What nature teaches us
There is no waste in nature. Everything is used, everything has some function, some meaning that serves life. Leaves fall from the trees, feed small crawlies, are turned into soil, which nourishes the tree.
It rains, the water flows down the mountain, nourishes plants and animals along the way, automatically cleans itself as it seeps away, flows through countless organisms and thereby keeps them alive, evaporates again somewhere and rains down again. The human skin repairs itself after an injury, the falling skin remnants are used by mites.
An animal dies and decomposes, is fully utilized without any problem waste, because all the substances contained occur in nature and are needed there. Plants and animals use the power of the sun, water, the tides, gravity, just about every force that occurs in nature.
There is no hazardous waste for which there is no solution. There are no surfaces that must be completely removed and reapplied if damaged. There are no things that have to be completely disposed of and replaced in the event of partial damage. Nature does not systematically poison the life-sustaining water. Nature is constantly adapting to its surroundings.
Nature does not know harmful transport routes. Whales swim halfway around the world without leaving any damage. Migratory birds fly long distances year after year without nature suffering. Dinosaur bones have been found on every continent, they have been all over the then connected mainland. Rivers transport life over thousands of kilometers. No being in nature came up with the idea of stopping moving and restricting itself in order to protect the environment, because it was simply never necessary. Ants carry 100 times their body weight while providing benefit rather than harm.
Animal excrement provides soil fertilization. Other animals in the food chain ensure that there are not too many, which is why the soil does not over-fertilize. Animals exhale CO2, which is absorbed by the trees and converted into life-sustaining oxygen.
Animals have fun, play exuberantly, do not know a clock. They have fun even though they don't know where the food will come from the next day. You don't get an ulcer because of worry and self-produced stress. It would never occur to them not to have fun to save the environment because their form of fun doesn't harm anyone. No animal spends the whole day doing things that are not good for it, but takes care of itself and its offspring.
No being other than humans destroy their life-sustaining environment and thus perish themselves.
Say goodbye to waste
As we are used to, it does not go on. However, we can learn from nature how it works. Some current trends are already pointing in the right direction.