Let's #MoveTheDate. With Interzero.

Conserving resources: Together with our employees, customers and partners, we are already pushing back Earth Overshoot Day and reducing our impact on the planet.

Earth Overshoot Day is an uncomfortable reminder that we are living way beyond our means. In 2025, the limit was already reached on 24 July. This is the date by which humanity uses up all of the natural resources our planet can provide in one year. As an industrialized nation, for example, Germany reached this grim milestone earlier still on 3 May!

Here at Interzero, we are not prepared to stand by and watch as the world continues to exploit its resources. On the contrary, we are working to create a world without waste where we can use the resources available to us in a sustainable and responsible way. Our “zero waste solutions” actively contribute to climate action every day and help to ensure security of supply for future generations. Together with our employees, customers and partners, we are working hard to push back Earth Overshoot Day further, one step at a time. Scientists from the Global Footprint Network have confirmed that without Interzero, Earth Overshoot Day would have occurred 10 minutes and 28 seconds earlier. Our impact is therefore globally measurable.

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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 President, Global Footprint Network

What is Earth Overshoot Day?

Source: Global Footprint Network

Earth Overshoot Day marks the day of the year when humanity has used up all the natural resources that the earth can regenerate within that year. From this day onwards, the world's population lives ecologically ‘on credit’ by consuming more resources than the earth can sustainably provide. It is calculated by comparing the ecological footprint of humanity (i.e. global resource consumption) with global biocapacity (the natural supply of resources and the ability to absorb CO₂). The earlier in the year Earth Overshoot Day falls, the greater the ecological overexploitation.

The Global Footprint Network, which calculates the EOD annually, considers the circular economy to be an important tool for pushing back this day. With our zero waste solutions, we actively contribute to climate protection every day and secure the supply of raw materials for future generations. The Global Footprint Network previously calculated that every dollar that Interzero generates in added value with its ‘zero waste solutions’ reduces the global overshoot by 32.3 square metres. By way of comparison, this same overshoot increases by 2.1 square metres with each dollar of economic output, as a global average.

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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

Plastics as a key resource

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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.

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.

Join our movement and reduce your ecological footprint.

As a company, you can improve your sustainability balance sheet, your business resilience, your long-term profit opportunities and your reputation by focussing on a sustainable circular economy. As a private individual, you can make a small but important contribution every day so that our planet has more air to breathe again. You can find out how to do this on our company blog, where you will find all the latest news about Interzero, our services and our products.