United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA530-K-95-002
June 1995
Solid Waste and Emergency Response (5305)
Spotlight on Waste
Prevention
EPA's Program To
Reduce Solid Waste at
the Source
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Prevent Waste
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The environmental
benefits of recycling
are well known.
Many businesses,
governments,
and households are
collecting discards
for recycling, and
are recovering
more materials than
ever before. In fact,
over one-fifth of the
municipal solid waste
generated in our country
is currently recycled or composted.
Despite progress in recycling, however, Americans are still
generating too much waste. Every day, on average, each
individual discards about four pounds of material. These
discards burden both the environment and our economy.
Even recycling, which adds major economic and
environmental benefits, creates economic and
environmental costs.
The best approach to our solid waste
challenge is to cut the creation of waste
in the first place. Waste that is not
created does not have to be managed
later. That's why waste prevention
(reducing and reusing) is the ideal
solid waste solution.
Source reduction, also known as waste
prevention, is the preferred solid waste
tactic, followed by recycling. Waste
that cannot be prevented or
recycled can be incinerated
or placed in a landfill.
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ETTING AT THE SOURCE
Waste prevention involves altering the design, manufacture, purchase, or
use of products and materials to reduce the amount and toxicity of what
gets thrown away.
Waste prevention is sometimes called "source reduction" because it
reduces or eliminates pollution at the source. Thus, donating an
unwanted computer to a charity (rather than setting it out for disposal
or recycling its parts) is waste prevention. So is photocopying on both
sides of a sheet of paper. Altering material specifications so that fewer
hazardous constituents are used in a manufacturing process also is
waste prevention.
Waste prevention activities help shift the nation's emphasis from
pollution cleanup to pollution avoidance. In particular, waste prevention
plays a key role in reducing pollution throughout the life cycle of a
product (see chart below).
tWaste in the Life Cycle of a Product
Raw M Materials I Product I Product Use,
Materials ml Processing I Manufacture or Disposal
Acquisition V Consumption"
Opportunities to reduce waste exist throughout a product's life cycle.
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ENEFITS OF WASTE PREVENTION
Preventing waste has many positive effects on the environment:
Conservation of natural resources. By reducing the amount of
raw materials that are used in manufacturing, waste prevention
conserves resources such as metals, water, and petroleum.
Reduced environmental impact from raw material extrac-
tion. Reducing the use of raw materials in manufacturing
minimizes the environmental impacts associated with mining,
drilling, extracting, processing, and transporting these raw materi-
als.
Reduced energy usage and pollution from manufacturing.
Because waste prevention prolongs the lives of materials and
products, it reduces the need to manufacture new goods or
reprocess materials, thereby saving energy and avoiding pollution.
Reduced burden on landfills and combustors. Preventing
waste helps extend the lives of existing solid waste disposal facili-
ties and helps avoid disputes over siting new facilities.
Preventing waste also saves money. The economic benefits of
preventing waste include:
Reduced waste management costs. Waste prevention saves
money by lessening the amount of waste that must be collected
and processed. It also reduces the costs associated with siting and
operating management facilities such as landfills, combustors, and
materials recovery facilities.
Savings in material and supply costs. Reusing or prolonging
the lives of products means that these items don't need to be pur-
chased as frequently. Savings in avoided purchasing costs can be
significant, especially for companies and government agencies.
Savings from more efficient work practices. Waste-reducing
work habits (such as using electronic mail in place of paper) can
often save time as well as money.
Potential revenues from selling unwanted or reusable materi-
als. Through a variety of venues, from waste exchanges to yard
sales, it is often possible to earn revenues from the sale of goods
that are no longer needed and that would otherwise become
waste.
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AYS TO PREVENT WASTE
PACKAGING REDUCTION. Many kinds of organizations are reducing
the packaging they use to transport and contain products and materials, as
well as the packaging they receive through shipments. For example, some
companies are "lightweighting" packaging by reducing its thickness or
shipping merchandise in reusable or returnable containers. Businesses,
agencies, organizations, and individuals alike can practice waste preven-
tion by purchasing products in bulk and those with reusable or minimal
packaging.
PAPER REDUCTION. Paper is
still the most abundant material
in the municipal solid waste
stream, but people everywhere
are reducing paper through
activities such as copying on both
sides of a piece of paper, using
electronic and old-fashioned
bulletin boards to distribute
information, and paring down
mailing lists.
PRODUCT AND SUPPLY
REUSE. Replacing disposable
items with long-lasting,
reusable products can break
the frequently expensive cycle
of discarding and reordering.
Hundreds of items, from
file folders to air filters,
can be reused.
EXCHANGE, SALE, OR DONATION OF UNNEEDED GOODS.
Through waste exchanges, organizations can trade, sell, or give away
goods or materials that would otherwise become waste. Unwanted
materials and surplus inventory also can be donated to educational
and charitable organizations.
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HAZARDOUS CONSTITUENT
REDUCTION. Many products
are available with few or no
hazardous constituents, including
inks, glues, paints, solvents, and
cleaning products.
USE AND MAINTENANCE OF DURABLE EQUIPMENT AND
SUPPLIES. High-quality, long-lasting supplies and easily repairable
equipment stay out of the waste stream longer. Although such items
can cost more initially, these expenses can be justified by lower maintenance,
disposal, and replacement costs.
"ONSITE" COMPOSTING
OF YARD TRIMMINGS.
"Grasscycling" (leaving grass
clippings on the lawn) and
onsite or backyard composting
keeps yard trimmings out of the
waste stream. Using compost
also returns valuable nutrients
to the soil.
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Waste prevention ties in nicely with the
economic climate of the 1990s. Businesses
are reviewing their operations with a sharp eye towards
cutting costs in purchasing and operations, while maintaining or
improving the level of service they provide. These changes, in turn,
can increase competitiveness and profitability. Waste prevention
serves all of these goals. A company that practices waste prevention
also can improve customer relations by demonstrating its concern
about the environment. In addition, a waste prevention ethic can
enhance employee relations by involving staff in an organization's
environ-mental program. The following are just a few of many note-
worthy examples of pollution prevention successes being achieved by
some of America's largest companies:
In 1992, DuPont and its customers reused 180 million pounds of
wood pallets, boxes, and other packaging materialsnearly 25
percent of the total amount of packaging used by the company that
year. This program saved DuPont approximately $3 million in
1992.
Over the past four years, Martin Marietta has saved 13 million
sheets of computer printout paper and over $4 million in supply
costs by encouraging employees to edit documents electronically.
The company has also eliminated paper timecards and travel
expense forms at several Northeast facilities.
Johnson & Johnson, a large healthcare products company, has
saved an estimated $2.8 million since it instituted a program in
1988 to reduce packaging waste. The program helped the company
reduce solid waste generation by over 2,600 tons annually.
Sprint, the long distance telephone company, has launched an
innovative customer billing system that prints two-sided telephone
bills. Sprint expects to reduce paper consumption by more than 450
tons annually when the new system becomes fully implemented.
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Photo courtesy of Pallet Enterprise magazine.
In 1993, Quebecor Printing's 506,000-square-foot printing plant in
Mount Morris, Illinois, saved $14,000 by repairing and reusing ship-
ping pallets. A refurbished pallet is only 20 percent of the cost of a
new one. The company also ships unused and
scrap plastic wrap back to vendors for reuse.
Many small- and medium-sized businesses are
also finding ways to prevent waste:
Boston's Park Plaza Hotel & Towers, one of
several properties owned by the Saunders Hotel
Group, eliminated over two million plastic bot-
tles from its trash by switching to the use of
liquid pump dispensers for shampoo and soap in
guest rooms. The hotel was able to upgrade the
amenities it provides to guests with the money
saved by this waste prevention tactic. The com-
pany's other hotels also switched to reusable
dispensers based on the Park Plaza's success. In another innovative
waste prevention move, the hotel's housekeeping staff came up with
the idea of making kitchen aprons from stained linen tablecloths that
otherwise would have been discarded.
Asbury Park Press,
a New Jersey multi-
media print and
broadcast communi-
cations company,
has realized annual
savings of over
$38,000 by switching
to cloth rags supplied
by a laundry service
instead of using
disposable ones.
Using about 120,000
cloth rags each year,
the company is also
avoiding the costs to
dispose of single-use
rags.
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Larry's Markets, a grocery chain in the Seattle, Washington, area,
encourages customers to reuse grocery bags. The company buys
approximately five million large-size grocery bags per year. If all of
these bags were discarded, they would generate approximately
500,000 pounds of waste. Larry's Markets reduced bag waste by
approximately 15 percent in 1993 by giving free reusable bags to
customers who signed a bag reuse pledge.
Rosenberger's Dairies of Hatfield, Pennsylvania, supplies over 220
schools with refillable eight-ounce plastic milk bottles for use in
their lunchrooms. The bottles can be refilled up to 100 times before
being recycled and prevent 90,000 milk bottles from becoming waste
each day.
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Waste Prevention
Pays for
Government
Agencies at all levels of government across
America are making waste prevention a top
priority. In addition to saving on purchasing and waste
disposal costs, municipalities can use waste prevention activities to
help reduce the cost burdens associated with collecting, hauling,
and processing waste. They also can avoid or postpone the need to
expand existing disposal or recycling facilities, or to site new ones.
One way governments can encourage waste prevention is through
"unit pricing" or "pay-as-you-throw" programs. In the 1,600 com-
munities with unit pricing in the United States, residents pay for
trash service based on the volume or weight of waste they put out
for collection, thus providing an economic incentive to reduce.
Some communities that have implemented unit pricing have sig-
nificantly reduced waste generation.
Specific examples of government waste prevention efforts include:
Memorial Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, has slashed its
costs for batteries used in specialized portable cardiac monitor-
ing equipment by 25 percent thanks to a longer-lasting
substitute battery. By switching from mercury-containing batter-
ies to a zinc-air replacement, the hospital also reduced the
volume of batteries requiring disposal (and the amount of haz-
ardous constituents entering the waste stream). Environmental
officials estimate that during its first year alone, this program
eliminated 342 pounds of mercury from the county's waste
stream.
The Village of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, cut waste by 30
percent after the township adopted a "pay-as-you-throw" pro-
gram for trash collection.
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In Seattle, Washington, residents cut waste generation from an
average of 3.5 waste cans to 1.7 cans per household per week after
unit pricing was launched.
In rural Itasca County, Minnesota, the county's road and bridge
department started using reusable air filters instead of disposable fil-
ters in its garages. The county is saving $4,700 in purchasing costs
annually and has virtually eliminated air filters as a component of the
county's waste stream. While more labor is required to clean the
reusable filters, money is saved by avoiding the costs to purchase,
store, and dispose of the single-use type.
Through New York City's Partnership for Waste Prevention, the
city's Department of Sanitation is helping hundreds of dry cleaners,
grocery stores, restaurants, and hotels in the city prevent waste. Dry
cleaners are accepting used clothes hangers for reuse, thereby divert-
ing an estimated 750,000 hangers from landfills. Another partner,
NYNEX, the regional telephone company, reduced the Manhattan
white pages by 100 pages through reformatting and prevented the
unnecessary use of 107 tons of paper.
Break the Paper Chain is the slogan for EPA's own waste prevention
campaign. Through the Paper-Less Office Campaign, in 1994 EPA
employees reduced waste at photocopiers by 16 percent and adopted
waste prevention activities such as purging mailing lists, maintaining
centralized files, and disseminating memoranda and publications
electronically. One of the ways the Agency has implemented this
effort is to make many publications available electronically through
the Internet.
BfflK'HE PAP0LCHAIN
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The U.S. Department of Defense prevents waste by selling sur-
plus items that are not reused or recycled by the various branches of
the military. Tents, computers, furniture, shoes, and cooking utensils
are but a few of the many items that are routinely sold to the general
public. These surplus sales not only prevent waste, but they also
generate revenues. In 1993 alone, the Defense Reutilization and
Marketing Office saved taxpayers almost $3 billion through these
surplus auctions.
The hospital at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda,
Maryland, among the 10 largest in the United States, runs a monthly
reuse store where used office supplies such as file folders, paper
clips, and rubber bands are redistributed from offices with excess
supplies to those that need them. A "New Products Committee" is
also considering a variety of source-reduced products, such as mat-
tresses with built-in rather than disposable foam pads, and reusable
rather than disposable bed pans.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Grand Junction Project
Office (GJPO) in Colorado has significantly reduced its paper
waste by using electronic mail. For many years, lengthy paper copies
of administrative bulletins were distributed to nearly 800 employees
on a weekly basis. Now these documents are issued to approximately
50 office support personnel elec-
tronically, saving nearly 154,000
sheets of paper annually. In addi-
tion, GJPO's printing costs have
dropped over $9,000 to just $624
annually. Estimated labor costs for
distribution have also dropped
substantially, from approximately
$1,900 to $120 annually.
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Waste
Prevention Pays
for Consumers
. ^^^
At the consumer level, smart shoppers
know that saving money and protecting the
environment can go hand in hand. Examples of potential
savings for consumers include the following:
Consumers living in communities where unit pricing is practiced
quickly discover that waste prevention can reduce their trash bills.
They only pay for the trash they create, which can lower their
monthly bills from a flat fee pricing structure.
Consumers can save money and reduce waste on ordinary house-
hold products when they buy reusable, refillable, or rechargeable
products, or purchase items in bulk quantities. Items such as
reusable utensils and dishes, laundry detergent concentrates, and
rechargeable batteries can save money through avoided purchases,
packaging, and trash disposal costs.
Borrowing rarely used items from a friend or renting them can save
consumers the cost of purchasing these goods and, eventually,
prevent their disposal in a landfill or combustor.
In one year, 300 households in Madison, Wisconsin, prevented
184,000 pounds of yard trimmings (about 620 pounds per house-
hold) from entering their city's waste stream by practicing backyard
composting. They avoided the need to purchase lawn refuse bags
and produced a valuable
compost product for use
on their lawns and gardens.
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EPA Is Helping the
Waste Prevention
Effort
e
EPA encourages waste prevention by making it
the very top priority in its hierarchy of solid waste
options. To help demonstrate both the environmental and
economic opportunities inherent in waste prevention, EPA has
launched a new initiative called Waste Prevention Pays. The initia-
tive has five key goals:
Help companies prevent waste.
Prevent waste in federal agencies.
Help communities prevent waste.
Bring the waste prevention message home to citizens and
consumers.
Make waste prevention a better understood and more tangible
environmental tactic.
EPA has taken a number of steps to achieve these goals, as
described below.
To help businesses and industry prevent waste and cut costs
for a better bottom line, EPA developed a voluntary,
nonregulatory initiative called
the WasteWi$e Challenge. In addi-
tion to helping companies
generate less waste, the program
asks businesses to collect materi-
als for recycling and to buy or
manufacture recycled-content
products. More than 350 compa- & ^H
nies representing America's
leading businesses signed on to
WasteWi$e as members in the
program's first year. WasteWi$e
companies commit to identifying
and implementing three
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significant waste prevention actions, among other requirements. In
addition, several EPA documents on business waste prevention are
available. (See the reference section on pages 16-17 of this booklet.)
To encourage waste prevention in federal agencies, EPA is help-
ing these agencies implement the President's Executive Order to
establish waste prevention programs and to buy environmentally
preferable products and services. EPAs own in-house waste prevention
effort, the Paper-Less Office Campaign, is dramatically reducing the
Agency's use of paper. EPA also participated in an environmental audit
of the White House that identified opportunities to prevent waste as
part of the President's commitment to make the White House a
national environmental showcase.
To help local communities prevent waste, EPA has a developed a
variety of technical assistance programs and tools. One such tool is a
comprehensive guidebook on unit pricing that helps communities
decide if an incentive-based waste management program is right for
them. In addition, EPA is developing tools to help communities learn
more about waste exchanges, which collect and repair such items as
office furniture, equipment, building supplies, and surplus business
materials for reuse. EPA also is helping to document the benefits and
costs of backyard composting, develop educational materials, and train
composting experts to conduct workshops for communities interested
in establishing such programs.
To bring the waste prevention message to consumers, EPA is
providing outreach tools including handbooks, newsletters, museum
14
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exhibits, and public service announcements. (See the reference section
at the end of this brochure.) EPA also assisted the Federal Trade
Commission in developing guidelines for manufacturers to provide
consumers with accurate information about the environmental
impacts of their purchasing decisions. The guidelines help con-
sumers determine if environmental claims on packages are valid.
To make waste prevention a more tangible tactic, EPA is work-
ing with a group of experts to make progress on ways to measure
reductions in waste and determine the effect of waste prevention ini-
tiatives. By arriving at more consistent ways to measure these factors,
it will be easier for everyone to determine the success of waste
prevention efforts.
"Reuse stuff today. ..Reduce garbage
tomorrow" is the theme of a
National Audubon Society public
service campaign promoting waste
prevention.
:«^«
jfck
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EPA Information
on Waste
Prevention
To order the following free EPA
documents on waste prevention, call the RCRA Hotline at
800 424-9346 or TDD 800 553-7672 for the hearing impaired. In
Washington, DC, and outside the United States, call 703 412-9810 or TDD
703412-3323:
' Business Guide for Reducing
Solid Waste (EPA530-K-92-004).
This comprehensive, practical
guide is designed to help busi-
nesses assess the types and
amounts of solid waste they gen-
erate and identify cost-effective
waste prevention strategies.
1 W&ste Prevention Pays Off:
Companies Cut Waste in the
WorkPlace (EPA530-K-92-005).
This collection of brief case stud-
ies describes how companies and
municipalities have cut costs by
preventing waste.
1 W&ste PreventionIt Makes
Good Business Sense! (EPA530-
F-93-008). This brochure
summarizes the benefits of pre-
venting waste in business and
industry.
WasteWi$e: EPA's Voluntary
Program for Reducing Business
Solid Waste (EPA530-F-93-018).
This booklet explains the goals,
structure, and benefits of
WasteWi$e, an EPA voluntary
program that assists businesses
take cost-effective actions to
reduce solid waste. It also
explains what the membership
requirements are and how com-
panies can join the program. The
WasteWi$e program also offers
other helpful information.
1 Consumer's Handbook for
Reducing Solid Waste (EPA530-
K-92-003). This booklet suggests
simple steps that people can take
to reduce the amount and toxici-
ty of trash. It offers practical
waste prevention tips, including
reusing products and packaging,
choosing nontoxic products, and
maintaining and repairing
durable products.
1 Pay-As-You-Throw: Lessons
Learned About Unit Pricing
(EPA530-R-94-004). This com-
prehensive guidance manual
explains unit pricing, helps solid
waste managers decide whether
unit pricing is right for their
communities, and provides
detailed information on design-
ing and launching such a
program.
1 Household Hazardous Waste:
StepsTo Save Management
(EPA530-F-92-031).This
brochure summarizes steps that
people can take to reduce the
amount of household hazardous
waste they generate. It also briefly
reviews how to safely store, han-
dle, and dispose of such waste.
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1 Household Hazardous Waste: A
Manual for One-Day
Community Collection Programs
(EPA530-R-92-026). This hand-
book for community leaders
explains how to plan and operate
a successful household hazardous
waste collection program.
"Green " Advertising Claims
(EPA530-F-92-024). This
brochure help consumers under-
stand environmental claims such
as "recyclable," "environmentally
friendly," and "degradable," based
on guidelines issued by the
Federal Trade Commission in
cooperation with EPA.
1 Environmental Fact Sheet:
Recycling Grass Clippings
(EPA530-F-92-012). This fact
sheet explains the practice of
"grasscycling," or leaving grass
clippings on lawns to improve
the condition of a lawn and to
reduce the amount of yard debris
that must be managed.
1 Environmental Fact Sheet:
Municipal Solid Waste Prevention
in Federal Agencies
(EPA530-F-92-016). This fact
sheet outlines efforts under way
by federal agencies to reduce
waste and briefly explains how to
start a waste prevention program.
Paper-Less Office Campaign: An
Agencywide Waste Prevention
Program (EPA530-F-94-012).
This brochure outlines EPAs
campaign to reduce the amount
of paper used throughout the
Agency by a variety of methods,
including duplex copying and
electronic communication.
1 Characterization of Products
Containing Lead & Cadmium in
Municipal Solid Waste in the
United States, 1970 to 2000,
Executive Summary (EPA530-
SW-89-015C). This document
summarizes the investigation of
sources of lead and cadmium
products disposed of in MSW
between 1970 and 1986, with
projections to the year 2000. Lead
and cadmium products include
lead-acid and household batter-
ies, consumer electronics, glass,
ceramics, plastics, soldered cans,
and pigments.
The following publication is avail-
able for a small charge from the
National Technical Information
Service (NTIS), 5285 Port Royal
Road, Springfield, VA 22161,
703 487-4650:
Promoting Source Reduction and
Readability in the Marketplace
(PB90-163 122). This report
relates the effectiveness of con-
sumer-oriented education
programs promoting source
reduction and recyclability in the
marketplace. Designed to assist
solid waste officials, consumer
interest groups, manufacturers,
and marketing consultants, it
describes successful source
reduction campaigns and
research.
17
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