5 ingredients for your community’s zero-waste future

The turn of the calendar year gives us all a chance for reflection. If your community is considering how to reach “zero waste” now or in the future, below are five questions to consider when upgrading your sustainable materials management program.

1. Do you have a rallying point for the community around goals that people can relate to, and are you seeking ways to bring underrepresented voices to the table?

An inclusive process for zero-waste goal setting and reporting is the only viable path forward. As your community progresses each year, share results through engaging ads, waste app notifications, emails and by using local celebrity champions where possible. Also, try to create diverse outreach approaches to events.

One jurisdiction leading the way in this regard is Orange County, North Carolina, which is developing its own strategy to achieve zero waste by 2045. The county’s definition of zero waste is: “The reduction of solid waste to nothing, or as close to nothing as possible, by minimizing excess consumption using responsible production, consumption and reuse and [by] maximizing the recovery of solid wastes through recycling and composting.”

2. Does your community design programs and innovative partnerships to prevent waste in the first place?

The highest-leverage, long-term zero-waste activities compel stakeholders to start with the end in mind, the idea that if a product cannot be reused, composted or recycled, it should not be produced in the first place.

Specific initiatives for reducing and reusing materials include product stewardship legislative efforts, edible food capture and distribution, bulky material diversion for reuse/donation and promotion of refill/reuse packaging models at stores.

Source reduction saves natural resources, reduces toxicity in the waste stream by substituting less-hazardous materials, reduces the cost to consumers and is the priority in national and local solid waste management hierarchies.

3. Do you value recycling champions in your community who seek to expand drop-off options?

A well-run network of drop-off sites is a highly prized asset in communities and receives top ranking on public surveys. When multiple categories are offered for self-haul recyclers, residents will coordinate trips to make this effort efficient, and you will garner high-value, clean material for the market.

Santa Cruz, California, has a robust drop-off list. In addition to paper and containers (including rigid plastics), residents can drop off 12 more categories for free, including fluorescent light bulbs and tubes, household batteries and scrap metal.

4. Are you planning for or expanding backyard composting, as well as curbside organics collection?

Diverting organic waste from landfills and using it to create compost and/or to capture gas has various positive environmental benefits. Organic waste can be turned into a beneficial soil amendment at the household level through backyard composting, at smaller decentralized locations such as community gardens or through small-scale biogas processors or as part of large regional solid waste infrastructure.

For example, the Universal Recycling Ordinance (URO), in Austin, Texas, is intended to increase the life of local landfills, reduce harmful environmental impacts and boost economic development. The URO was expanded to include organics. This amendment was made possible, in part, by the success of a curbside organics collection program that serves 152,000 homes.

5. After maximizing diversion efforts, are you prepared to effectively process what’s left?

Unfortunately, millions of tons of easily recyclable or compostable materials are being buried or incinerated every day, and there is a high cost to advance end-of-life material processing to move away from landfilling.

However, the recently updated Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides the pathway to make huge strides in processing across the country. Direct pay to municipalities, as allowed now by the IRA, means that jurisdictions’ biogas projects can get a tax credit of 30 percent or more from the Internal Revenue Service.

It’s still early in 2023, and we can reexamine, reimagine and reinvent systems that are no longer working for us. On your community’s road to zero waste, do not be afraid to abandon any actions that promote resilience to systems that are no longer beneficial in the long term.