Environmental experts have challenged manufacturing and other corporations to engage in zero waste to landfills in an attempt to embrace environmental preservation. Zero waste to landfills is directed towards organization recycling their waste other than dumping it into landfills. This call has been headed by many organizations although the term zero waste can be ambiguous to a layperson. Some questions seek to be answered before an organization can embark on the zero waste to landfills activity. These include; is 0% waste hypothetically possible? What happens when something isn’t recyclable? Do the alternatives to landfills beneficial to the environment?
The first step for an organization in zero waste to landfills activities is defining the term. A commonly accepted definition of the term is diverting 98% of waste into other uses through recycling or reusing, considering that it is logically impossible to have zero waste in a production process. Carpenter, an advisor on waste reduction, advice that after defining the term, the waste measurements should be taken. How much of the waste goes to landfills, how much is recyclable and how much is hazardous. Susan Graff, the vice president of consultancy Resource Recycling Systems, encourages organizations to go on a dumpster diving, to get a perfect characteristic of the waste materials, the quantities and the volumes. Carpenter also observed that institutions could eliminate waste by procuring less.
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In dumpster diving, a company can find some of its waste products that can be reused in the production process just like General Motors use metal scraps from its door stamping process as a resource for making other parts. Some waste products are not recyclable or reusable, and thus the institutions may consider changing the design alternatives. For example, Marotta states that MillerCoors replaced its wooden Pallets for plastic ones which last longer are reusable, reducing its costs and the waste flow from broken wooden pallets. The act of dumpster diving also helps the company to define simpler ways of making the recycling possible. Kelly, an employee of MillerCoors, developed a system of separating recyclable material from unrecyclable waste through color coding of the waste bins.
Finally, for an organization to achieve its zero waste goals, employees are a crucial part of the process. In his attempt to achieve the organizational goals, Kelly embarked on employee education on the importance of recycling and was highly embraced by the employees. MillerCoors, therefore, attributes its achievement of the zero waste goals to support from the employees, indicating their crucial role in this process.
Achieving a zero waste target is tough as observed by Carpenter and Graff. Most manufacturers get to 80% diversion of waste from landfills. Graff states that due to the inconsistency in waste management across the world, the 80/20 principle has been put in place. The last 20% highly relies on the geographical location of the manufacturing company, and it might not always be successful. However, despite the challenges faced in the process, Carpenter observes that companies that have embraced a zero waste strategy have seen a spark in innovation and engagement by the employees. These help the companies achieve their goals of reducing the zero waste.
