A Four Step Guide to Zero Waste

Guidelines for Waste Management Efforts

Mirroring an understanding of natural systems – in which waste does not exist - Zero Waste is a philosophy and design principle that addresses resource use by improving on how products and packaging are designed, manufactured, deployed, and “disposed” of at the end of their useful life.

Whereas traditional production systems are one-way or linear—going from the extraction of resources and the manufacturing of goods to their use and then ultimate disposal—Zero Waste systems work to redesign processes to be cyclical, “closing the loop” on materials management. From this paradigm, there is no such thing as ‘waste’; discards are either designed out completely or fed back into the production cycle as raw material with the potential to generate jobs and create financial opportunities via new products.