Talking Zero Trash

From rethinking recycling to reconsidering our relationship to trash, the zero-waste movement challenges conventional wisdom

A guaranteed conversation-stopper, the topic--and indeed, the reality--of garbage is not going to go away any time soon. Moreover, there are a number of widely held public assumptions that impede progress toward that elusive goal which garbologists refer to as "zero waste."



Assumption one: Garbage is one of those facts of life that falls in with other inevitabilities like death and taxes. Human beings are a consumptive lot, and the byproducts of all that consumption have to go somewhere.

Assumption two: Garbage companies do us all a great service by whisking away the nasty byproducts of our lives and hauling them off to those big holes in the ground euphemistically referred to as "landfills."

Assumption three: Recycling is enough.

After all, it's good for the bottle, it's good for the can. Well, not exactly.

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Trash Talk