Waste Prevention Beats Recycling Headlines
Apply the EPA waste hierarchy to distinguish source reduction from lower-ranked waste actions.
The best waste action often happens before there is waste. Recycling is visible, countable, and easy to communicate. That is why teams overuse it as a climate story. The EPA hierarchy is useful because it forces a harder question: could we avoid creating this material or keep it in use longer in the first place? What the hierarchy is really saying Source reduction and reuse sit at the top because they cut demand for virgin materials and reduce downstream handling. Recycling and composting still matter, but they manage materials after creation. Energy recovery and disposal sit lower because they capture…
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