We work in Brussels, influencing European legislation from product design to waste disposal. We do so by bringing our experience on the ground to the European policy-making, and by bringing the vision developed at the EU level to the local level.
We need to promote systems that are not relying on recycling or managing legacy toxics as they have moved away from single-use applications.
Policy change is key to support the transition to reusable packaging systems while ensuring packaging waste prevention and supporting a circular and local economy.
ZWE is working with partners to secure ambitious laws that ensure products and packaging are long-lasting, reusable and toxic-free.
There is work to be done to make eco-friendly, non-toxic and plastic-free nappies readily available for all babies.
ZWE works at the EU and national level, together with its members and the BFFP movement, to make eco-friendly, toxic-free and plastic-free products readily available for menstruators.
ZWE's work on textiles covers the following areas: waste prevention and sufficiency in the textile sector; zero waste fashion business models; optimising collection, sorting, reuse and recycling of textile waste.
For many years, mixed waste has been shipped from countries in the Global North to the Global South for treatment. It is now clear that these activities have severe consequences for people and the planet.
ZWE strongly advocates for a revision of the 10% landfill target, replacing it with 120 kilograms of residual waste per year per capita by 2030.
ZWE proposes a new approach to the treatment of residual waste - Material Recovery and Biological Treatment (MRBT), a system that combines biological treatment with sorting equipment.
In the European Union, around 20% of the food produced is wasted. ZWE works to push the EU to adopt ambitious and binding measures regarding food waste, such as prevention targets.
Energy recovery from waste through incineration (also known as Waste-To-Energy) undermines the efforts of the European Union to transition towards a circular and net-zero emissions economy.
ZWE is engaging with many stakeholders to better understand the impacts of this new industrial “fix”, and warning against unnecessary distraction from a circular economy and zero waste approach to waste management.
Europe has decades-long experience in collection and recycling, being the global region with the highest amount of research on product design and waste management. Tapping into it is key to designing proper circular systems - and ZWE is committed to do just that.