Earth Overshoot? Slightly later - thanks to Interzero!

Today is Earth Overshoot Day 2025 and for us at Interzero, this day symbolises perfectly what drives us. This year, too, we are pushing back the EOD thanks to our circular solutions. However, we are not achieving this alone, but together with our customers and partners – because ‘climate protection is a team sport’. But achieving even greater impact requires more: better structural conditions for the circular economy and the alliance of politics, business and society – a real team for resource protection.

24/07/2025

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[Translate to English - Englisch:]

Earth Overshoot Day on 24 July 2025 marks the day on which humanity has used more from nature than our planet can regenerate this entire year. This year, we will reach this day one weekeight days earlier than last year. But this is not inevitable. The calculations of the Global Footprint Network, based on the resources SAVED study by Fraunhofer UMSICHT, show that the levers of the circular economy are working: Together with customers and partners, Interzero is pushing back the Earth Overshoot Day by more than 10 minutes – worldwide.

Although humanity has been living in ecological debt since the end of July, Interzero is impressively demonstrating that a functioning circular economy has a positive impact on resource and climate protection. Every piece of recycled packaging, every reused electrical device and every properly collected battery reduces the need for primary resources and is an important step towards our vision of a world without waste.

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"Over the last years, we have been refining our assessments on how Interzero's activities are reducing global ecological overshoot. Our latest calculations confirm that the company, together with its clients, was able to postpone Earth Overshoot Day by several minutes. This means Interzero is truly circular: the more it does the smaller is global overshoot."

Mathis Wackernagel Founder and President, Global Footprint Network

Plastics as a key resource

Interzero sees plastics as a particularly important lever for postponing Earth Overshoot Day. Over 50 per cent of the primary raw materials saved come from the recycling of plastic packaging, especially lightweight packaging (LWP). However, the return and recycling of lightweight packaging not only makes a major contribution in terms of volume as part of the Dual System, but the savings in this area are also particularly high.

Improved and standardised rules of the game

However, the potential is far from exhausted. In addition to the consumer decisions of individuals or better waste separation, better structural framework conditions and the promotion of innovations are needed above all in order to be able to pull the big lever of the circular economy. There are numerous points of action: expanding separate collection systems, introducing new extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes at an early stage, consistently implementing sustainable public procurement, and prioritising recyclable packaging. A deposit system for batteries and rechargeable batteries could also help improve safety across the industry. A clear political framework is needed that promotes technological innovation and guarantees investment in the circular economy.

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"The ideas are there - powerful, effective, forward-looking. Committed people, courageous projects and innovative technologies are already making the circular economy a real ‘game changer’. But more is needed to anchor the change in the long term: we need to rewrite the rules of the game - boldly, together and with a view to a future worth living."

Sybilla Merian Head of Corporate Sustainability Interzero

Earth Overshoot Day shows us that we are living far beyond our means. But we can take action – with a team that is fully committed to a functioning circular economy.

Let's #MoveTheDate. With Interzero.

A note on calculation methodology:

Global Footprint Network bases its calculations on a resource accounting tool called the Ecological Footprint. Using these accounts, the non-profit organisation compares the current resource demand of humanity or a country’s population against Earth’s capacity for biological regeneration. Much of the data for estimating Interzero’s contribution to conservation of resources is provided, among others, by the “resources SAVED by Recycling” study carried out by the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT. Once per year, Interzero commissions these scientists to determine the volumes of greenhouse gases and resources saved through the recycling of recyclable materials.

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