Creating zero waste cities through optimised material flow, sustainable design and behaviour change

In this chapter I explore the notion of the zero waste city, which extends the concept of the sustainable city to include optimising all urban material flows. The aim is 100 percent resource recovery and re-use of building components and materials. Cities need to be re-engineered with material flows in mind to become more sustainable and resilient. The construction sector, for example, uses a huge amount of raw materials and has high material and energy inefficiencies. What is also required is systemic, transformative change to promote sustainable consumption, shifting people from being merely consumers to responsible citizens. Therefore, I argue that influencing values and behaviour is an important but often neglected part of a low-carbon urban future. I discuss why we need zero waste cities and what needs to change at the level of cities, industries,individuals and households. This includes a transition phase of reduced, decoupled consumption, e.g. using products and buildings for longer, and producing more durable products that take advantage of prefabrication, modularity, adaptability and durability.