Zero waste is a goal and a set of practices aimed at designing and managing products and processes so that no waste is sent to landfill, incineration or the environment. All materials are either avoided or kept in use.
It follows the waste hierarchy: reduce first, then reuse, then recycle and compost. For a city, zero waste means universal segregation at source and high recovery rates. For a company, it usually means a zero-waste-to-landfill target for its sites, with every waste stream assigned to a recycler or reprocessor. Absolute zero is rarely reached, so programmes are judged by their diversion rate, the share of waste kept out of disposal. Zero waste is the operational side of the circular economy.
