Communities must aim at producing no waste if they are to provide a healthy planet for future generations, according to an expert from Australia.

Australian zero waste specialist Gerard Gillespie brings his message to Brighton on Monday in a lecture sponsored by the Argus.

He will stress that although zero waste is a long-term target "like getting to the moon", it should be the focus of waste policies because everything that was thrown away carried risks for the future.

He believes relying on incineration or landfill is no substitute for cutting the amount of waste we throw away and recycling what is left.

He said: "If we want a safe planet for our children and our grandchildren we need to aim at 100 per cent."

Mr Gillespie has been involved in a zero waste policy in the Australian capital Canberra.

The amount of waste the city's 311,000 population sends to landfill has halved since 1993 and is still falling.

He said: "We think we will get to 85 per cent relatively quickly, the last 15 per cent is going to be hard. We will probably need legislation."

His visit comes as East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove Council prepare to publish waste plans governing how we deal with our rubbish for the next twenty years.

The plans call for a third of waste to be recycled with much of the rest burned in two incinerators, planned for North Quay, Newhaven, and Mountfield Mine, near Robertsbridge.

Shifting from a throw-away society to recycling would also create jobs, Mr Gillespie insists.

He said: "You can comfortably say that for 200 jobs in a normal year you would have to recycle 400,000 tonnes."

By that standard, if all the household and commercial rubbish thrown away each year in Brighton and Hove and East Sussex was recycled, it could create 300 jobs.

If refuse from the construction industry was added, the waste economy could account for as many as 950 new jobs.

Gerard Gillespie will be at the Brighton Centre on Monday, October 23 (doors open 7pm), in a lecture sponsored by the Argus and Magpie Recycling. Admission is free.