Zero Waste Planning Planning for the productive, high-value utilization of waste is paramount to any truly sustainable planning. The benefits of planning for resource utilization instead of waste creation include: 1. Lessen environmental impacts • Decrease major greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide and methane •   Reduce liability and risk of disposal, contamination and cleanup •   Improve environmental and public health 2. Reduce the amount and toxicity of wastes • Extend useful life of current permitted disposal methods •   Continue to pursue removal of hazardous and toxic wastes from the waste stream 3. Reuse, recycle and compost for a sustainable local economy • Increase waste reduction efforts through efficiency and participation •   Become a source of premium value-added waste commodities increasing revenue from commodity sales •   Build on existing processing capacity and investments of private enterprise and nonprofits and encourage commercial expansion in these areas •   Decrease costs for collection, processing and marketing of recyclables •   Encourage local economic development staff participation in focusing on these industries as growth opportunities to create local value-added jobs and businesses •   Utilize economic and market based incentives to harness the forces of the local economy to increase waste reduction •   Support eco-tourism effort with “green” and “friendly” image Copyright 2005 by Solid Resources, Inc. All rights reserved.