“Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, [...] where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate 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 are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.” (Zero Waste International Alliance definition)
Circular recycling solutions provide a path to keeping waste out of our natural ecosystems.
In addition to avoid pollution, the circular economy induces “waste recovery”; which means properly treating waste produced for it to be converted for a specific purpose (to obtain new raw materials or to generate energy, for example).
Zero Waste relies on a set of prioritized solutions to efficiently address and tackle waste.
The primary emphasis is placed "upstream" to prevent or diminish waste production. The initial strategy involves exploring alternative resources and methods through eco-redesign and rethinking processes. This is crucial to limiting resource usage (reduce) and enhancing efficiency (reuse) as secondary and tertiary strategies before considered "downstream” solutions. Recognizing inevitable resource use (as it can be inherent to the service provided, the nature of the business or needed for security or sanitary reason for example), recycling is then the solution to turn waste into new resources as part of the circular economy.
Facility waste results from a lack of efficiency of the resource management. According to the TRUE Certification program, taking a Zero Waste approach means:
The TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) certification is a program developed by Green Business Certification Inc. (GBCI) in partnership with the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council (USZWBC).
It's designed to assess and validate an organisation's commitment to sustainability and waste reduction.
The TRUE certification program is used by facilities to define, pursue and achieve a Zero Waste goal, cutting their carbon footprint and supporting public health. The certification goes beyond diversion numbers and focuses on the upstream policies and practices that make Zero Waste successful in any organization and beyond.
THe TRUE purpose is to “Rethink the resource life cycle”. It is a whole systems approach that aims to change how materials flow through society, resulting in Zero Waste. With TRUE, your facility can demonstrate to the world what you’re doing to minimize your waste output.
The certification is available for any physical facility and their operations, including building owned by: commercial, property managers, educational, government & military, industrial and NGOs.
Projects certified TRUE over 2018-2020 had an average diversion rate of 97% and a combined estimated 1.4 million tons of waste diverted. You can visit the TRUE website to see examples of certified projects.
As there is no facility certified in Singapore yet - according to the TRUE website - we at ECO IMPACT believe that there is an opportunity for willing companies to make a difference and act as pioneers.