Reduce Waste
Beyond efforts of not producing excess, the best practices of conservation in order to avoid the generation of large volumes of waste,
and to reduce waste may be achieved by simply not creating it in the first place.
At the end of life or during the normal consumption process or for extraneous materials generated from production,
the disposition of these ongoing materials generation must be in some way be managed somehow.
Traditionally these scrap, waste and by-products, if not otherwise managed,
all accumulate and are destined for disposal in the waste stream.
To reduce materials once they have entered the waste stream the application of a 4Rs Strategy may be employed.
The first step in reducing waste may be by performing a
waste audit
at the beginning, practicing a systematic
waste triage.
Waste Triage
An initial rapid manual inspection or triage is performed to determine an assessment of the steps.
1) Should this Item even be in the waste steam
2) Reuse - assess potential fitness as a secondhand, reusable or repairable or otherwise repurposed item
3) Recycle - is the item recyclable and need to be placed into a suitable pathway for recycling
4) Designated Items - does the item contain a designated material or hazardous substance that requires particular handling,
such as battery, magnets or designated materials
5) Rejection - if the triage inspection determines the item not suitable for any of the first 4 steps,
then the item is rejected for disposal
The Waste Triage is meant to be a quick identification stage to determine the correct pathway for the material to proceed
so as to achieve optimum waste reduction.
Waste Audit
An initial step in order to gain an understanding of, "how much of what" is contained in your waste steam
a waste audit may be preformed.
This may be done at home on a personal household level or on a commercial industrial business scale,
but it is critical to establish the actual facts to what you are dealing with. (capture the data).
Learn more about
waste audits
4 R's Information
For anyone seeking current information or research data on
waste Reduction, Reuse, Recycling and Recovery,
you may access and ask your
4 R's Strategy Questions
to a core group of experienced and knowledgeable recycling industry professionals.
