27th Ambassadorship, Month 1, Report 2

Thematic Report: September

Theme: Zero Waste

Population growth, a thriving economy, fast urbanization, and rising community living standards have all contributed to a significant increase in solid waste output around the world, particularly in developing countries. Waste is a representation of misallocated resources and a symbol of inefficiency in every modern civilization. Any garbage generated depletes natural resources, consumes energy and water, puts pressure on land, pollutes the environment, and, lastly, adds to the expense of waste management. “Zero Waste” is a good solution to minimizing the increasing solid waste.

Due to future environmental challenges, establishing a condition of Zero-waste may become an absolute need in a world with finite resources. At this time, cities, businesses, individuals, and the trash recycling industry have all proposed and executed several good zero waste initiatives. There is no clear path to a solution for today's garbage concerns. On the one hand, resource consumption has increased through time, and as a result, waste output has increased as well. Cities, businesses, and other organizations, on the other hand, aspire to achieve the zero waste objective despite rising per capita trash generation. Zero waste is one of the most forward-thinking waste-reduction approaches. When zero waste is related to specific cities or firms, we frequently want to know if a city or company has achieved zero waste, therefore determining how to evaluate the process becomes important.

In the second half of the 1990s, community groups in Australasia pioneered it, and it has spread rapidly in a decade. Initially, Zero Waste was both an aspiration and a methodology. It aimed to eliminate all waste by restoring the material and biological cycles as a goal. Zero Waste has had to use post-modern methods to restore pre-modern biological and material cycles. It necessitates the use of the most advanced approaches for dealing with complexity. Bar codes, onboard weighing, data-based feedback systems, and complex incentives are all used in the greatest modern recycling systems. 

References

ADDIN Mendeley Bibliography CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Song, Q., Li, J., & Zeng, X. (2015). Minimizing the increasing solid waste through zero waste strategy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 104, 199–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.08.027