Zero Waste Europe Alliance has been established to implement alternatives to incineration and landfill by providing alternative systems and infrastructure to stimulate the new Green Deal – the creation of jobs and de-carbonisation of the economy through social and environmental justice in society.

This newly formed group has evolved from the ZWIA and will direct efforts and resources focused at the EU level. Zero Waste Europe will:
•    Encourage a step change from economic growth to sustainable development. Society, business’ and Government have 100 months in which to act to avoid catastrophic climate change. The economic crisis has reduced carbon emissions by 10% due to reduced production – this downturn is an opportunity to instrument a step change, so when the economy picks up it is leaner and greener.
•    Raise awareness of the impact of the waste industry on climate change. To date Governments have expressed the impact of waste as 2% of Green House Gases GHG (this is based on methane emissions from landfill), a recent study (http://www.stoptrashingtheclimate.org/ ) has demonstrated that this is not the case and the waste industry is responsible for 37% of GHG.
•    Assist the EU Commission in developing an effective vision for decoupling economic growth from resource use. To date Waste Directives have been ineffective in achieving this, mainly due to corporate interests preventing the implementation of sensible policy and strategic interventions.
•    Educate decision makers that:
•    The promotion of incineration and other mixed waste to energy technologies is starving Europe of resources for Green products and polluting the environment. Making products from recycled materials substitutes mining and extraction of finite virgin materials.
•    Comingled collection systems for municipal waste results in low quality materials for which there is no longer a market – we cannot continue to use India and China as a dumping ground for such materials.
•    High levels of incineration and landfill has focused efforts at the bottom of the waste hierarchy. A vision for redesign, reuse, remanufacturing, upcycling recycling, composting and renewable energy from organic materials is the future.
•    Zero Waste is a proven solution, from individual businesses to communities, it is happening around the world now (http://www.zwia.org/zwc.html)
•    Zero Waste stimulates job creation and sustainable development, creating jobs and opportunities for new resource efficient businesses. The approach welcomes appropriate clean green technologies.