Reducing waste

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The best kind of waste is the waste that is not produced at all. The first step in living a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle is to reduce the amount of waste that is produced in our everyday lives. This is why people should not buy things that they do not need. Instead, people should favour products that can be reused time and time again, like the rocking horses in the images below.

If a person does not have use for a product that they have, they can give it to someone who needs it. A good way to do this is to give the products to a recycling center. By doing so, an unused item can find a new owner.

Products and objects need to be repaired once in a while.

Another good way to make items available for reuse is to sell them in a flea market. By doing so, you can make a little bit of money when your unused items find new owners. Nowadays, there also exists a variety of internet flea markets and auction websites. These websites make finding a new buyer for your unused items easy.

Glass bottles are a good example of reuse in practice. Reusable glass bottles are returned to the store, washed, relabelled and refilled with liquid.

If an item is broken but still usable, it can be repaired. By repairing items, we can prolong their lives. If a broken item cannot be repaired, its material can still be reused. For example, a broken rocking horse can be used to make wooden building blocks.

On the left: Glass bottles are widely recycled. On the right: The wood from a broken rocking horse can be made into building blocks.

An example of a reused product that is made from recycled material is recycled paper. Recycled plastic can be used to make clothes. Recycled glass can be made into glass wool, which can be used to insulate houses.

On the left: Paper recycling. On the right: The amount of non-recycled waste should be reduced.

Composting is a process where nutrients are recycled. For example, wooden building blocks can be shredded and put into a compost. By doing so, the nutrients contained in the wood can be reused. Composts produce new soil, which can be used to plant trees and flowers.

If a product cannot be reused or recycled, it can be burned in a waste power plant. There, the heat produced by burning waste is used as a source of energy and electricity. By burning unusable items and materials to produce energy, we can conserve other kinds of more expensive fuels.

Nowadays, the amount of material placed in landfills has been cut down. A landfill is still the final destination for all products that cannot be made use of in any different way. To keep landfills from growing, we must find new ways to reuse and recycle the products and items we use in our daily lives.

Terminology

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REDUCING WASTE
Term	Explanation
waste	An unnecessary item, product or food, which cannot be used anymore.
recycling center	An area or a building where people can bring their unused items for other people to take with them.
flea market	A store where used items are sold.
reuse	Using products multiple times or using their recycled material to make new products.
composting	A process where food and garden waste are converted into nutrients in a special container called a compost.
landfill	An area of land that is used as the final destination of unrecyclable waste.

17. Reducing waste

Reducing waste

Terminology