Broadly defined, ‘waste’ is an item that is no longer required for its original purpose.
Waste policy is managed at all three tiers of government in Australia.
The National Waste Policy was developed and is implemented by the Federal Government, although most jurisdictions in Australia have their own State Policies.
From an environmental impact perspective, it is generally agreed that waste is something best avoided and should ideally be managed according to the Waste Hierarchy which follows the principles of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ (in that order) and as a last resort, dispose to landfill.
More recent thinking internationally is driving towards the concept of a ‘circular economy’, which moves us away from the current ‘linear’ model of production → consumption → disposal, which is not a sustainable approach. The circular economy aims to retain resources within the system in a variety of ways but moving away from the continual consumption and disposal approach.
Encycle supports the idea of moving away from linear ‘take-make-dispose’ towards a more holistic, responsible approach that conserves our resources, energy; essentially away from ‘waste’ altogether.
