“One, two, three….” Hatsue Katayama, a 70-year-old Japanese housewife, is kneeling at a low table in her home while counting aloud from a handwritten list.

She continues, without drawing breath, until she reaches 25: "That’s the number of rubbish categories we have at home.”

Mrs Katayama’s diligent rubbish disposal habits are reflected in the clusters of small bins throughout the family home, devoted to clear plastics, bottle tops, toothbrushes and socks.

More remarkable than her bin collection, however, is the fact that she is not alone: the practice is shared by almost all residents of the 1,500-strong community of Kamikatsu, a speck of a village located between folds of forested mountains in rural Tokushima Prefecture, southwest Japan.

The village is fast acquiring a fame that belies its remote location and diminutive size after masterminding an ambitious environmental project: it is determined to become Japan’s first zero waste community by 2020.

And it seems to be on track to reach its goal. As Prime Minister Theresa May fends off criticism that her new 25-year environmental plan to cut all avoidable plastic waste by 2042 lacks urgency, Kamikatsu is emerging as a global prototype of a zero waste community.