Here is another old article that I was interviewed for that I recently turned up. It ran in the Green Edition of City Beat in 2009 and explores eliminating waste. This is possible if we understand how to design things to last as long as possible and make them with repairable parts that can then be recycled and or composted and then replaced with recycled or naturally grown renewable parts to replace the broken part. The challenge of this, which directly challenges the consumer economy is that we must start investing in homes that we own debt free, and provide for all our needs of water, heating, cooling, and electricity with as little input as possible as well as homes with low maintenance edible landscaping, forest gardens, small livestock and annual gardens (i.e. permaculturally designed yards). This is critical because when we design things to last we will not have to make as many and thus results in lower employment. So if instead we invest in houses that become life giving rather than consuming we can manage to have partial employment of working 20 hours a week rather than struggling to make ends meet working 40+ hours a week. Anyways, connecting the dots of our economy and ecology are critical to solve the conundrum or modern societies ecologically unsustainable ways.
Enjoy!
http://citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-17627-one-familys-trash.html
OM Valley Permaculture 