���˿���

Anything that is unwanted or unused and subsequently discarded by the consumer can be considered waste. Every citizen in Europe produces an average of 1.69 kilograms of waste per day - that is around 620 kilograms per year. To put that into perspective, that’s approximately 1553 handheld computer games you are throwing away per year - five per day!

One solution to dealing with waste is to put it into landfill sites. However, landfill produces around 5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. It is estimated that 1.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) such as methane and landfill gases were generated in 2016. In the same year, the world generated 242 million tonnes of plastic waste. This means that landfill causes BIG problems for our environment.

In Northern Ireland, in recent years there has been a move away from creating new landfill sites. Laws from the EU and within Northern Ireland mean that we have had to cut down the amount of waste that goes into landfill sites and it is very difficult to open up new sites.

In 2022, Arc21 noted that Northern Ireland is still very reliant on landfill – even though it is the worst way to get rid of rubbish. They noted that the amount of waste collected by NI councils was 275,759 Tonnes and 24% of this ended up in landfill, 53% was recycled and 22% was used for energy recovery.

Northern Ireland currently has a Net Zero target for climate change – but we will need to reduce our dependence on landfill if we want to achieve this aim.

The way we produce and consume goods has a major impact on waste generation.

The production and consumption model works like this:

• extraction of resources
• production of goods
• consumption of goods
• waste generation

This process of waste disposal is highly polluting. It damages our world in more ways than one. It can lower the quality of drinking water and can harm oceans and rivers.

If soil quality is reduced, this causes shortages in food, as well as ineffective use of the land. This process of waste disposal also pollutes the air, further fuelling global warming. Since there is significant damage to water, land and air, the pollution produced also damages wildlife and ecosystems.

The production and consumption model describes a linear economy. It is designed to take new materials, produce a product which then ends up as waste. If we want to change the way we produce waste, we need to switch from a linear economy to a circular economy.

A circular economy demands a change in the way we, the consumers, and companies think and act when it comes to waste management. For a circular economy to work, companies need to start using waste as raw materials and reduce the use of new resources to make goods.

Consumers have a big role in the transition away from a linear economy. We must use products responsibly, applying the Three Rs Rule: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The order of the Three Rs is hierarchal, meaning there are priorities when attempting to prevent waste.

• Reduce: it is important to reduce consumption in the first place - preventing the generation of waste, changing our consumption habits and purchasing products responsibly.
• Reuse: products can be used more than once, repaired if they are not working or even used for something entirely different - like using newspapers to make pots for planting seeds in.
• Recycle: only when the first two options aren’t available should we recycle, which means reintroducing waste materials into the production cycle as raw materials to produce new goods.

The reason why recycling is the last option is that it takes a lot of resources and energy to turn the waste back into a raw material.