing waste. It even means how long and repeatedly the material can be used rather than whether the material selected from the beginning can be recycled. In the idea of ​​zero waste, the waste sent to recycling is seen as a design defect.

 

A Successful Example of Zero Waste

A Florida-based, eco-friendly brewery has found the solution to the least harm to nature on its behalf by generating zero waste and providing food for our oceans and its inhabitants: biodegradable six-beer rings. While these rings usually give animals enormous troubles, this time, they serve as nutrients for wildlife in the waters. The beer rings produced by the company are no longer waste and become a source of food for another creature. This is a real example of zero waste.