Can all of the waste generated during the production and consumption of these products be dealt with sustainably?
Many large corporations and brands have made significant steps toward sustainability by embracing the zero waste movement over the last decade.
Zero manufacturing waste to landfills, mainly where more than 90% of waste is diverted from landfills and incinerators, has proven to be a big success for many household-name companies.
Furthermore, some zero-waste companies go above and beyond to ensure that consumers and small businesses are not left with the weight of all that rubbish after leaving their facility.
If you’re unfamiliar with these firms, their zero-waste products, and services, or their efforts to minimize the amount of garbage we all make daily, take a look at some of the top zero-waste businesses.
Whether it’s confronting the massive task of diverting manufacturing waste from landfills or providing consumers with the tools and chances to eliminate trash at home.
Small businesses and large enterprises are starting to make the shift and work toward a zero-waste future.
Let us take a glance at the top 10 brands that are leading towards a more sustainable future:
Table of Contents
1. Elephant Box
Do you ever want to pack lunch but not want to put it in plastic containers every day? Well, the Elephant box is the perfect and sustainable lunch box for you to fill your bento craze.
You can get rid of sandwich bags, snack wrappers, and other plastic waste by moving to one of these stainless-steel containers.
You can fit any meal inside one of these boxes because they come in various sizes and shapes. It’s ideal for making supper and bringing it to work or school.
These boxes are leakproof and the perfect size and shape to reuse every day for your school, work, or picnics.
2. Toyota
Toyota is another automotive manufacturer who realized that they might become a better corporation by reducing waste, reusing, and recycling.
They’re also a founding member of the Zero Waste Building Council in the United States. In North America alone, Toyota has 27 zero-waste facilities that meet all of the Building Council’s requirements.
The EPA has named Toyota Motor North America 2015 Very Large Business WasteWise Partner of the Year.
A landfill with 96 percent trash translates to nearly 900 million pounds of waste that would have been thrown away. That’s a significant amount of waste avoided.
3. Microsoft
Microsoft is another enormous corporation, and with over 44,000 people in its Washington headquarters alone, it’s no surprise that they’ve opted to address their waste.
After all, they do make a lot of it. They recently launched strategies to lower their carbon impact by avoiding landfills with 90% of their garbage.
They have a power management system that has lowered their overall power use by 27%. They also established a work-from-home program to assist employees in reducing their carbon footprint.
Facts about Microsoft’s Zero Waste Initiative:
- Microsoft was the first technology-based company in the world to obtain a facility awarded a Zero Waste accreditation by the US Green Building Council.
- After their IT staff established a specific power management system that efficiently handles 160,000 of their PCs, Microsoft saw a 27 percent reduction in power use.
- Microsoft implemented a policy that permits workers to work from home and provides transportation incentives to make greener choices and lower their carbon footprints.
4. Sierra Nevada
Beer may appear to be a simple zero waste product to produce, but companies like the Sierra Nevada demonstrate that it takes effort to make a difference.
The United States Zero Waste Council certified its Chico, CA brewery as a platinum-level zero waste firm in 2014.
The certification was not the only sign of approval. The Sierra Nevada claimed to have saved over $5 million by keeping 99.8% to 100% of their garbage out of landfills.
Facts about Sierra Nevada Zero Waste:
- The Sierra Nevada recycles all of their spent brewing ingredients (approximately 150,000 pounds of malted barley and 4,000 pounds of hops each day) by sending them to nearby cattle and dairy farms.
- Since 2010, their Chico, CA brewery has transformed more than 5,000 tons of organic waste into usable compost, thanks to the first HotRot composting technology in the United States.
- Sierra Nevada employs HotRot compost in their fields and gardens and a local composting company near Mills River, NC brewery.
5. Protector and Gamble
Protector & Gamble has set a lofty aim of zero waste. They aspire to send zero manufacturing waste to landfills by 2020 as a corporation.
Protecter & Gamble could eliminate 95 percent of its overall waste by removing this production waste.
Their present success is impressive: 55 percent of their industrial sites now send no garbage to landfills.
Zero Waste Facts from Procter & Gamble:
- Invariably, a division of Procter & Gamble delivers production leftovers to a local cement plant in Hungary, where they are burnt for energy and used to manufacture bricks.
- One Procter & Gamble facility’s production waste is composted and used as “nutritional soil” for local parks in China.
- Manufacturing leftovers are shredded and compacted in India and used to create wall dividers for homes and offices.
6. Truthbrush
A toothbrush is found in every home. As a result, when every home discards plastic toothbrushes regularly, it adds to a significant problem.
Instead, Truthbrush offers an ecological bamboo brush that will decompose in a landfill. The style is natural and straightforward, and it’s also safe because bamboo is naturally antimicrobial.
To make an environmentally responsible adjustment in your everyday routine, try switching to one of these toothbrushes.
7. Antonym Cosmetics
Antonym’s makeup is all ECOCERT certified, which means that the products and packaging have been independently validated to meet specific environmental requirements.
Furthermore, everything is cruelty-free, with beeswax being the only non-vegan component (in the lipstick only). Parabens, sulfates, artificial perfumes, and other nasties are all left out.
Their bamboo compacts are beautiful, and the exterior packaging is either recycled or FSC-certified paper.
On the other hand, we should avoid the liquid foundation because the bottle is made of plastic.
8. Elate Cosmetics
Elate is a well-known brand among zero-waste and environmentally aware communities with a good cause.
They have an extensive product selection, offer refills, are very transparent, and their products are generally more affordable than those of other brands.
Impact, ethics, community, future, and mission are the five Conscious Beauty Principles that guide the company’s ethos.
They claim that their operations are currently waste-free to the tune of 75% and that they are actively aiming to enhance that figure.
They utilize recyclable plastic, but they strive to adhere to more sustainable and easily recyclable materials, such as aluminum, glass, bamboo, and seed paper!
Elate is also a fan of the concept of a capsule cosmetics bag. The notion is that you don’t need a vanity full of hundreds of beauty products and that less is more.
Capsule wardrobes inspire it. Their three-question quiz will provide you with product recommendations.
Everything on the menu is vegan, cruelty-free, and gluten-free. Furthermore, Elate employees donate a portion of income to social and environmental non-profits.
9. The Refill Shoppie
This shop is, without a doubt, the most unusual zero-waste online retailer in the United States. The Refill Shoppe focuses on vegan refillable bath/beauty products, essential oils, and household cleaning supplies.
Yoga mat spray, soap nuts, and massage oils are just a few of their reusable goods. For the first time, any liquid product offers a customizable scent blend.
Select a bottle, jar, or refill pouch, then choose up to 6 scents in order of strength (as well as the overall strength).
If you order a refill pouch, you may return it with prepaid shipping, and they’ll pressure wash, UV sterilize, and refill it for the next customer.
The refill counter on their website indicated that this technique had saved almost 40,000 new bottles at the time of writing.
This award-winning certified B Corp, founded in 2010, is “making a difference, one bottle at a time.” They support almost 30 different environmental non-profits as members of 1 percent for the Planet.
They employ minimally sized packing materials that are reusable to ship to consumers via USPS.
Their “Subscriptions,” for example, come in recycled, compostable cartons with a reusable envelope for returning the container. If you want to get your refills in person, go to their Ventura, California location.
10. Unilever
Unilever revealed two years ago this month that over 240 of its operations had met its aim of sending no non-hazardous waste to landfills.
As of February of last year, roughly 400 other sites had eliminated waste-to-landfill by replicating its zero-waste approach in different business sectors.
Unilever claims that its zero-waste journey saved it $225 million and “generated hundreds of jobs.”
Last year, Unilever partnered up with value-chain platform 2degrees to help bring firms together around the zero-waste approach to assist others in achieving similar results.
“While I am happy of what our staff and partners have accomplished across our manufacturing operations and the wider business,” Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer, said in a statement last year, “there is much more to be done to inspire a wide-scale movement.”
“It’s time to step up our efforts to achieve a zero-waste world, and our new partnership with 2 degrees will allow us to exchange learning and experiences while also encouraging other organizations and industries to take on the zero-waste challenge.” We can eliminate waste on an unprecedented scale around the world by forming a network of partners and cooperating.”
However, P and G, and Unilever are still the major plastic product generators in present time. There initiations are must need if we really want earth to have sustainable and green surroundings.
(Last Updated on February 15, 2022 by Sadrish Dabadi)
