How can companies avoid contributing to landfills?

How can companies avoid contributing to landfills?

Over the past few years, both consumers and companies have started to pay more attention to the question of landfills and how to avoid contributing to them. Landfills can not only be harmful to the environment, they are also a hazard for human health. What’s more, according to the European Environment Agency, landfills potentially represent up to 400,000 lost employment opportunities. 

Modern landfills have a bottom layer made from clay and plastic that aims to isolate waste from the surrounding environment. They also comprise systems to collect leachate and methane from landfill gas (LFG) and divert stormwater. Nonetheless, landfills contribute to climate change by releasing harmful greenhouse gasses, negatively impact biodiversity and soil fertility and compromise the health and wellbeing of nearby residents through unpleasant smells. For these reasons, the European Union considers landfilling to be one of the least desirable options for waste management.

So what can businesses do to ensure their processes don’t contribute to landfills?

The “circular economy” concept is based on the idea of creating a closed loop in which materials are reused, repaired or recycled, rather than manufactured and discarded. At the same time, source reduction aims to reduce the volume and toxicity of materials used throughout the manufacturing process. AR Metallizing produces 100% recyclable packaging materials based on metallized paper developed using energy-efficient processes that minimize waste.