Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover

The main reasons that we must find ways to reduce, reuse and recycle are to;

Reduce the amount of solid waste going to landfill

Many items we throw out take a long time to degrade or don't degrade at all.

• Many plastics stay in the environment for decades
• Glass can remain unchanged for hundreds of years
• Solid waste products that do degrade naturally emit harmful gases, such as methane, which contribute to global climate change.

By reusing and recycling end-of-life products and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill that we could recover value from we are reducing the reliance on landfill sites and are helping to prevent global climate change.

Recognise that waste is a resource

Many of the things we throw away could be used again for other purposes or by someone else who may have a use for them. Good examples are glass and scrap metal, which can be recycled into new products over and over again.

Save natural resources

When we throw valuable waste products away we are forcing new products to be made from virgin materials. This means extracting more of the Earth's resources to make these new products.

• Trees are cut down to make paper and the mineral bauxite is used to make aluminium cans.

By recycling used items to make new products, we are saving the natural resources that would otherwise have been required to make those new products from virgin materials.

Reduce energy consumption and save non-renewable fossil fuels

The resources, energy and time used to make any product are wasted when products are thrown away. In addition, large amounts of energy are required to manufacture and distribute new products made from virgin materials.

Extremely high temperatures are required to manufacture aluminium cans from the naturally occurring bauxite whereas only 1/20th the energy is required to produce recycled aluminium cans from melted down used cans.

Recover value

Once all reasonable efforts have been made to extract dry recyclable materials such as glass, cans and plastic bottles, most of the remaining mixed waste materials still contain valuable energy which can be extracted.  This can happen in the form of a gas to be used as a biofuel or by turning the waste into a solid recovered fuel (SRF) which can be burned to generate heat and electricity.

These renewable energy fuel sources can replace coal, oil and gas, which are not everlasting resources.

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions

By diverting waste from landfill, we are reducing the amount of methane produced by landfill sites. Methane is a harmful greenhouse gas and major contributor to global climate change.

Making products from recyclable materials rather than making them from virgin materials produces less carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases during the manufacturing process.

City of Edinburgh Council

How we manage our resources and what we do with our waste in Edinburgh has a significant impact on our quality of life and the success of our city.

We are all working to minimise the proportion of the city's waste sent to landfill, improve the cleanliness of the city's streets and improve parks, gardens and open space.

To help us keep Edinburgh a safe, green, clean and attractive city, we have launched a public awareness campaign to generate pride and public involvement.

The Edenburgh campaign will promote pro-environmental behaviour, including recycling and waste reduction initiatives.  It will also challenge negative environmental behaviour by showing the consequences of illegal dumping, not recycling and littering.

Edenburgh brings the Council's environmental messages together and shows what action the public can take to help us achieve a Zero Waste society.

Midlothian Council

Through our environmental and waste policies, Midlothian Council is committed to the principle of sustainability, and to conserving and enhancing the built and natural environment of Midlothian. We have also signed up to a 10-point Zero Waste Resolution in support of Scottish Government policy.

A fully containerised kerbside collection of household waste has been introduced with weekly collections of dry recyclables and alternating weekly collections of garden waste and residual waste. This system is currently producing the best results in terms of collected recyclables per household in the whole of Scotland.

Our current recycling rate of 37% is rapidly approaching the Government target of 40% by 2010 and is well on the way to our own resolution to exceed 60% recycling by 2020.