1) Waste Prevention + Education

2) Design infrastructure and products for closed loop / up cycling / second life + Education

3) Resource uptake (waste reduction) + Education

4) Reality checks

cheers

Rory

1) Adopting/defining a common concept of "zero waste";

2) Planning effective educational activities;

3) Acting at industrial level in order to apply the concept of "industrial metabolism";

4) Sharing experiences all over the world in order to learn one from another from our mistakes;

5) Continuous improvement.

Dear Doherty and Feo,

Thank you for your comments.

I have also similar opinion on defining a common ground of 'zero waste' which is not present at the moment.... and the concept of industrial metabolism is interesting...

Key concepts include:

(1)Waste from one system is valuable input for the next'.

(2) also think 'win-win'

Thank you Nathan.Yes, recyclable waste is used as valuable input for the next secondary production process.

Do you have any 'win-win' example?

Yes, integrated aquaculture systems. A fish and plant system is a good example. Waste from fish is toxic to fish, but supplies nutrients to plants and toxic ammonia is removed. During this process the fish' s water is cleaned for reuse. Fish win, plants win...until harvest that is, then humans win.

Dear Atiq,

It is reaaly important to starto from the same common ground of "zero waste". When I commence to speak of "zero waste" in conferences in the laste decade, a loto of colleagues were laughing... but now they are changing opinions, especially due to the growing interest in Life Cycle Assessment.

Dear Feo,

You are right and I can imagine the situation in the last decade. The zero waste research is widespread now...

Thank you Nathan for the example...

I recently attended a waste management & recycling summit in Saudi Arabia organized by NISPANA -" Moving kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards zero waste and a sustainable future"

Many local and international companies and municipal authorities, officials from ministry of health participated and shared their experience and knowledge in the summit.

As I am working in a hospital as waste management officer, the summit was very much useful, gained a lot of knowledge and updates.

Hi to everyone.

Plan a good strategy by adopting new production path: in my opinion the most sustainable way, taking into account that in natural ecosystems the waste concept doesn't exist, is to think and to look at the Industrial Ecology and the Industrial Symbiosis. In this way and using also LCA as a tool to measure and control performance we take nature as a model in the energy and mass use and flow.

In my latest research we applied these tools and we created new connections among farms belonging to the same geographic area in order to blend part of their rural productions into a single fruit juice (already on the market). Connections among organisms and among them and the environment is what ensure resilience in the natural ecosystems. Well, the same structure and organization could be applied and adpted to the human needs with a high level of efficiency in the energy and mass use (targeting zero waste philosophy)

Luca

Thank you Luca for your comments. Yes, you are right, we need an alternative production systems... most of the challenges in achieving zero waste goals are often associated with the existing systems and policies! we need system changes by incorporating/integrating Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy.... 

Dear Atiq,

I think Integrated solid waste Management is the best option.

Best Regards