The tension between zero waste, viewed as post-discard total recycling of materials, and zero waste as the reuse of all high level function remains a serious one today. It is probably the defining difference between established recyclers and emerging zero-wasters.

Take biodegradable plastic as an example. One side argues that biodegradation of plastic is wasteful because plastic is expensive and environmentally damaging to make and plastic could be more efficiently recycled. The other side argues that we are failing at creating a recycling system where most plastic gets recycled, and for plastic that ends up as trash it’s much better for it to biodegrade.