While there is no doubt that the prevention of municipal solid waste (MSW) generation should sit at the top of any public policy, industrial strategy and individual behaviour, just like reducing the consumption of energy, this proposition might mislead the public into thinking that waste can suddenly disappear if only we had the will to make it happen. Despite these unattainable expectations, the ‘Zero Waste’ concept has become a viral and omnipresent phrase in recent years. A Google search of this term shows around half a million hits, as of March 2020, and countless government and non-governmental organisation initiatives worldwide. Zero Waste seems to be the only acceptable aim for today’s politicians who embrace an environmentally friendly platform. As a result, countries and municipalities all over the globe have committed themselves to achieving the goal of Zero Waste. So far, however, nobody has managed it, and given the many scientific and practical roadblocks, no one ever will. In many respects, the Zero Waste concept in the waste management realm seems akin to those seeking to create a perpetual motion machine, and to sell the idea to uninformed citizens. People are fascinated by the idea because it envisages the inspiration of consuming with a good conscience, leaving no garbage behind. Several hundred years ago, they were similarly captured by the idea of producing energy from nothing, using a perpetual motion machine. While the possibility of the latter has often been debunked, the potential to attain a Zero Waste state is still too broadly accepted by citizens and their government officials. Against this background, this editorial addresses the idea of Zero Waste and the impossibility of its realisation, as well as the essential necessity of (a certain amount of) waste generation as a consequence of economic activity and consumption, due to its function as a sink for non-recoverable toxic and harmful substances. First, an introduction to modern waste management is given, to clearly show that even the most sophisticated and well-developed programmes for waste reduction, collection, recycling, and treatment systems for waste cannot prevent the formation of at least a moderate, if not significant, residual waste stream. Since the Zero Waste philosophy is often grounded in ideological environmental prejudices and opposition to proven and cost-effective elements of waste management – naturally, landfills and waste-to-energy (WtE) facilities – the (mostly unsubstantiated and often willingly wrong) related arguments are reflected on in the second part. Well-performing waste management systems rest upon three main technical pillars: • • Recycling, including composting; • • Energy recovery; • • Landfilling.

中文翻译：

---

零废物乌托邦和废物转化为能源的作用

毫无疑问，防止城市固体废物 (MSW) 的产生应该放在任何公共政策、工业战略和个人行为的首位，就像减少能源消耗一样，但这一主张可能会误导公众认为废物只要我们愿意让它发生，它就会突然消失。尽管有这些无法实现的期望，但“零浪费”概念近年来已成为一种病毒式且无处不在的短语。截至 2020 年 3 月，对该词的谷歌搜索显示大约有 50 万次点击，以及全球无数政府和非政府组织的倡议。对于当今拥护环保平台的政客来说，零浪费似乎是唯一可以接受的目标。因此，世界各地的国家和城市都致力于实现零废物的目标。然而，到目前为止，没有人能做到这一点，而且考虑到许多科学和实际的障碍，没有人能做到。在许多方面，废物管理领域的零废物概念似乎类似于那些寻求创造永动机并将这个想法出售给不知情的公民的人。人们对这个想法很着迷，因为它设想了用良心消费的灵感，不留下任何垃圾。几百年前，他们同样被永动机从无到有产生能量的想法所俘获。虽然后者的可能性经常被揭穿，但实现零废物状态的潜力仍然被公民及其政府官员广泛接受。在此背景下，这篇社论探讨了零废物的想法及其实现的不可能性，以及由于其作为水槽的功能，作为经济活动和消费的结果，产生（一定量）废物的必要性对于不可回收的有毒有害物质。首先，对现代废物管理进行了介绍，以清楚地表明，即使是最先进和最完善的废物减少、收集、回收和废物处理系统的计划也不能阻止至少适度的（如果不是显着的）形成，残余废物流。由于零废物哲学通常基于意识形态的环境偏见和反对经过验证且具有成本效益的废物管理元素 - 自然，垃圾填埋场和垃圾焚烧发电 (WtE) 设施——第二部分反映了相关的论点（大多是未经证实的，而且往往是自愿错误的）。良好的废物管理系统依赖于三个主要技术支柱： • • 回收，包括堆肥；• • 能量恢复; • • 填埋。