I’ve previously written about why you should care about waste, and if you want to reduce the waste you send to landfill it is a good idea to consider the waste hierarchy. The aim of the hierarchy is to highlight that the greatest environmental benefits are gained at the top (prevention and reduction) and the benefits reduce as you move down the hierarchy.
Reduce
The greatest benefit comes from not producing waste in the first place because materials and energy haven’t been used to unnecessarily to produce something that is not wanted or needed. With an estimated four nappy changes a day [1] disposable nappies can add a significant volume to a family’s household waste, and one way to reduce this volume is to use washable nappies. Rosie has collected the views of Mums who’ve used them in two posts Cloth Nappies and Mums who Love Them and Cloth nappies – Guest Post from Karen at Mad Cats and Babies.
Moving away from solid waste, but staying with the theme of reduce is Jenny’s post Simply Washing Tabs Review – Environment and Vegan Friendly Washing. In this case, the reduction comes from reducing the chemicals that may be released into the sewers.
Reuse
Once you have items you no longer want, the next best option is to reuse the item as this requires none or little energy to keep the product out of a landfill. It is amazing how many items you can find other uses for especially if you know creative people like Red Ted Art to inspire you; here are her instructions on how to make Ring Pull Tab Bracelets and 19 different Uses for Shredded Paper.
Recycle, Recover and Dispose
Although I don’t have any posts for the remaining stages of the waste hierarchy I want to quickly touch on recycling, recovering and disposal. Recycling is probably the most talked about stage where the material from a product is used to make another product (for example plastic bottles being used to make fleeces) but this takes energy so is less beneficial than reuse. Recovery is about recovering energy from waste and disposal is the final disposal of waste, often to landfill.
The waste hierarchy considers the use and disposal of a product once it is in your hands, but what about what the impact before you own it? Have you ever thought how and where it was made; this is a question Ali is considering and asking clothes manufacturers in her post Who made my clothes?
Thank you to everyone who sent me posts. Please send me links to your environmental posts for the next round-up via my blog or tweet me @katedavis. Alternatively, let me know if you have any questions about the environment and I’ll try and answer them in future posts.
About Kate Davis
Kate’s first environmental action was picking cans out of the bins at school for recycling, leading to a green Blue Peter badge, and developing in to a career as an environmental consultant. At home she spends her time trying to convince her two children to turn off lights and tap and her husband to consider eco features as they turn an old care home into their family home. Kate is originally from Yorkshire, but now lives in Oxfordshire. She blogs at darktea www.darktea.co.uk/blog and is on Twitter @katedavis.