Waste Reduction Week is Canada’s largest public awareness campaign since 2001. It happens annually in the third week of October. This is an opportunity to give back to celebrate our environmental efforts and support the circular economy by learning about waste reduction, recycling, e-waste, and food waste. This year, waste reduction week is happening from October 17-23.
Circular Economy
What is the circular economy? It is the process of incorporating, “better design that consumes less raw material during production, maximizes value during use, and improves products and services that are intended to eliminate waste.” It is beyond what traditional recycling is instead the idea to shop smart. To purchase, smartly designed products that are meant to be reused, refurbished, and dismantled. This keeps materials at their highest utility and value throughout their lifecycle, and recirculated into productions cycle to avoid waste.
Why is the Importance of Waste Reduction?
The more waste that is produced, the more greenhouse emission is contributing to climate change. Raw materials must be extracted from the earth, then the product must be fabricated then transported to wherever it will be sold. Instead, reducing and reusing products are the more effective ways to save natural resources and protect our environment. By reducing and reusing, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions, prevent pollution, save energy, help sustain the environment for future generations, reduce the amount of waste in landfills, allows products to be used to their fullest extent, and save money.
How Can You Reduce and Reuse?
- Reduce your food waste: by shopping smart (second grade produce from Peko!), buying what you need, composting food scraps, and donating unused perishables to food banks or shelters.
- Reuse or repurpose items: old clothing, cloth bags, containers are a few products you can repurpose and find new use for!
- Maintain and repair products: clothing, appliances, tires, see if you can repair them before throwing them out as frequently.
- Know before you throw: know what items belong in the correct bin. It is important to recycle right and recycle more.