European Pathway to Zero Waste (EPOW)

European Pathway to Zero Waste is a LIFE+ funded programme that is investigating practical ways to achieve zero waste to landfill in the South East of England. It shall share the results with relevant EU regions. The programme will run for just over three years to 31 March 2013.

Zero waste in this context is an approach to supporting the sustainable use of resources by business to benefit both the economy and the environment. It concentrates on reducing, re-using, recycling and recovering energy from waste.

The South East of England sends more total waste, more construction demolition and excavation waste, and more commercial and industrial waste to landfill than any other part of England. The South East is therefore one of the regions of the EU with the most to gain from a zero waste programme. It is suited to serve as a demonstration project for other EU regions with high levels of waste generation and for regions with high levels of landfill.