The Importance Of Zero Waste Management

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One of the biggest global environmental issues society is dealing with today is solid waste. The continuous exploitation of natural resources and the unconscious behaviour of the consumer has led to an uncertain future for the wellness of the planet. The increasing global population, developing economies and the improving living standards has caused the global waste to grow immensely. In 2011 the global solid waste has been estimated to be 11 billion tons. (Guerrero, et al., 2013) Packaging is an important component of the total global waste and consists of all the abandoned materials that have been used for containment, handling, protection, presentation, marketing and delivery. (Marsh & Bugusu, 2007) This amount was estimated to reach 420…show more content…
This concept contains various ideas concerning how waste should be managed and how this, in return, can aid the preservation of our environments. Zero waste management includes activities such as recycling and reusing waste which is produced throughout the production process from the moment a product is produced by a farmer until it reaches its targeted customer. (Song, et al., 2015) As this study is focusing on exploring the current interest of consumers choosing for products which do not produce waste, activities of companies concerning the zero waste movement have been left out of the scope even though they might be mentioned in order to understand the bigger picture. The focus lays with the zero waste management that is performed by the customer itself rather than the position of companies concerning waste…show more content…
According to Bartl (2014) , the zero waste concept is very trivial as it indicates there is absolutely no waste creation at all. He considers this an empty statement. He makes the comparison between recycling and waste prevention. Recycling is often considered to be a way of waste prevention. However, it only tackles the symptoms and not the causes of the waste. The recycling process actually requires more energy and creates waste by doing that. Waste prevention differentiates itself from recycling as it tackles the causes rather than the symptoms. Waste prevention reduces the use of energy, waste and thus money. (Bartl, 2014) However, he mentions the recycling process as a source of income of modern societies. Waste prevention is therefore still a hard concept to

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