The idea of zero waste began life in 1996 in Canberra, the first city in the world to set itself a goal of "no waste by 2010". Back then they were recovering and recycling 42% of their waste (already miles ahead of the UK households which currently recycle or compost about 23% of their waste), but in the years since then they have managed to raise that to an impressive 69%. In Canberra, they stop at nothing to get people recycling: they hold wormery workshops, "second-hand Sundays", there are "ecobusiness" councillors and "waste-wise" school programmes. Most importantly, though, they have efficient and comprehensive recycling collection schemes.

Following Canberra's lead, zero waste schemes have slowly started popping up in odd places around the world: Kovalam in India has one, San Francisco (of course), Cape Town, Toronto, a few places in New Zealand. Here in the UK, Defra has funded research into zero waste projects, a "Towards Zero" campaign has been running in Scotland since 2002, and the mayor of Doncaster, Martin Winter, has announced that he would like his city to achieve a target of zero waste by 2025.

But, realistically, can it actually be done?

Read the rest of the Guardian article.