In 2003, the Japanese municipality of Kamikatsu declared their intention to become a Zero-Waste Town. While true zero-waste is impossible, 20 years later the town has reached an impressive 80% recycling rate. (The national average in Japan is just 20%; in America, single digits.)
While quite interesting, I'll mention this as a heads-up: The website managed to mess my browser (Firefox on Windows, in this case) so much I had to close it and restart it.