Waste Minimisation

Waste minimisation simply means reducing the amount of rubbish we all produce or to ensure that it is used to its full potential by being reused or recycled.

Waste minimisation can be achieved using the principles of the 3R's :
REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE

Reduce - to reduce the amount of waste we produce means we must think about rubbish before we create it :

• How am I going to dispose of this ?
• Is this necessary ?
• Could I buy this in different packaging ?
• Is this recyclable ?

Reuse - every time we go to throw something away we need to ask ourselves :

• Could this be reused ?
• Could this be repaired ?
• Could someone else use this ?

Recycle - for materials that cannot be reused we need to ask whether we could turn them into something new. This can still help conserve natural resoucres :

• Is this recyclable ?
• Are there facilities nearby where I can take this to be recyled.

The links listed to the left offer a number of practical options and ways to reduce waste.