Waste Management Principles

Every year about 2 billion tonnes of waste are produced in the Member States of the European Union. 

To deal with the increasing amounts of waste several measurements and strategies have been developed. However - according to regulations of the European Union the following hierarchy should be followed for waste management:

• Prevention
• Preparing for re-use
• Recycling 
• Other Recovery (e.g. Energy Recovery)
• Disposal 

That means, first avoid, then separate!

Waste avoidance is an important principle towards sustainability. The use of ecological products or regional  food, re-usable products and packages like returnable bottles, the repair of products or an omitting of unnecessary products can help to keep waste amounts down.

Not all wastes can be avoided, but with separate collection of recycables you can contribute to saving of valuable resources!

Waste separation makes possible that materials are used again for production processes by recycling.

The extraction of raw materials is often connected with substantial environmental impacts. Furthermore resources become even more limited. Separate collection of wastes allows for the production of secondary raw materials through recycling. By their input the need of primary resources can be reduced. Besides secondary raw materials partial are more economical and need less energy and chemistry for their production.