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This edition of our newsletter is packed with new publications and stories from the membership, as well as a few trips down memory lane – both the more recent, which you can browse thorugh in our new Annual Report for 2025, and the long-term, exploring the story of our movement. Happy reading!
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| Annual Report 2025: Looking back on a year of stepping up and creating change for a more resilient future | |
"Zero waste transition is no longer a niche conversation, but a practical, political, and cultural project unfolding across Europe."
This sentence by our Executive Director, Esra Tat, could not sum up 2025 for Zero Waste Europe (ZWE) any better. With our world being so marked by uncertainty and ecological breakdown, stepping up, showing up, and creating change that benefits local communities matters even more.
The stories and victories celebrated in our 2025 Annual Report are but a glimpse of the efforts of our team, network, and wider movement. Over the past year, they have worked locally and globally to create a fairer, more prosperous, and more resilient world for all.
We hope reading the ZWE 2025 Annual Report inspires you as much as it gives us strength and hope.
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| Building change together: inside 20 years of Zero Waste Europe movement building | |
The birth year of ZWE has been a point of debate for years. Did the European movement begin in 2000 with the creation of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA)? Maybe 2007 is a more logical starting point, because of Capannori's commitment to become the first European Zero Waste City? Or perhaps it all really started in 2011, when we organised the first gathering of European activists in Brussels?
A movement isn't something you create in one day, as ZWE Founder Joan Marc Simon says in in our new video on ZWE's history – but here, 20+ years down the line, the impact of the European zero waste movement cannot be understated. He and Esra Tat sat down with Giulia Lodi to share the origin story of ZWE: the early days, the turning points, and the lessons learnt along the way.
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| Join us at the REuse Economy Expo in Paris on 19-20 May | |
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| Zelena Akcija: Fighting nuclear energy 40 years after Chernobyl | |
On 26 April, 40 years after the Chernobyl disaster, our Croatian member Zelena Akcija took to the streets to mark the anniversary with a clear message: nuclear energy is not a climate solution. The action came in response to Croatia's Minister of Economy announcing plans for a new nuclear power plant, participation in the Krško 2 project, and development of small modular reactors (SMRs).
As Luka Tomac from Zelena Akcija put it, nuclear is "a false solution to the climate crisis that diverts money and attention away from faster and safer alternatives like renewables" – and with European nuclear projects routinely running billions over budget, the organisation is urging the Croatian government to invest in renewables instead.
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FoE – SPZ: Celebrating zero waste progress in Slovakian cities | | At the end of March, 59 Slovak mayors and city representatives gathered in Úľany nad Žitavou, a small municipality of around 1,500 people in south-west Slovakia, for the annual Zero Waste Cities conference, organised our member Friends of the Earth – SPZ (FoE – SPZ). The conference brought together local leaders to share experiences and learn what specific steps they can take toward zero waste – and it walked the talk: refillable water jugs, local vegan food, and not a single-use plastic in sight. In addition to discussions on the zero waste journey, chemical recycling, and best practices from across Europe, four Slovak municipalities were celebrated as Mission Zero Academy candidate cities, with bio-waste and textiles emerging as some of the key challenges ahead.
| | FoE ES: Campaigning for the right to know what you're eating | | In Spain, our member Amigas de la Tierra (FoE ES) is sounding the alarm over EU plans to change food labelling rules in a way that would remove the requirement to indicate whether products contain ingredients derived from genetically modified (GM) crops, eliminating the risk assessment that currently must be carried out before GM crops can be planted. They are backing the Europe-wide Blacked-Out Ingredients campaign, which is calling on citizens to contact their MEPs before the European Parliament's final vote in mid-May. As they put it: achieving a sustainable food system requires real transformation – not stopgap measures. | | | |
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| Including incineration in the EU ETS: Assessing potential impacts on landfilling | | | RSVP Blueprint – Annex III Safety guidelines | | | |
| Reuse in action: a Catalan pilot to rethink events | | | The story of Tübingen from 2022 to 2026 | | | |
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| #MeetTheTeam – Stephanie Yates, Head of Network & Movement Building | | | Ensuring European plastics waste is recycled in Europe | | | |
| Zero Waste Day: Your food scraps are heating the climate – here is how to avoid it | | | Within boundaries: Episode 2 – Sorted, collected... and then what? | | | |
| Building a textiles “Sufficien-city”: reflections on diverse municipal contexts from the first year of the STICT project | | | |
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Zero Waste Europe gratefully acknowledges financial assistance from the European Union: Commission Directorate General (DG) Environment. The sole responsibility for the content of this newsletter lies with Zero Waste Europe. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the funder mentioned above. The funder cannot be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein. | | | |
Copyright © 2026 Zero Waste Europe, all rights reserved.
You are receiving this e-newsletter because you opted in via our website, our social media networks, or expressed interest to a member of our team. | |
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