diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index cb08e38b9..7bcf600f8 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-[submodule "project/toolkit/zlib/zlib"]
-	path = project/toolkit/zlib/zlib
-	url = https://github.com/madler/zlib
 [submodule "project/toolkit/png/libpng"]
 	path = project/toolkit/png/libpng
 	url = https://github.com/pnggroup/libpng
diff --git a/project/ToolkitBuild.xml b/project/ToolkitBuild.xml
index 82ac29fa3..de0fa45f2 100644
--- a/project/ToolkitBuild.xml
+++ b/project/ToolkitBuild.xml
@@ -135,7 +135,9 @@
 
 
    <section if="NME_LOCAL_TOOLKIT">
-      <include name="toolkit/zlib/files.xml" />
+      <include name="${HXCPP}/src/hx/libs/zlib/Build.xml" />
+      <set name="NME_ZLIB" value="${ZLIB_DIR}" />
+
       <include name="toolkit/png/files.xml" />
       <include name="toolkit/jpeg/files.xml" />
       <include name="toolkit/ogg/files.xml" />
@@ -550,7 +552,7 @@
    <set name="NME_SUFFIX" value="${LIBSUFFIX}" unless="HX_TARGET_SUFFIX" />
    <set name="NME_SUFFIX" value="" if="macos" />
 
-   <set name="HXCPP_LINK_NO_ZLIB" value="1" />
+   <set name="HXCPP_LINK_NO_ZLIB" value="1" unless="NME_LOCAL_TOOLKIT" />
 
    <target id="${target-id}" output="${LIBPREFIX}nme${NME_SUFFIX}" tool="linker" toolid="${STD_MODULE_LINK}">
       <outdir name="${OUT_DIR}/${BINDIR}" />
@@ -585,7 +587,8 @@
             <files id="native-toolkit-jpeg-asm" if="NME_SIMD_D" />
          </section>
          <files id="native-toolkit-png" />
-         <files id="native-toolkit-zlib" />
+         <files id="native-toolkit-zlib" unless="NME_LOCAL_TOOLKIT"  />
+         <files id="hxcpp_zlib" if="NME_LOCAL_TOOLKIT"  />
          <files id="native-toolkit-angle" if="NME_ANGLE" />
          <section if="NME_CURL">
             <files id="native-toolkit-curl" />
diff --git a/project/toolkit/zlib/files.xml b/project/toolkit/zlib/files.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 6a4977658..000000000
--- a/project/toolkit/zlib/files.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,49 +0,0 @@
-<xml>
-   
-   <set name="NME_ZLIB" value="${this_dir}/zlib/" />
-
-   <files id="native-toolkit-zlib-depends">
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}zlib.h"/>
-   </files>
-
-   <files id="native-toolkit-zlib" tags="" >
-
-      <cache value="1" />
-      <tag value="${NATIVE_TOOLKIT_OPTIM_TAG}" if="NATIVE_TOOLKIT_OPTIM_TAG" />
-      <compilerflag value="-DSTDC" unless="windows" />
-      <compilerflag value="-DHAVE_UNISTD_H" unless="windows" />
-
-      <depend files="native-toolkit-zlib-depends"/>
-
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}zutil.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}zconf.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}trees.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}inflate.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}inftrees.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}inffast.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}inffixed.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}gzguts.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}crc32.h"/>
-      <depend name="${NME_ZLIB}deflate.h"/>
-
-      <compilerflag value="-I${NME_ZLIB}" />
-      
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}adler32.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}crc32.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}infback.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}inflate.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}uncompr.c"/>
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}compress.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}deflate.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}gzread.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}gzwrite.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}gzclose.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}gzlib.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}inffast.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}inftrees.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}trees.c" />
-      <file name="${NME_ZLIB}zutil.c" />
-      
-   </files>
-   
-</xml>
diff --git a/project/toolkit/zlib/zlib b/project/toolkit/zlib/zlib
deleted file mode 160000
index 0f51fb493..000000000
--- a/project/toolkit/zlib/zlib
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 0f51fb4933fc9ce18199cb2554dacea8033e7fd3