In the last two years, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), over 250 million tons of trash was produced in the United States while only 83 million tons was recycled. You can make a difference by practicing waste prevention.
Waste Prevention are practices that limit or cut down the amount and/or the toxicity of wastes that are generated at home, work, school and in your everyday life prior to recycling, treatment or disposal. Waste Prevention is also referred as Source Reduction and Waste Minimization. Waste Prevention is NOT recycling. The main goal is to eliminate waste before it is produced. A simple example of waste prevention is using reusable utensils instead of disposable ones. Benefits of waste reduction includes:
- decreasing the demand of landfill space,
- conserving energy and resources,
- reducing pollution, and
- making production processess more efficient.
Here are some tips you can do to practice: