diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
index 7a14fe7ece..892ef5c9f1 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-base/gst-libs/gst/tag/meson.build
@@ -70,13 +70,7 @@ endif
 core_conf.set('HAVE_ISO_CODES', have_iso_codes)
 
 # could drop optional zlib dep and use g_zlib_decompressor_new()
-zlib_dep = dependency('zlib', required : false)
-if not zlib_dep.found()
-  zlib_dep = cc.find_library('z', required : false)
-  if not zlib_dep.found() or not cc.has_header('zlib.h')
-    zlib_dep = subproject('zlib').get_variable('zlib_dep')
-  endif
-endif
+zlib_dep = dependency('zlib')
 core_conf.set('HAVE_ZLIB', true)
 
 tag_deps = [gst_base_dep, libm, zlib_dep]
diff --git a/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build b/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build
index 83e66a413d..422e47606d 100644
--- a/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build
+++ b/subprojects/gst-plugins-good/meson.build
@@ -345,13 +345,7 @@ if have_gstgl
   endif
 endif
 
-zlib_dep = dependency('zlib', required : false)
-if not zlib_dep.found()
-  zlib_dep = cc.find_library('z', required : false)
-  if not zlib_dep.found() or not cc.has_header('zlib.h')
-    zlib_dep = subproject('zlib').get_variable('zlib_dep')
-  endif
-endif
+zlib_dep = dependency('zlib')
 cdata.set('HAVE_ZLIB', true)
 
 glib_deps = [dependency('glib-2.0', version : glib_req, fallback: ['glib', 'libglib_dep']),