Getting Started on Waste and Circularity

In this blog, we share insights from our forthcoming series of Getting Started Guides that address issues related to waste and circularity. These three new guides form part of a larger series of issue-based Getting Started Guides that aim to support the development of an embedded strategy that we will release over the coming months.

About our Getting Started Guides

Anchored in research, each guide tackles a specific sustainability sub-issue to help you (and others in your business) build a foundational understanding and understand the work ahead. We explain each sub-issue along with relevant trends, system thresholds, key concepts, actors, and pair that with resources to help you along the journey. We also outline common corporate goals and internal interim targets to show how companies are working on addressing the impacts of their operational and value chain activities.

Getting Started on Waste and Circularity

Our first set of Getting Started Guides address the focus area of waste and circularity. This set will include three guides, covering the sub-issues of:

1. Zero waste
2. Product and materials stewardship
3. Packaging waste

Understanding Our Collective Problem with Waste

Our economy has a waste problem. Each year, we consume more resources and, in the process, erode the environment that we all rely on. Continuing with our current ‘linear’ economy would require unlimited resources, unlimited ability to generate waste, and the unlimited capacity of natural systems to deal with that waste.

Over the last fifty years, global resource use has tripled, and by 2060 it is projected to rise by 60% from 2020 levels. We have reached the point where human-made materials – such as concrete, glass, and plastic – exceed all global living biomass.

However, much of what we create will become waste. Nearly a third of all food produced each year is lost or wasted before it can be consumed and we currently produce more than 430 million metric tons of plastic each year, with over two-thirds attributed to short-lived single-use products. Without significant changes, waste generation will have nearly doubled by 2050. How we manage (or mismanage) this waste, from collection and transportation, to storage, landfilling, or dumping, risks contaminating soil, rivers, and oceans and can have lasting implications for the resilience of communities and the environment.

At the same time, the share of secondary materials in the global economy has declined, falling from nearly 9% to 7% over the last 5 years. All of this paints a bleak picture - we are consuming more than ever before, generating more waste than ever before, and failing to recover materials for re-use.

To reduce resource use and minimise waste, we need to fundamentally transform our current processes of production and consumption. Companies will need to understand and reduce their operational waste by diverting waste from landfills, rethinking processes to avoid waste at the source where possible, designing products to minimise impacts throughout their entire lifecycle, and rethinking their approaches to packaging to reduce material use where possible.

Our forthcoming Getting Started Guides on Waste and Circularity aim to clarify the context and the work needed to take action on these issues. To give you a sense of what they cover, we share some insights from the three guides below.

Getting Started on Zero Waste

The Getting Started Guide: Zero Waste includes guidance on reducing operational waste by diverting waste from landfills, rethinking processes to avoid waste at the source where possible, and repurposing by-products. It provides insights on current trends of waste generation, system thresholds that explain how companies cannot continue to rely on Earth’s or society’s capacity to assimilate the waste that they produce, the need to achieve zero waste, and more.

Common long-term goals include achieving zero waste to landfill, usually by 2030, and are often paired with mid-term goals such as achieving a particular waste diversion rate in direct operations, or reducing process residuals and waste by a percentage determined by organisational capacity and context.

Key steps to take action on zero waste begin with establishing a waste baseline through waste and process audits in year one. This is followed by leveraging your understanding of your waste profile and sources to identify key areas of improvement in year two. In year three, set interim targets and develop action plans, targeting your efforts at activities and sites that generate the most waste, and options for improvement that are easiest to implement to jumpstart the process. Once you have established an action plan to reduce operational waste, year four can include working with suppliers to understand the key drivers of waste in your value chain and co-develop solutions.

Getting Started on Product and Materials Stewardship

The Getting Started Guide: Product and Materials Stewardship covers key topics such as resource use, managing the impacts of products throughout their entire lifecycle, and pursuing circularity. It offers guidance on understanding how the current take-make-waste model of production impacts resource scarcity, the role of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), and more.

Common long-term goals include taking responsibility for the impacts of materials and products throughout their entire lifecycle, with mid-term goals focusing on designing products for longevity and eventual circulation, increasing the use of recycled and renewable materials by a selected percentage, and offering solutions for repair, refurbishment, and/or reselling to extend the life of products.

Key steps to take action on product and materials stewardship begin with understanding EPR, engaging in life cycle thinking to understand the impacts of products, and identifying what circularity best practice looks like in year one to inform further work. Year two involves defining product attributes and embedding life cycle thinking into your product innovation cycle to foster better stewardship. This is followed by developing a strategy on product and materials stewardship in year three and collaborating with value chain partners for systemic change in year four.

Getting Started on Packaging Waste

The Getting Started Guide: Packaging Waste offers insights on rethinking approaches to packaging to reduce material use where possible, selecting more durable materials to substitute, redesigning packaging to keep materials in use and reuse for as long as possible, optimising packaging sizes through practices such as lightweighting, and more.

Common long-term goals include achieving zero packaging waste to landfill and/or 100% sustainable packaging, with mid-term goals aiming to reduce materials used within packaging, redesigning currently non-reusable packaging to be 100% recyclable, reusable, or compostable, and taking responsibility for the collection of packaging to avoid landfill and incineration.

Key steps to take action on packaging waste begin with establishing a packaging baseline and analysing exiting product lines to identify opportunities to eliminate, lightweight, or reduce packaging waste in year one. Year two includes setting quantitative goals for sustainable packaging design and developing a responsible packaging strategy to clarify the work required. Year three and onwards covers extending your learnings to your value chain and supporting system-wide changes in line with your identified priorities regarding packaging waste.

This was just a brief summary of the more detailed guidance provided by the Getting Started Guides on waste and circularity. For more information on relevant trends, system thresholds, key concepts, and detailed process-based interim targets that can guide the work needed to get started on these issues, watch our website or join our mailing list for our forthcoming full series of Getting Started Guides.