The building itself stands as an exciting exemplar of the old green maxim, "reduce, recycle, reuse" in the way its steel structure makes it the lightest stadium of its kind ever built.

CNN: What Olympics teach about going green

Certainly travellers can finish up meals, avoid buffets, enquire about food waste when they check into hotels and choose properties, cruise-lines and tour operators that have programmes in place to reduce or recycle wastage.

BBC: Play your part in the global food crisis

The children also get a lesson in two of the three Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle).

CNN: Envisioning a world without garbage

The second is to get people to "reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink" those everyday items that people now throw away as garbage.

CNN: Environmentalist: It's becoming a plastic world

"We must reduce, reuse and recycle, " says Ng.

CNN: Urban farming looking up in Singapore

But Arends does delve into an important issue: no growth in revenue as the volume of actual trash disposed of has declined in the U.S. Manufacturers are using less packaging, consumers are re-using grocery bags, and little-by-little that overwhelming urge to reduce, re-use, recycle has gone from social movement to second nature for a lot of people.

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