Around the world, governments have tackled ordinary problems with systems that can seem unusual elsewhere—but sometimes work remarkably well.
1. Japan — Sorting Household Waste
In Kamikatsu, residents sort household waste into more than 40 categories at a local recycling center.
The town’s detailed system helped it achieve an unusually high recycling rate while also encouraging residents to reuse items through a sharing shop.
2. Norway — Taking Trash Underground
Parts of Bergen use underground pneumatic tubes to move household waste.
Residents deposit garbage into street-level inlets, and powerful fans transport it through pipes to a central facility. The system reduces garbage-truck traffic and diesel emissions in the historic city center.
3. Egypt — Turning Waste Collection Into a Community Economy
Cairo’s Zabbaleen developed an enormous informal recycling network around household waste.
Families collect, sort, process, and sell recyclable materials, creating a system that researchers and observers have noted can recover a remarkably high share of the material collected.
4. Israel — Recycling Wastewater
Israel has invested heavily in treating and reusing wastewater, particularly for agriculture.
Instead of treating used water as something that simply disappears down a drain, the system turns a large portion into another usable resource.
5. Denmark — Municipal Repair and Reuse
Cities such as Copenhagen and Aarhus have developed municipal systems for repairing, cataloguing, and reusing furniture and equipment rather than automatically sending them to waste facilities.
The approach treats discarded objects as inventory that can be used again.
6. Canada — Borrowing Instead of Buying (Toronto Tool Libraries)
In Toronto, several “tool libraries” operate much like public book libraries—but for household equipment.
Residents can sign up for a low-cost membership and borrow items such as drills, ladders, sewing machines, gardening tools, and even carpet cleaners for a set period of time. One of the best-known programs, the Toronto Tool Library, runs multiple locations and also offers workshops on basic repair and DIY skills. The system reduces the need for people to buy expensive tools they may only use once or twice a year, while also cutting down on waste and encouraging shared community resources.