Waste Prevention! What You Can Do

Waste facilities in Cork

This is an image of the waste facilities at a Cork County Council site

Copyright John Doheny

Waste facilities in Cork
Copyright John Doheny

Waste facilities in Cork

This is an image of the waste facilities at a Cork County Council site

Copyright John Doheny

Enlarge image

The reason that waste prevention is top of the management pyramid is simple – the less waste we produce the less we have to care for. Education is key to the prevention of rubbish. If people are more informed about waste then maybe they will stop and think before buying a product that is housed in a lot of packaging.

By consistently using landfills to handle rubbish Ireland ranks near the bottom of the pyramid. We need to move upwards towards waste prevention and minimisation as the mass of landfill sites available is decreasing every year. The main way to do this, is to educate people on halting the production of waste.  We can all help to reduce the amount of waste by cutting down what is produced. It is then important to recycle or compost any suitable material and to dispose of the rest in a safe manner.

In accordance with the Waste Management Act 1996, agricultural, commercial and industrial activities are under obligation to reduce or prevent their production of waste. Producer responsibility initiatives are a key means of preventing waste production. Important producer responsibility obligations have been created in relation to packaging waste, end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), farm plastic waste and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).