Is ‘zero waste’ really possible?
The concept of ‘zero waste’ has come to the fore in recent months, with administrations in both Wales and Scotland expressly pursuing ‘zero waste’ and new strategies for both London and England beginning to countenance this objective.
But what does it mean? In principle, it is possible to imagine a ‘closed loop’ system in which the residue at each and every stage of economic activity is captured for use in some other part of the system. Carcasses from the production of meat for human consumption can be used in the production of animal feed; swarf from the production of aluminium cans can be collected, smelted and re-used; residual cooking oils can be re-processed to create fuel, and so on.
Products at the end of their (useful) lives can be reclaimed - as for cars and waste electrical equipment at present - disassembled, and the various component parts repaired or reprocessed for subsequent re-use.
But there are physical limits to this process - there must come a point, as is the case with paper fibres, when the residual material is simply incapable of being re-used - and, as we saw when discussing waste prevention, there are very substantial barriers to the evolution of this kind of closed-loop system.
If ‘zero waste’ is being used as shorthand for ‘zero waste to landfill’, this is of course a very different proposition; and if, further, it is being used as a means of accelerating the efforts devoted to waste prevention, then this, too, is a laudable but different objective.
It will be interesting to see how the debate progresses over the coming few months: is ‘zero waste’ a serious objective or just a publicity stunt?