Austin, Texas seems to continually evolve as an example of a living local economy. I came across a post on environmentalleader.com today, about the City of Austin’s goal of going to zero waste by 2040.”Zero waste plans utilize both recycling and ways of preventing garbage from getting to landfills in the first place, such as penalizing customers who produce the most trash and offering incentives to businesses to reuse their packaging and products.”For Austin’s sake, I wish it could secede from Texas, a state recently given the title of one of the largest producers of green house gases in the world. “Austin, Texas hopes to reduce the trash sent to landfills by 20 percent by 2012 and eventually achieve zero waste by 2040,” said the article. “Seattle and San Francisco are also writing similar, long-term solid waste plans.”I also admire Austin for its commitment to growing a sustainable economy with its memorable Keep Austin Weird campaign from a few years back. The website lives on, and offers an expanded menu of the city’s weirdness, but keeps a strong focus on buying local.Shopping local and zero-waste both contribute to the sustainability of a local economy. In Boulder, it’s possible to contract with a service provider that enables you to live zero waste. Shopping local goes a long way to create sustainable economies. If your region has one, offer support to a BALLE regional organization. And if it doesn’t? BALLE makes it pretty easy to apply and join. We will be working on this in Durango in Q1 08. Let us know how you plan on keeping your community weird?