The premise of this paper explores the scenario of collaborative services, a network of services a community may establish to share with one another. The paper will look particularly at the capacity of collaborative services to reduce waste-making. The paper will focus upon intangible waste, ie that of wasted human capacity, opportunity or capability and the ways in which such waste can be avoided or mitigated through the social innovations established in collaborative service networks. The Scenario of Collaborative Services indicates how, through local collaboration,mutual assistance and shared use we can reduce significantly each individual’s needs in terms of products and living space and optimize the use of equipment, reduce travel distances and, finally, lessen the impact of our daily lives on the environment. The scenario also gives an idea of how the diffusion of organizations based on sharing,exchange, and participation on a neighborhood scale can also regenerate the social fabric, restore relations of proximity and create meaningful bonds between individuals. A collaborative services network is supported by the design of urban spaces which can be shared by community to pool resources. For this reason, the presence of urban places which support a collaborative services model, has a significant affect upon the relative opportunity afforded to members of the community to connect with one another and develop further capabilities, or for such opportunities to be wasted and thus human capabilities and capacities are overlooked. Citing Sen and Nussbaum, Sennett (2012,p292) suggests that ‘people’s capacities for cooperation are far greater and more complex than institutions allow them to be’ and this paper will argue that collaborative services offer opportunities for cooperative capacities to be explored. The paper will explore this through reference to the work of Jegou & Manzini (Collaborative services:2008), Staszowski & Manzini (Public & Collaborative : 2013)and a range of international social innovation case studies visited; in San Francisco in 2014 and at the SIX summer school in Vancouver Canada (2014) and Johannesburg South Africa (2014). Refereed/Peer-reviewed