WTF is the Waste Hierarchy?

Hello!

I’m about to let you guys in on a little secret: Recycling ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.You see, there’s this thing called the ‘WASTE HIERARCHY’. Ever heard of it? Neither had I until I started working last year at the London Community Recycling Network (LCRN - lil self-promo there!)

Here’s how it goes. You know the mantra ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’? That’s part of the hierarchy, but only part! It’s bigger than that. So close your eyes…I mean, wait, no don’t close them coz then you can’t read this, but just imagine in your head a pyramid or a ladder of some sort.

At the very very top is ‘Prevention’, also known as precycling. Prevent yourself from consuming anything you don’t need! Don’t buy that extra packet of crisps coz that’s extra plastic packaging that’s going to landfill.

Next down we have ‘Minimisation’ or ‘Reduce’. If you really can’t bear to be without your crisps, just don’t eat that much, will ya? Or buy in bulk so that you use less packaging.

Further on down the line is ‘Reuse’/’Repair’. This one’s quite simple: get out of the habit of using disposable stuff. Start using refillable coffee mugs or one of those ever-present cloth shopping bags, for instance.

If you really really can’t live without it, make sure you ‘Recycle’ it. Most of y’all know you can recycle metals, glass, paper and plastic bottles, but there’s so much more! Take food for example. Food waste can be recycled into delicious compost – you can do this at home in your back garden or your local authority may even do a food waste pick-up.

Unfortunately, not everything can be recycled, so we then have ‘Energy Recovery’. This is basically incineration. We set your rubbish on fire and make sure that the heat is captured and turned into energy.

And last and definitely least is disposal. This is where we send rubbish to those landfills with swarming birds. And it sits there. And sits there. And lets off methane gas which is bad for the atmosphere.

So there you have it. The Waste Hierarchy. If you’re in the mood for some sector jargon, here’s a lovely Defra webpage that’ll tell you all about it. We here at LCRN are trying to climb that hierarchy ladder and encourage others to do so as well! The BIG Womble is an event to help showcase reuse & repair of furniture items - because everything deserves a second chance.

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Sign up for The Big Womble!

Hello fellow Womblers and welcome to our new blog, set up for the first Big Womble event we’re doing. There is lots of info on what The Big Womble is all about on our vision page, so please do have a read, and if you’re on Facebook you can join the Big Womble group there.

In the meantime, please sign up for The Big Womble. You don’t *have* to sign up, this just lets us keep you up to date with things we are doing for the event, news and reminders, that sort of thing.

Happy wombling!

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