Dive Brief:
- U.S. Zero Waste Business Council, an organization created to educate and assist companies to efficiently reduce waste, is helping companies manage their corporate sustainability plans.
- Zero Waste companies divert 90% of waste products from entering the landfill. Instead, the materials are recycled in some way. Companies involved in waste reduction efforts generally find that the process generates new revenue streams while reducing costs.
- Companies that are located within close proximity to recycling facilities with access to composting and bio-digestion tend to fare better that businesses that do not have easy access to these services.
Dive Insight:
Safeway, a supermarket chain, was a founding member of the U.S. Zero Waste Business Council. The corporation currently hit zero waste at nine of its 13 distribution centers in the US and nine of its 20 manufacturing and processing plants.
Corporation aren’t the only ones getting in on the zero waste action. Cities are exploring the concept too. Take Minneapolis, MN for example: the city is making moves to meet its goals, and one way it’s proposing to do that is to adopt the zero waste concept. If implemented, it would become part of a multi-faceted approach to reduce waste in the city. Current efforts include single-stream collections and a plan to ban food waste and takeout containers.