What is Waste?
Almost every activity using materials and energy generates waste - from mining to manufacturing to cooking dinner.
Rubbish
Waste is created in many ways. A baby wearing disposable nappies, manufacturing a vehicle, a person throwing away the packaging from a museli bar, demolishing a building and using a plastic supermarket shopping bag are all examples of activities that generate waste.
Waste Matters
The improper disposal of waste can have a significant impact on us personally and our environment:
Waste is unslightly
Decomposing organic waste in landfills makes methane, a harmful greenhouse gas
Landfills produce leachate, that can contaminate our water and soil
Burning waste can release hazardous and toxic substances
Waste creates a large cost, from production to treatment to disposal
Wasted Opportunities
We live in a wasteful world. In 2007, Southlanders threw away over 55,000 tonnes of rubbish - that same weight as 137 Boeing 747's or 7,857 African Elephants.
Everything we use and throw away is made from the earth's natural resources - water, oil, gas, coal, air, rocks, plants and animals. Paper was once a tree in a forest. Your soft-drink can was once rocks. Glass bottles were sand. Clothing can come from a variety of resources like plants, animals and chemicals made from oil.
We are using up our planets resources at a very fast rate. If we keep going like this, we will need several planet 'earth's' to sustain us.
Waste does not have to be wasted. It can have many uses, especially if it can be recycled or reused.
What can I do?
By minimising our waste and making the most of our resources we can make a difference.
Δ Reduce - not make rubbish
Δ Reuse - use an item more than once
Δ Recycle - turn waste materials into new products
Δ Recovery - turn food waste into black gold
Its collection day in Invercargill and residents have put out
their recycle crates and wheelie bins for emptying
