Don’t Waste It! – Rossano Ercolini, Bea Johnson, and Ian Kiernan

Abstract

Working as a teacher in the Italian settlement Capannori, Rossano Ercolini had a vision where landfills and incinerators are not needed any more, a strategy known as zero waste. He re-organised the waste-management of his hometown. Within a few years, the recycling rate increased from 11 to 82%. Bea Johnson realised that a simple life means a life that is rich in experiences. Her family gradually adopted a new lifestyle and started to sharply reduce their garbage output. They managed to reduce the waste of the whole family to a mere one litre per year. Ian Kiernan is a builder whose passion has been sailing. One of his dreams had been to visit the Sargasso Sea, but when he got there he was terribly disappointed because of the pollution. He became so angry that he decided to do something about the situation. With the help of some friends he organised an event called Clean Up Sydney Harbour. Some 40 000 people showed up and an astonishing 5000 tonnes of rubbish was collected. The project was endorsed by the United Nations and became global when Clean Up the World was launched in 1993.