This week on Earth Beat we bring you a rubbish show. From musical garbage in Taiwan to donkeys in Sicily, from a zero waste challenge in Vancouver to burning trash to run trams in Amsterdam, we span the globe in search of those who are reinventing garbage.

Musical garbage in Taipei
The trucks that roll through Taipei, Taiwan playing Beethoven and kids’ songs are not selling ice cream. They’re calling for garbage, and as Earth Beat’s Taipei correspondent Keith Perron tells Marnie, it can lead to hilarious scenes.
Listen to the story

Taipei residents answer the call of the musical garbage trucks:

Clean bin project
One way to avoid having to chase after the musical garbage truck would be not to produce any rubbish. Three housemates in Vancouver took up the challenge of producing no landfill waste for an entire year. Grant Baldwin and Jen Rustemeyer talk to Marnie about attempting the impossible.
Listen to the interview

Watch the trailer for the upcoming Clean Bin Project movie

Envirominute: waste
This week’s Envirominute paints a global picture of waste and consumption.
Listen to the envirominute

Supermarket waste
Earth Beat’s Ashleigh Elson went to an Amsterdam grocery store to see just how much packaging garbage results from preparing a meal for two.
Listen to the result

Unpackaged
Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way. Just this past weekend Marnie went to a store in a lovely Dickensian part of London. She visited a shop called Unpackaged, which offers produce with no plastic packaging.
Listen to the story

Donkeys restored in Sicily
We take you to the small town of Castelbuono in Sicily, where an aging and expensive fleet of garbage trucks has been replaced by a cheaper, greener and friendlier beast of burden. Naomi Fowler reports. Listen to the story

Watch one of Castelbuono's garbage donkeys at work: 

Garbage power
The city of Amsterdam has a rather more high-tech method of eliminating its garbage. In fact it’s solved two problems with one gigantic solution: a new power plant burns the city’s rubbish and produces enough electricity to power the trams and light the streets at night. Thijs Westerbeek reports.
Listen to the report

Shiply
Far too often, trucks making long-distance deliveries return with empty loads. It’s a waste of fuel and time, but above all, a wasted opportunity. Robert Matthams is the brains behind Shiply, an on-line transport marketplace. Marnie caught up with him after he won a Dutch green challenge award.
Listen to the conversation