After decades of focusing on the 'recycling' part of reduce, reuse, recycle, it's time to step back and truly consider the first mandate in that mantra: Reduce. We cannot recycle our way out of all the waste we create. As the attached national report chronicles, we are trashing our health and our environment by producing too much stuff, most of which ends up in landfills, incinerators, or as litter. It's time to fully embrace the goal of zero waste here in Massachusetts and around the country. This state of the state provides a synopsis of the problems we face and the solutions we should pursue in the Commonwealth.