Let's adopt ZERO WASTE

Hi guys and gals, how about back to basic living, no rocket science or fanciful gadgets, but mere lifestyles adjustment and habit change.

Trash-free living, a reason not to take out the trash
A young couple has made it possible to spend a year living trash-free. Amy Korst, 26, a recently laid-off high school teacher in Dallas, USA and her husband, Adam only bought items they could recycle or compost to avoid adding to landfills. Their trash count for 12 months – about 75 scraps such as 8 used razor blades, a burned-out light bulb, 2 Theraflu pouches and broken Christmas ornament – fits in a shoebox that weighs about 1.8 kg.

The Korsts are among growing Americans trying to reduce their landfill load in a country where the average person generates 2 kg of trash each day.

Recycling rates have skyrocketed, from 6% of solid waste in 1960 to 33% in 2008, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. The amount of trash generated, after increasing for decades, has stabilized since 2005, in part due to recession related phenomena, as people have less to spend.

According to Amy Korst, who began her Green Garbage Project on July 6, 2009 and finished last month, “if we can’t recycle it, we don’t buy it.” Amy started a compost bin in her backyard, grew produce and negotiated with a grocery store manager to be able to take food home from the meat and cheese counters in her own containers. When they go out for dinner, the Korst bring a container for leftovers. And whatever Amy cannot recycle curbside, she takes to the recycling depot.

Long before the Amy Korst zero waste living, a whole community in the hills of eastern part of Japan, named Kamikatsu has been living trash free for many years, where the garbage man never comes.

Living in a world without waste.
A small community in the hills of eastern Japan has been practicing "Zero Waste". It was told to BBC News that the residents have to compost all their food waste and sort other rubbish into 34 different categories. Residents say the scheme has prompted them to cut down on waste generally and food waste in particular.

Kamikatsu may be a backwater in the wooded hills and rice terraces of south-eastern Japan but it's become a world leader on waste policy. There are no waste collections from households at all. People have to take full responsibility for everything they throw away.

Kitchen waste has to be composted. Non-food waste is processed either in local shops which accept goods for recycling or in Kamikatsu's Zero Waste Centre. There, people have to sort their unwanted items into 34 different boxes for recycling.

Residents have to sort plastic bottles (used for fruit juice, for example) from PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) bottles (used for mineral water) because PET is more valuable when it is separated out.

There are specific boxes for pens, razors and the sort of styrofoam trays on which meat is often purchased. These have to be washed and dried. The scheme was adopted when councilors realized it was much cheaper than incineration - even if the incinerator was used to generate power.

Winning idea
Many locals are enthusiastic participants. Kikue Nii strips labels off bottles then washes and dries them before sending them to recycling. She takes her other everyday waste to the local shop where she receives a lottery ticket in return for a bag of cans. She has won a £5 food voucher four times. It's not a huge amount but it's better than nothing. She is also a big fan of composting. "I think I produce less waste because I have to compost it," she says. "When I can't use the whole vegetable or meat, I try to cook it again with wine and so on. It makes a very good soup.

Her neighbors Fumikazu Katayama and his wife Hatsue are ardent composters, too. Hatsue says: "I have to do it every day; it's certainly a bit of work. But it's a good idea to send things back to the earth so I support it. I just do it naturally now; it's part of the routine
Old curtains or kimonos are expertly converted into bags

The community uses incentives to encourage recycling



Articles extracted from The Star dated 3rd Aug, 2010 by Wendy Koch and BBC news reported by Environment analyst, Roger Harrabin