The New York Times has a nice read about communities, organisations, parks and facilities that have moved toward zero waste.

At its heart, zero waste has a local motive: “Nobody wants a landfill sited anywhere near them, including in rural areas,” EPA staffer Jon D. Johnston tells the Times.

My first thought, after reading this, was: If a swank New England island like Nantucket can be persuaded to eliminate trash, surely everyone else can?

I was thinking about the trash bins in Woollahra, my own swank suburb, and the massive, completely functional tube televisions that appear on the sidewalks from time to time, discarded in favour of more impressive flat panels – presumably without a thought to who retrieves them from the street or where they go next.

But wastefulness and class can cut two ways: the wealthy (individuals or societies) tend to generate more waste, but the less wealthy are often less well equipped to find alternatives. There aren't many e-waste recycling programs in the third world.

Australia has some zero-waste movements of its own, including the official-sounding NGO Zero Waste Australia, who are hosting a "Zero Waste Summit" in November.