The Trashiest Thing You’ll Read All Day

As rodents chew through trash bags and drag odorous rotting garbage along sidewalks and gutters in every corner of the city, New York is considering special rat-proof trash bins and new restrictions on the hours garbage can be placed curbside. The rats are after the food trapped in those plastic bags — organic matter that’s destined for landfills. Such biodegradable waste makes up 34% of New York’s residential garbage.

Globally, approximately 2 billion tons of municipal solid waste are produced each year, with over a third of it dumped in landfills. Millions of tons of landfill trash is actually organic material that, as it decomposes, produces plumes of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s 25 times more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.

New York’s problem isn’t just New York’s problem, and the solution extends beyond the city, too.

The notion of “zero waste” has gained momentum in certain locales, which might seem somewhat implausible, given the amount of trash produced by humans worldwide. But from innovative individuals in Nigeria finding ways to use discarded items to creative cities in Japan, communities around the world are finding new ways to minimize trash and refashion lifestyles to be more waste-conscious. (The U.S. is lagging behind.)

These efforts come not a moment too soon. By 2050, the world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion. We might want to get our waste management in order before then.

Despite its lofty name, the zero-waste movement isn't focused on eliminating waste entirely. Rather, it’s about conserving resources as much as possible through responsible waste management, sustainable production and mindful consumption.

“We’re not going to live on the Earth without a footprint,” Paul Palmer, founder of the Zero Waste Institute, told OZY. “But we don’t have to unnecessarily enlarge that footprint.”

What can we learn from the cities and countries that have taken the lead?

While New York has largely abandoned its composting program due to cost, it’s also expensive to throw away food waste. An astounding one-third of all food produced globally for human consumption — the equivalent of 1.3 billion tons — gets wasted. Further, around 81% of uneaten food in the U.S. ends up in landfills or combustion facilities, generating huge methane emissions and driving up urban waste-management costs. London saw a 14% reduction in avoidable food waste in the six months following the launch of the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign, which was designed to build awareness about the importance of reducing waste.

In 1992, local governments across Taiwan were collecting 21,900 metric tons of municipal solid waste per day, earning the East Asian country the unsavory nickname “Garbage Island.” (By contrast, New York produces a tiny fraction of Taiwan’s former waste: 14 million tons per year, according to the mayor’s office.) In 1996, Taiwanese residents began taking to the streets to protest the mounting refuse, demanding government action to reduce pollution from the overflowing landfills.

It was a combination of these protests and the actions of Homemakers United, a woman-led nonprofit that campaigned for a municipal recycling system, that finally forced Taiwan’s Waste Disposal Act of 1998. This legislation helped raise Taiwan’s recycling rates to among the highest in the world, thanks to policies such as “pay-as-you-throw,” which charges people for household trash based on how much they dispose of. The majority of public trash cans on sidewalks were removed to prevent people from dumping instead of paying for their waste collection.

One of Taiwan’s most innovative examples of recycling is EcoARK, a nine-story exhibition hall in Taipei built from 1.5 million recycled plastic bottles and installed with an embedded solar-power system. MINIWIZ, a Taiwanese company that transforms consumer and industrial waste into construction and consumer products, was behind the project. Taiwan’s “zero waste” initiative has been a community effort — residents load their own trash onto garbage trucks, and volunteers and officials help segregate it for recycling.

In 2003, San Francisco became one of the first U.S. cities to pledge a zero waste resolution; today, it’s the number-one recycling municipality in the U.S., with an 80% waste diversion rate. The city made additional progress with community-led actions such as the 2009 Recycling and Composting Ordinance, which makes it mandatory for everyone — residents and businesses alike — to separate their waste.

In northern Belgium, the city of Flanders was among the first places in Europe to embrace the notion of zero waste. A pay-as-you-throw tariff system was implemented gradually in the 1990s, with higher fees for trash than recyclables. According to materials sent to OZY by Interafval, a regional waste-management company in Flanders, pay-as-you-throw systems were met with some resistance when they were first introduced, but that changed when citizens realized they could dramatically reduce their costs by reducing their waste. Political perseverance, proactive communication and high levels of municipal service were essential ingredients in the public’s eventual acceptance.

on The Carlos Watson Show!

At the risk of getting a little “Kumbaya,” the foundation of a successful zero-waste initiative is collective action. Residents need to warm to the idea of new waste-management practices and be prepared to make changes to their lifestyle, explains Carina Koop, a researcher at the Wuppertal Institute, which helped turn the town of Kiel into Germany’s first zero-waste city. “You need to involve citizens from the beginning,” she told OZY. “They are the ones that will implement zero waste and live in a zero-waste city. The citizens need to like the idea.”

Zero waste means systematically evaluating and redesigning supply chains to minimize trash at every stage of production and consumption. This means nudging both businesses and consumers toward behavior change. There’s no doubt that such an initiative will be challenging, if at all feasible, in New York. The city may not have the funds or popular support for such a tack. And that’s cheery news for the rats.

Do you have an innovative idea for reducing waste? Tell us about it — and please share any photos from waste-reduction efforts in your community!

Share your thoughts with us at [email protected].