MUNICIPAL DISCARD/ZERO WASTE WORK GROUP

The Municipal Discards/Zero Waste Workgroup works to stop incineration of municipal discards and to promote policies and practices which reflect a "Zero Waste" approach.

Instead of the conventional term "municipal solid waste," this workgroup chose to use the term 'municipal discards" to promote a new paradigm of viewing materials in the municipal waste stream as discards with resource value, including many materials which could be recovered and reused, rather than a seeing them as burden which can only be burned or buried.

In the words of GAIA member, the Grassroots Recycling Network (www.grrn.org), Zero Waste is both "a philosophy and a design principle for the 21st Century. It includes 'recycling' but goes beyond recycling by taking a 'whole system' approach to the vast flow of resources and waste through human society. Zero Waste maximizes recycling, minimizes waste, reduces consumption and ensures that products are made to be reused, repaired or recycled back into nature or the marketplace.

GAIA Municipal Discard/Zero Waste Workgroup members are engaged in a variety of activities to achieve these goals. For example, many are actively campaigning against proposed or existing municipal waste incinerators or investigating the corporations promoting incinerators around the world. Others are conducting waste surveys in their communities, implementing composting, recycling and other programs to divert materials from landfills and incinerators, or advocating for official Zero Waste policies at the government level.

For more information on this workgroup, please email Ann Leonard at aleonard@mail.essential.org.