Ms Tippi Thole recycled. She composted. She thought she was doing a pretty good job environmentally. Then she heard a talk on plastics, and the container of trash she and her eight-year-old son emptied out every week began to look irresponsible.

She replaced her 38-litre can with a small wastebasket that had been under her bathroom sink and started to change the way she shopped and lived. Within 14 weeks, the family's weekly trash fit into a 6cm-tall Mason jar - with room to spare. These days, a week's worth of trash might contain a receipt or two, fruit stickers, a wine bottle cap, a bottle label, a Band-Aid and packing tape.