Zero Waste was galvanized into a vision of sustainable business with ideas put forth in books like Paul Hawkins and Amory and Hunter Lovins’ ‘Natural Capitalism’, Bill McDonough’s 2002 treatise ‘Cradle to Cradle’ and as a result of the total quality management movement started in Japan.

Zero Waste believes in mimicking natural systems which don’t ‘waste’ anything. A businesses network can act like a natural system by taking one company’s waste and converting it into another’s revenue. In Cleveland, efforts to reduce waste and ‘close the loop’ are being coordinated by E4S’ Zero Waste Network, the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District, ZeroLandfill, and a bunch of creative efforts that weave in education, the arts and sustainability.

Two recent events at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (the home of GreenCityBlueLake) showed us that our waste problem calls for colorful solutions. A third, a Zero Waste Network event happening this Wednesday, will offer guidance to businesses with a guest from the Chicago Waste to Profit Network.

It’s hard for those born after 1980 to imagine life without plastic. It’s also hard to imagine life without birds, fish, sea turtles and millions of creatures being threatened like never before from the billions of pounds of plastic washing into the ocean from our cities.

Dr. Marcus Eriksen, director of research and education at Algalita Marine Research Foundation, has dipped his sample jar into what he calls “the plastic soup” of the Pacific Ocean. He told a lunch audience at the Natural History Museum about his adventure with a fellow researcher on the raft they built out of 15,000 plastic bottles and then sailed 2,600 miles from Los Angeles to Hawaii. In their 88 days at sea, they found handfuls of plastic in the skeletal remains of a sea bird at Midway Atoll. They found bits and shards of plastic in the Mahi they fished and filleted for dinner. They walked on a beach in Hawaii blanketed in plastic grains—plastic breaks into little pieces in the ocean and washes ashore.

Defying a popular notion that plastic from disposable bags, bottles and cans are floating in one big patch, plastic in the ocean is more like a broth – it’s everywhere.

“We can’t just scoop it up because it’s really spread out.”

It’s likely in the gut and tissue of every fish we eat (Eriksen will test to what level toxins in plastic can be transferred from fish to humans this year).

How can we slow the growth of what he calls “our synthetic sea”? Eriksen doubts recycling will have any impact—and not because Americans only recycle 5% of what we could. He’s doubtful about recycling because recyclables that stay in the U.S. only see one more use before they end up in the landfill. Companies here haven’t found a cheap way to melt it down, enough consumer demand for products made with recyclable plastic or they're just not innovating, he said. The answer is for us, as consumers, to demand the elimination of plastic. Efforts to ban or tax plastic bags, like they did in the Republic of Ireland and in Australia, are being met with serious resistance from an industry lobby in the U.S.

“The American Chemistry Council has far outspent proponents of a ballot initiative (to ban disposable plastic bags) in Seattle,” Eriksen said. “Industry ‘research’ gets the same attention as peer-reviewed scientific research.”

Eriksen will continue his education efforts this summer by riding a bike he will make from plastic trash the entire length of the California coast. “I’m doing this because we need to end the era of disposable plastic.”

Sailing to the island of misfit toys is the journey of Toy Lab, a business in Cincinnati that teaches kids how to create their own toys from the discarded Barbie heads GI Joe legs and Ninja Turtle shells. Toy Lab explained this funky Frankenstein process to a crowd at the Natural History Museum, whose Smead Discovery Center is a bit of a conservation lab (many of its toys are donated and they in turn donate to Harvest for Hunger, keeping thousands of toys out of the landfill, says director Beth Gatchell).

Beginning in July 2008 the Smead Discovery Center staff and volunteer Karis Tzeng began to explore creative ways to deal with non-useful items that are not easily donated, recycled or re-purposed, says Gatchell. The consciousness on their part led to a savings—571 pounds of paper and old toys averted from the landfill, with an estimated value of $2,535 (see the complete list of what they saved, re-purposed and donated here.)

E4S director Holly Harlan first organized zero waste roundtables in 2007, gathering manufacturers to discuss how to collaborate in turning their waste into feedstock. The roundtables have grown into a network of companies who meet at E4S’ 2,000-square-foot office in Shorebank's Glenville Enterprise Center.

The group gathers Wednesday, March 25 to discuss, “What are your wastes that might find a match with another organization?” Karen Wan, Strategic Partner for the Chicago Manufacturing Center, will share the success of the Chicago Waste to Profit Network, which has resulted in $5.5 million dollars in economic impact. She will lead participants through a matching exercise to create connections between businesses that have waste streams and those who can turn this waste into revenue. To register.

The Zero Waste Network is collecting ideas on its web site where it set a ‘big hairy audacious goal’ (aka a BHAG) of Zero Waste by 2019 (the 50th anniversary of the Burning River).

What common element tie together these efforts to reduce waste?

"I think both E4S and Marcus are trying to raise awareness about waste," says Annabel Khouri, a Network Entrepreneur at E4S. "At E4S, we also see an opportunity for businesses to save money by reducing or eliminating waste and an opportunity for entrepreneurs to create solutions to our waste challenges."

What are simple steps people can take toward zero waste?

Khouri suggests the following first steps for business:

1) Form a green team or sustainability committee that focuses on ways the organization can be more sustainable. Waste and energy are two areas where most businesses can implement projects that save money, reduce their environmental impact, and improve personal and planetary health.

2) Conduct a waste audit to find out what your business is sending to a landfill and how much it costs to do so. In our experience, close to 95% of what is in the trash can be reduced, reused or recycled.

3) Start a recycling program.

4) Set a goal to reduce or eliminate waste. On the ZerowasteNEO.org site we have asked companies to set a first year goal of 30% reduction or if your company wants full value go for ZeroWaste by 2019.