Understanding Zero Landfill and Making it Work for My Sacred Fig

Zero waste is a philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused. Any trash sent to landfills  is minimal. The process recommended is one similar to the way that resources are reused in nature. A working definition of zero waste, often cited by experts in the field originated from a working group of the Zero Waste International Alliance in 2004. The definition is as follows: “Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, 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.”

Here is a recent example of how we solved a landfill issue. For a special project, we needed high quality soy candles. Some of the candles arrives with cracked or totally broken containers. The supplier shipped new, but they did not want their damaged ones returned. Since we can’t throw out anything, we had to be creative...