Zero Waste Committee

RILA’s Zero Waste Committee is composed of retail waste management and compliance practitioners who work to improve materials management throughout their facilities and supply chains on the path to a more circular economy. Zero waste practitioners address issues that affect recycling, donation, composting, reuse, and other diversion options for waste generated at retail facilities and, increasingly, in product and packaging supply chains. 

The retail industry operates in a changing domestic and global waste landscape to ensure efficient operations that meet customer expectations, comply with all relevant regulations, and respond to the need to address the environmental impacts of products and packaging. Leading retailers are working across the value chain with stakeholders to assess alternative materials, new service offerings, and more reliable diversion-enabling markets. 

The Zero Waste Committee provides RILA members a forum for practitioners to benchmark and hear from experts regularly on rotating topics related to the implementation, management, and oversight of waste programs. The committee has sub-projects, benchmarking surveys, and monthly, focused benchmarking calls on members’ highest priority issues.  

RILA members have full access to past call content, reports and benchmarking results which can be found below.  

For more information on RILA's Zero Waste Committee, contact Erin Hiatt, senior director, sustainability and innovation at erin.hiatt@rila.org or Andrew Sousa, senior director, environmental programs at andrew.sousa@rila.org.   

Updates/News

Subprojects under exploration by the committee include: 

• Mall recycling database 
• Textile recycling 
• City or regional consolidated pickups of small-volume materials 
• Reusable bag customer education