During a study tour in Europe last year I asked an engineer working in the Swiss waste industry where their landfills were located. He replied there weren't any and that many countries in Europe had achieved similar.

I was amazed to learn this, and it has had a major impact on my thinking.

The very concept of landfills is weird when you think about it.

As a society we spend so much effort in growing and mining the food and materials that enable us to live our lives. Then when we have no further use of these we collect and send them to a big hole in the ground to be buried — out of sight and out of mind.

Landfills are uncontrolled chemistry experiments. In addition to emitting methane (a greenhouse gas 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide) they require long-term management for many decades to ensure that they do not pollute the environment, especially our groundwater.

When Planet Ark was formed back in the early 1990s one of the reasons we focussed on promoting recycling was the belief that there was no hope of creating a sustainable society if we can't even deal with our own waste.

That's why we are wanting Australians to help create a country with no landfills.

No one wants to live near one

Increasingly we are seeing concern from communities about landfills, as no one wants to live near them or build on top of a closed one.

I often hear that is isn't problem in Australia as, unlike the Europeans, we have lots of room for landfills. What they forget is that around 7 out of 10 Australians live in our capital cities and we have one of the highest urbanised populations in the world at about 85 per cent.

This concentration of population means that our cities have very high property values and landfills are increasingly being sited hundreds of kilometres away from them.

For example, a significant portion of Sydney's waste goes to Australia's largest landfill near Goulburn, more than 200 kilometres away.

Circular economy retains value of materials

Australia currently puts 40 per cent of its waste into landfill. ( ABC Capricornia: Paul Robinson )

Landfills have no role in a sustainable society based on circular economy thinking.

A circular economy is one that retains the value of materials in the economy for as long as possible, therefore reducing the depletion of natural resources and impacts of material use and waste generation on our environment.

A number of countries, with a combined population of about 150 million, have virtually eliminated the need for landfills including Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Denmark and Norway.

They are all landfilling three per cent or less of their waste. Australia currently puts 40 per cent of its waste into landfill.

These countries achieved this by maximising recycling, separating and processing food and other organic wastes through technologies such as anaerobic digestion and using other energy from waste technologies for the remainder of their waste streams.

This has not happened overnight but has been part of a long-term plan including such instruments as landfill directives and levies and significant public education programs.

National Waste Policy update nearing completion

We have a great opportunity to achieve the end of landfills in the coming decade.

A major update to our National Waste Policy is nearing completion. This has strong targets such as a minimum of 80 per cent of all waste being recycled or recovered.

To be successfully implemented it will need strong leadership from government and business, along with substantial funding.

We will also need comprehensive national education campaigns so we can play our vital role in the recycling process.

Let's beat this target and get to 100 per cent — to think beyond landfills and create a circular economy.

Paul Klymenko is chief executive of Planet Ark.