Policy Focus for Waste: Promoting minimization in waste generation and highlighting the 3Rs: From 'waste disposal' to 'resource efficiency'

But these problems have also provided a window of opportunity for cities to find solutions - involving the community and the private sector; involving innovative technologies and disposal methods; and involving behaviour changes and awareness raising.

There is a clear need for the current approach of waste disposal that is focused on municipalities and uses high energy/high technology, to move more towards waste processing and waste recycling (that involves public-private partnerships, aiming for eventual waste minimization - driven at the community level, and using low energy/low technology resources. Some of the defining criteria for future waste minimization programmes will include deeper community participation, understanding economic benefits/recovery of waste, focusing on life cycles (rather than end-of-pipe solutions), decentralized administration of waste, minimizing environmental impacts, and reconciling investment costs with long-term goals.

Much of these issues are epitomized by the 3R approach. The 3R approach, focusing on reduce, reuse, and recycle, essentially aims to set up a sound material cycle society within the concept of a life-cycle economy, where consumption of natural resources is minimized and the environmental load is reduced, as much as possible. While '3Rs' stand for reduce, reuse and recycle, the concept itself goes beyond just better waste management and calls for the building of an economy based on the life-cycle approach, covering both sustainable production and sustainable consumption.

FEWW Strategies for Waste Systems A circular approach to waste management is key to reducing landfill use, minimizing resource extraction, and promoting sustainable business practices. Waste Reduction: Implement strategies to minimize waste production at all stages, from manufacturing to packaging, use and disposal. Consider product design that uses fewer materials or more easily recycled components. Circular Economy: Shift from a linear gtake-make-disposeh model to a circular one where products are reused, repaired, refurbished, and recycled. Engage in extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs where companies take back their products after their useful life. Recycling and Composting: Develop on-site or local recycling programs and composting facilities to ensure that materials like plastics, paper, and organic waste are properly diverted from landfills. Zero Waste Goals: Set ambitious, but achievable, targets to become a zero-waste organization, reducing or eliminating all forms of waste from operations.

Thus, at its core, the key to managing waste is to stop callng it "waste" and to move towards better resource efficiency. Once again, a circular economy approach that looks at the life cycle of products and services that we use, helps us guide the way. Every stage of a product or service invariably produced wastes - how can these wastes first of all be minimized, or reused/recycled?

From the FEWW nexus perspective, waste not only has negative impacts on the environment in terms of resource inefficiency and pollution/emissions air, water and land, but it also needs considerable energy in its processing and recycling.

Refuse to waste! Reuse and Recycle!

These SDGs aim to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns and reduce the negative impact of waste on the environment, particularly on oceans and marine resources.