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Waste Minimisation and Refuse
What is waste minimisation?
Simply put, Waste Minimisation is reducing the amount of waste that is produced in the first place. Waste Minimisation has rightly been placed at the top of the waste hierarchy before reuse, recycling, resource recovery or residual disposal. An excellent example of waste minimisation is the plastic supermarket bag.
 A person goes into a supermarket and buys a carton of milk and a loaf of bread. The checkout person puts this in a plastic supermarket bag which the purchaser uses to carry the milk and bread to the car. They then drive home, and use the plastic bag to carry the milk and bread from their car to their house. Being a responsible citizen, and knowing that the Resource Recovery Park in Chelmer Street accepts plastic bags for recycling, the purchaser then puts the plastic bag into his recycling crate. Eventually the purchaser takes the crate with the supermarket bag down to the Resource Recovery Park creating a small amount of fuel emissions on the way. The plastic bag is sorted, and baled and shipped off to Christchurch, where it is put on a ship and sent to China. On arrival in China the plastic bag is unloaded and transported by truck to a recycling factory. The plastic bag is then broken up and recycled into useable plastic but the byproducts from this process contaminate the neighbouring river. The plastic is then recycled into a new plastic bag. The plastic bag is then transported by truck to the dock and shipped back to New Zealand. It is unloaded at the dock and transported by truck to the supermarket. A person goes into a supermarket and buys a carton of milk and a loaf of bread.
It would be a lot better if the person just carried the loaf of bread and carton of milk to the car without a plastic supermarket bag.
So should we use the recycling eco bags instead? In short no. Waste Minimisation is about breaking the expensive and hugely fuel consumptive loop on recycling, and recognizing which products we need and which ones we don’t. A number of people have seen an opportunity to jump on the recycling message as a way to sell more products and increase the size of their business. The eco bags which are fast becoming popular use recycled plastic, and reduce the dependency on plastic supermarket bags – which is great. However there is absolutely no need to for them. You can use any bag to put your groceries in. So why buy another bag when you have a perfectly good holdall at home? |