The World in 2030

The World in 2030 163
Suddenly we have discovered what we should have
known long before: that the ecosphere sustains people
and everything that they do; that anything that
fails to fit into the ecosphere is a threat to its finely
balanced cycles; that wastes are not only unpleasant,
not only toxic, but, more meaningfully, evidence that
the ecosphere is being driven towards collapse. 317
Thirty-six years later cities and corporations are trying to
make the aptly named Commoner’s vision come true. As
CNN reported in January 2007:
Wal-Mart and the city of San Francisco do not have
much in common, but there is this – both are working
to achieve zero waste.
They aren’t alone. The Australian territory of Canberra,
a third of local governments in New Zealand,
the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, a bunch of small
towns in California, and Carrboro, N.C., (‘Paris of
the Piedmont’) all have embraced a goal of zero
waste.
But what is zero waste? It’s just what it sounds like
– the idea that we can design, produce, consume and
recycle products without throwing anything away.
It’s the idea that industry should mimic nature, so
that, as the writer Joel Makower put it, ‘one species’
detritus is another’s pantry.’ 318
By the year 2030 we will all have learnt to conserve, recycle
and re-use. We don’t have a choice. With over eight billion