Waste Hierarchy
Below you can see the "Waste Hierarchy", which we have to keep in mind when dealing with waste. It shows the different ways you can deal with waste, from what's considered best, to what's considered worst. Each section below will be updated with new figures soon...
Reduce
The best option of all: don't dispose of things in the first place. Avoid over-ordering, and use things to their absolute maximum capacity before throwing them out.
Our Eco-Friendly Buying Practices »
Preparing for Re-use
If you've definitely finished with something, and really do need to dispose of it, the best thing to do is to give it to someone else who needs it.
Recycle
The one everyone has heard about: sending waste of to be broken down into its basic form, and used to create new things.
Food waste processing
It's possible to take food waste and, through the process of anaerobic digestion, convert it into energy.
Recovery
Instead of taking waste to a landfill site, you can incinerate it, feeding the energy generated back into the national grid.
Dispose
Sending waste to landfill is the worst option. It leaves non-biodegradable stuff lying around for years and years, taking up valuable space, and potentially poisoning the environment.
We send nothing directly to landfill - the figure referred to here is residue from the energy reclaiming process. To help us reduce this figure even further, make sure you re-use or recycle everything you can, and keep contaminated waste out of the recycle bins.