International Day of Zero Waste - 2026

As a brand selling an animal product, we are often confronted with the question “how can this be sustainable?” 

The meat industry has one of the greatest environmental impacts. Most are aware of the industry's greenhouse gas emissions, far fewer are aware of the waste associated with it. In the European Union (EU), 14 million tonnes of meat are wasted annually, of which 76% are the waste of animal by-products (ABPs). 

Historically, tallow was a sacred substance. Once an animal was slaughtered for meat, fat would be rendered to tallow, and used for a range of purposes from cooking, preservation of food and medicine. Tallow was used by nobility and peasants alike for ointments to treat burns and wounds. In Ancient Rome and Greece, tallow was used in bathing rituals to soften and heal the skin. Yet today, this powerful ingredient is largely thrown away.

Tallow fell out of favour with the rise of industrialisation and modern cosmetic chemistry. This shift was driven by several 20th- and 21st-century movements: 

• Petroleum-based moisturisers, synthetic emulsifiers and preservatives which were cheaper to produce

• Marketing and image shifts, which labelled animal-based skincare as archaic

• The rise of veganism and plant-based beauty trends

• The rise of industrial palm oil, driving the shift toward cheap, mass-produced plant oils over traditional, nutrient-dense animal fats.

The meat production industry, however, continues at scale. This means that tallow, which might once have been repurposed, is now often treated as waste.

Turning a by-product into skincare

This brings us to the real question: not whether tallow drives meat production (it doesn’t) but what we choose to do with a by-product that already exists.

At ZeroBS, we believe there is something deeply sensible about transforming that by-product into nourishing skincare. Rather than allowing usable fat to become waste, we transform it into something practical, beneficial, and long-lasting.

When the ingredient in question also happens to be incredibly compatible with human skin, rich in nourishing fats, and deeply supportive of the skin barrier, the case becomes even stronger.

The Cow, the Climate, and the Circle We Forgot

Cattle once sat at the centre of civilisation — as food, as wealth, as medicine, as ritual, as continuity. 

Across cultures, the cow and bull served as anchors of civilisation:

• In ancient Egypt, the Apis embodied fertility, renewal, and continuity.

• In South Asia, Nandi remains the guardian of life, law, and balance.

• In Minoan Crete, bulls symbolised power, regeneration, and humanity’s relationship with nature.

• In Southern Africa, cattle were — and remain — central to identity, wealth, and social cohesion. Lobola ties families together through responsibility, respect, and long-term thinking. Cattle are not exchanged lightly. They represent commitment, care, and continuity across generations.

In South Africa specifically, cattle have never been just livestock. They represent wealth, determining where a family is situated within a social hierarchy. Practices like Lobola — where a groom’s family offers cattle, cash or gifts to the bride’s family to signify respect, unite families, and formalize a customary marriage — are still widely practised.  

Traditional cultures once had no concept of “waste” when it came to animals. Every part of the animal was put to good use — bones became tools, hides became clothing and shelter, fat became food, medicine, fuel for light, and protection.

Today, the most nutrient-dense part of the animal — the hard fat — is routinely discarded, downgraded, or treated as an industrial inconvenience. Extractive processes have for too long been dressed up as modernity. 

Methane, Myths, and Missing Context

Yes, cows produce methane.
No, that fact alone does not tell the full truth.

Methane from grass-fed cattle exists within a short biological carbon cycle. Grass pulls carbon from the air. The cow eats the grass. Methane is released and breaks down within a decade, returning carbon to the system.

Industrial livestock systems tell a very different story.

Corn- and soy-based feeds rely on:

• Synthetic petroleum based fertilisers that generate nitrous oxide

• Fossil-fuel-intensive machinery

• Long transport chains

• Deforestation, particularly for soy

Those emissions do not come from the cow. They come from the system built around it. When cattle are raised on pasture, on land suited to grazing, they are not climate vandals. Properly managed cattle can form part of a regenerative system that returns nutrients to the soil, restores ecosystems and stores carbon, while poorly managed systems degrade land and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. 

To reduce an animal that is widely respected amongst many cultures to a methane statistic, while discarding half of its body and replacing its fat with petroleum, is a product of the cultural and ecological illiteracy characteristic of our current consumerist era. 

Closing the loop

When an animal is raised properly and used fully sustainability is fully within reach:

• Nothing is wasted

• No synthetic replacements are required

• No petroleum stand-ins are needed

Our tallow products use the by-product of an existing system, honouring regenerative philosophies to counteract dominant systems that degrade and destruct.

And sustainability does not stop at the ingredient itself. Through Gogo’s Kitchen, a community-led initiative, hundreds of people are fed every day with hearty, nutrient-dense mince derived as a by-product from our specialised rendering and low-heat refinement process. In this way, what could have been waste becomes nourishment, closing the sustainability loop.

The Nuance of Sustainability

Sustainability is far from simple. Current narratives are reductive and damaging for movements that could create real change.Simply demonising a farming practice cannot change it. At ZeroBS, we shift the focus towards closing the loop, working from the inside out to ensure nothing goes to waste, supporting farms that raise cattle sustainably— the way nature always intended.