Becoming a zero waste city is a long process that requires “continuous work, time, money, and effort,” according to the European network Zero Waste Europe (ZWE). It also requires data: to know if the actions being carried out are truly sustainable and, thus, be able to make informed decisions; and to calculate the reduction in emissions associated with waste prevention and how this translates into economic income that would allow financing new prevention policies. However, performing these calculations is a challenge. And it is to respond to this that in 2021, ZWE teamed up with inèdit to develop a carbon dioxide emissions calculation tool capable of calculating both the savings in emissions from better separating and recycling waste, and from prevention and reuse activities. The tool has been tested in several European cities, including Barcelona, and was presented on April 18 in Girona, within the Waste in Progress congress.

The tool follows the guidelines of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) allowing to compare the emissions generated by waste management of any European municipality with the emissions it would save if it implemented a zero waste strategy. As a singularity, it focuses on waste prevention, reuse, preparation for reuse, recycling, and disposal, and therefore goes beyond simple waste management calculation. It is the first tool to offer a holistic life cycle approach to calculate the benefits of current and future zero waste strategies and scenarios. You can consult and use it on the website of the Mission Zero Academy (MiZa), a spin-off of ZWE.

For Joan Marc Simon, founding director of ZWE, this carbon calculator takes into account “a crucial aspect that has been ignored until now: waste prevention seen from the perspective of carbon emissions.” For him, “if we want to take the climate crisis seriously, we must prioritize prevention and reuse” and, therefore, “it is urgent to link climate policies with zero waste strategies to establish the foundations for a more sustainable future.”