The purpose of this short note is to encourage all of your staff to consider the impact of waste and to encourage them to adopt the 4R’s approach to the management of waste.
This is also called ‘the Waste Hierarchy’. Only after the 4R’s have been considered should waste be thrown away. Since disposing of waste costs money then acting on the 4R’s often means costs savings.
How can we reduce waste?
This could be by:
• Eliminating a process and so the waste altogether
• Changing the process to produce less waste (e.g. changing printers to default to double sided printing automatically, or using electronic diaries rather than paper ones)
• Using re-usable rather than disposable products
How can we reuse waste?
If you can’t avoid producing the waste, the second R – reuse, is still a better option than recycling.
For example reusing plastic containers and shopping bags, other examples may include donating old equipment to others such as Charities or Youth Groups.
Recycling waste – Recycling waste is better than disposing of it.
Remember reducing or reusing waste is preferable. A lot of people think that it’s OK to produce waste as long as you recycle it, to Reduce or Reuse should always be considered first.
These days, recycling is very widely practiced in offices, workplaces and homes for materials such as paper, cardboard, metal and glass.
Responsibly dispose waste.
When waste can’t be reduced, reused or recycled, sending waste for some form of energy recovery is preferable to just disposing of it. This can be by sending it to a landfill site which utilises landfill gas for energy recovery or burning it in a waste to energy plant. So even as part of disposal, the fourth R’s should also be considered.
The Future
Until now, the idea of the waste hierarchy and the 4R’s has been something companies did in an attempt to be ‘green’ and hopefully save money.
Legally anyone who produces, collects, transports or acts as a waste broker is required to take measures to apply the waste hierarchy.
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