ILSR Supports ZWIA’s Definition of Zero Waste and ZWIA’s Stated Principles and Hierarchy

Date: 23 Feb 2021 | posted in: waste - zero waste, Waste to Wealth | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

As one of the founding members of the Zero Waste International Alliance, ILSR strongly supports ZWIA’s definition of Zero Waste.

As ZWIA states, “One of the primary goals of organizing the Zero Waste International Alliance in 2002 was to establish standards to guide the development of Zero Waste in the world. The Planning Group of the Zero Waste International Alliance adopted the first peer-reviewed internationally accepted definition of Zero Waste on November 29, 2004. An updated definition of Zero Waste was adopted by the ZWIA board December 2018. This restructuring of definition aligns the definition to the guiding principles of the Zero Waste Hierarchy to create a globally accessible statement of meaning.”

The updated definition of Zero Waste is:

“Zero Waste: The conservation of all resources by means of responsible production, consumption, reuse, and recovery of products, packaging, and materials without burning and with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health.”

In addition to supporting the definition of Zero Waste, ILSR also embraces ZWIA’s Zero Waste Business Principles, Zero Waste Community Principles, and Zero Waste Hierarchy as stated in the following links:

1.   Zero Waste Definition (est. 2004), updated 2018
2.   Zero Waste Business Principles (est. 2005)
3.   Zero Waste Community Principles (est. 2009)
4.   Zero Waste Hierarchy (est. 2014) updated 2018

ILSR commits to applying these values in our projects, policies and technical assistance programs.

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Neil Seldman

Neil Seldman, Ph.D, directs the Waste to Wealth Initiative. He specializes in helping cities and businesses recover increasing amounts of materials from the waste stream and add value to the local economy through new processing and manufacturing facilities. He is a co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.