Zero Waste: How to Achieve Zero Waste in Your Company

The zero waste concept has become a key strategy for companies seeking sustainability and competitiveness. It involves redesigning processes to minimize waste generation and ensure that materials are reused or recycled instead of ending up in landfills.

Although reaching 100% zero waste is difficult, achieving over 95% is already considered an international success, and more and more Spanish companies are making it happen.

In this article, we’ll explain how zero waste can help you achieve the sustainability and competitiveness your company needs to stand out from its competitors.

What are the benefits of applying Zero Waste?

Adopting a zero waste model brings multiple advantages:

• Economic savings: it directly reduces waste management and transport costs, with average savings of around 20%.
• Regulatory compliance: it simplifies compliance with increasingly strict laws, such as Law 7/2022.
• Reputation: companies that implement this strategy strengthen their environmental commitment image, resulting in greater customer loyalty, talent attraction, and access to certifications such as ISO 14001.
• Investor confidence: these practices are highly valued in ESG criteria, making it easier to access green financing.

Key actions to achieve Zero Waste

The road to zero waste begins with a waste audit, which identifies in detail what is generated, where, and in what quantity. From there, companies design reduction plans with clear, measurable objectives, for example, cutting packaging use by 30% within two years.

Other decisive actions include:

• Replacing single-use materials, swapping plastics for compostable or reusable alternatives.
• Implementing reverse logistics, recovering packaging and pallets for reintegration into the cycle.
• For companies producing organic waste, investing in energy recovery, transforming waste into biogas or biomass for self-consumption—an innovation that generates both savings and clean energy.
• Employee training, to encourage responsible consumption and proper waste separation.
• Collaboration with suppliers, requiring packaging reduction commitments and material return plans.
• Digitalization of processes, such as adopting e-invoicing or digital document management, which drastically cuts paper use.

Finally, measuring progress through carbon footprint indicators and ESG reporting is the only way to verify the real effectiveness of the plan.

Zero Waste and the circular economy

The zero waste model is closely linked to the circular economy, as it doesn’t just focus on reducing waste but also reintegrating it into the economic cycle as raw materials or energy resources.

Concepts such as upcycling, clean production, and industrial symbiosis, where companies share and take advantage of each other’s waste, are part of this philosophy.

If you want to learn more about taking sustainability beyond waste reduction, check out our article: Waste management: 10 profitable strategies that boost corporate sustainability.

Zero Waste: a strategic necessity beyond regulatory compliance

The zero waste approach is not a passing trend but a strategic necessity. Companies that adopt it achieve operational efficiency, legal compliance, a stronger reputation, and access to sustainable markets.

In a context where sustainability is becoming a competitive advantage, committing to zero waste is the decision that will define the difference between those who merely adapt and those who lead the future.

FAQs about Zero Waste

Is it possible to reach 100% zero waste?‍

In practice, reaching 100% is complex, but surpassing 95% is already considered an international success.

How long does it take a company to implement this model?‍

It depends on the sector, but on average between 3 and 5 years.

What certifications are available?‍

Notable ones include Zero Waste Certified and ISO 14001 with advanced waste minimization objectives.