Source reduction,

often called ‘waste

prevention,’ is any

change in the design, manufacturing, purchase, or use

of materials or products

(including packaging) to

reduce their amount or toxicity before they become

municipal solid waste.

Prevention also refers to the

reuse of products or 

materials.

The Pollution Prevention Act

of 1990 established source

reduction as a national policy.

Source reduction is the key to solving America’s growing solid waste

problem. Reducing waste before it

is generated is a commonsense way to save

financial and natural resources, and it

makes good business sense. If the entire

country adopted source reduction principles, the strain on our limited natural

resources would be dramatically reduced.

As many organizations have already realized, source reduction also can cut costs

and improve productivity by targeting

wasteful processes and products. This fact

sheet outlines the significant growth in

U.S. solid waste generation and the impact

of source reduction on the national waste

stream. It also profiles some key source

reduction strategies and lists resources for

further information.

The Problem: 

Too Much Waste

During the past 4 decades, America has

witnessed an extraordinary growth in its

waste stream. In 1960, 180 million

Americans produced 88 million tons of

waste (or 2.68 pounds per person per

day). In 1997, 266 million Americans produced nearly 217 million tons of waste

(4.4 pounds per person per day). As our

consumer spending has increased and we

have improved our material well-being, we

have also become more wasteful. Americans

are buying more and more products, many

of which are designed to be thrown away

after one use.

Building, operating, and maintaining waste

disposal infrastructure costs billions of

dollars. Americans also pay for the transportation and disposal of waste, often

throwing away valuable resources in the

process. The domestic supply of many of

these resources is limited.

The Solution: Source

Reduction and Recycling

By reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place, source reduction controls municipal solid waste (MSW) and

helps promote the efficient use of our 

natural resources. It also decreases the

pollution generated when unnecessary

packaging and product materials are

manufactured.

According to available data, current source

reduction activities across the country

already reduce the volume of our waste

stream by 11 percent. In addition, approximately 28 percent of our waste is recovered for recycling or composting. Together,

source reduction and recycling divert

more than 80 million tons of waste from

landfills and combustors each year.

United States Solid Waste EPA530-F-99-021

Environmental Protection and Emergency Response May 1999

Agency (5306W) www.epa.gov/osw

1EPA Environmental Fact Sheet

Source Reduction of Municipal Solid Waste

In managing solid waste,

communities should consider expanding source

reduction programs first,

then recycling programs,

and, finally, determine a

proper waste disposal

method (i.e., waste combustion or landfilling) for

what remains.

What Is Source

Reduction?

EPA’s Solid Waste

Management

Hierarchy

2 Printed on paper that contains at least 30 percent postconsumer content.
Source Reduction

Versus Recycling

Recycling is a beneficial way to

manage materials that would 

otherwise become waste. It uses

reclaimed material in lieu of virgin

material in the manufacture of

products. Recycling includes 

collecting, processing, and remanufacturing recyclable material and

buying recycled-content products.

Source reduction helps create less

waste in the first place. It includes

reducing the amount of material

used to accomplish a particular

task; reusing a product in its original form; or using repairable,

refillable, and durable products

with the capacity for a longer useful life. All things being equal,

source reduction is preferable to

recycling. For waste that cannot be

prevented, however, recycling is

the next best choice.

MSW Source

Reduction in Action

Source reduction includes a wide

range of activities. Individuals and

organizations can practice source

reduction for a variety of materials

in different settings, from the home

to the office to the factory floor.

■ Backyard composting and grasscycling. Yard trimmings are one of

the single largest components of

the U.S. waste stream. Although

the percentage has decreased

since 1992, yard trimmings still

accounted for 12.8 percent of the

total waste generated in the

United States in 1997. Homeowners can reduce the amount of

yard trimmings in the waste

stream through backyard composting and grasscycling. Backyard composting and grasscycling

are considered source reduction

because they prevent yard waste

from entering the municipal waste

collection system.

Backyard composting is the controlled decomposition of food

scraps and yard trimmings in

open piles, pits, or bins. Spreading finished compost on lawns

and gardens conditions the soil

and replenishes vital nutrients. 

Grasscycling means leaving short

grass clippings on lawns, rather

than collecting and bagging them.

As the clippings filter to the

ground and naturally decompose,

nutrients return to the soil and

support further turf growth.

■ Donating textiles. Textiles

accounted for 3.8 percent of the

U.S. waste stream in 1997. Over

the past 35 years, the amount of

textiles in the waste stream has

steadily climbed from nearly 1.8

million tons in 1960 to more than

8.2 million tons in 1997.

Americans recover textiles for

reuse through donations to local

thrift stores, charities, churches,

and consignment stores. Donated

textiles include clothing, drapes

and curtains, towels, sheets and

blankets, clean rags, and table

cloths. Although some donated

textiles are recycled into new fabric, most of them are reclaimed as

secondhand clothing or converted

into wiping and polishing cloths.

■ Reducing unwanted mail. Thirdclass mail made up 2.2 percent of

the U.S. waste stream in 1997.

One way Americans can reduce

paper consumption at home is by

removing their names from bulk

mailing lists. Entering a contest,

making a donation, purchasing

something, ordering a product by

mail, or sending in a subscription

often results in a new entry on

someone’s mailing list. Americans

can reduce unwanted mail by

avoiding unnecessary warranty

cards; returning unwanted mail;

and by notifying mail-order catalog companies and mailing list

brokers that they want their

names removed from mailing

databases.

■ Reducing paper consumption at

the office. Office paper, including copier paper, computer

printouts, and stationery,

accounted for 3.2 percent of the

U.S. waste stream in 1997. A

wide variety of source reduction

activities at the office can help

reduce paper consumption:

— Printing and copying

double-sided.

— Printing drafts on blank

sides of used paper. 

— Keeping files on diskettes.

2

MSW includes wastes such as

durable goods, nondurable

goods, containers and packaging, food scraps, yard trimmings,

and miscellaneous inorganic

wastes from residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial sources. MSW does not

include sewage, hazardous

waste, nonhazardous industrial

waste, construction and demolition debris, or automobile bodies (household hazardous waste

is MSW).This fact sheet examines source reduction from an

MSW perspective.

A Note About

Terminology

Source Reduction

Recycling

Waste Diversion

+
— Reviewing, editing, and

finalizing reports or letters

on the computer screen

before printing.

— Communicating through

voice or electronic mail.

— Circulating memos, documents, periodicals, and

reports rather than distributing individual copies.

■ Replacing disposable corrugated

shipping containers with

reusable containers. Like yard

trimmings, corrugated (cardboard) boxes represent a relatively large component of the

U.S. waste stream—almost

14 percent in 1997. Although

an impressive 67 percent of corrugated waste is recycled, organizations can generate less of

this material in the first place by

switching from single-use corrugated boxes to reusable containers. Organizations either buy or

lease the containers and establish a system for returning emptied containers after shipment.

In addition to preventing waste,

returnable containers are often

less expensive than disposable

containers over the long term. 

■ Repairing and reusing wood

pallets. In 1997, 7 million tons

of wood pallets entered the

waste stream, accounting for 3.2

percent of total MSW generated.

Organizations can reduce this

waste by repairing used wooden

pallets and reusing them. Some

businesses repair their own pallets in-house, while others contract with local pallet repair

operations. Organizations refurbished and reused an estimated

2.6 million tons of wood pallets

in 1997.

EPA MSW

Source Reduction

Programs

EPA promotes source reduction

through a variety of programs,

including the following:

■ Pay-As-You-Throw Programs.

EPA provides technical and outreach assistance to encourage

communities to implement payas-you-throw programs for solid

waste. Under pay-as-you-throw,

residents are charged for MSW

services based on the amount

of trash they discard, creating

an incentive to generate less

trash and increase recycling. On

average, communities with payas-you-throw achieve waste

reductions of 14 to 27 percent.

For more information about

these programs, access EPA’s

Pay-As-You-Throw Web site at

<www.epa.gov/payt> or call 

888 EPA-PAYT (372-7298).

■ WasteWise. WasteWise is a voluntary partnership between EPA

and U.S. businesses, institutions, nonprofit organizations,

and government agencies to

prevent waste, recycle, and buy

and manufacture recycledcontent products. By eliminating more than 1.8 million tons

of waste through source reduction in the first 4 years of the

program, WasteWise partners

prevented the emission of 1.1

million metric tons of carbon

equivalent (the basic unit of

measure for greenhouse gases)

into the atmosphere. More than

750 organizations participated

in the WasteWise program in

1998. For more information

about the program, access EPA’s

WasteWise Web site at

<www.epa.gov/wastewise> or

call 800 EPA-WISE (372-9473).

Human activities that thicken the gaseous ‘greenhouse’ around the

planet threaten to disrupt the natural atmospheric balance that

supports our earth’s diverse ecosystems. Source reduction can

greatly reduce the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by:

■ Reducing emissions from energy consumption.When consumers reuse

products and manufacturers use less material in their factories,they

reduce the amount of energy needed to retrieve, process, and transport

raw materials and to manufacture products.When energy demand

decreases,fewer fossil fuels are burned and less carbon dioxide is emitted

to the atmosphere.

■ Reducing emissions from waste combustors. Diverting certain materials

from combustors reduces greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

■ Reducing methane emissions from landfills. Source reduction (including backyard composting) diverts organic wastes from landfills,reducing

the amount of methane emitted when these materials decompose.

■ Increasing storage of carbon in trees. Source reduction of paper products preserves forests that remove large amounts of carbon dioxide from

the atmosphere.

3

How Does Source Reduction Affect Climate

Change?
Information Available 

From EPA

The following publications are available on EPA’s Public Access Server at

<www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw>. They

also are available through the RCRA

Hotline. To order a document, call

800 424-9346 (or 800 553-7672 for

the hearing impaired). In

Washington, DC, the number is 

703 412-9810 or TDD 703 412-

3323. The RCRA Hotline is open

from Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.

to 6 p.m., e.s.t.

▼

EPA’s Climate Change and Waste

Web Site 

www.epa.gov/globalwarming/

actions/national/ccap/waste/

index.html

▼

EPA’s Office of Solid Waste

www.epa.gov/osw/

www.epa.gov/compost

▼

The Consumer’s Handbook for

Reducing Solid Waste 

(EPA530-K-92-003) 

▼

Business Guide for Reducing Solid

Waste (EPA530-K-92-004)

▼

Environmental Fact Sheet: Recycling

Grass Clippings (EPA530-F-92-012)

▼

Environmental Fact Sheet: Yard

Waste Composting

(EPA530-SW-91-009)

▼

Enviro$en$e

www.epa.gov/envirosense/

▼

Electronics Reuse and Recycling

Directory (EPA530-B-97-001) 

▼

Pay-As-You-Throw: Throw Away

Less and Save (EPA530-F-96-028)

▼

Waste Prevention, Recycling, and

Composting Options: Lessons from

30 Communities

(EPA530-R-92-015)

Other Selected Sources of

Information

Some of the publications listed

below might require an ordering fee.

▼

Reuse it, Repair It, Rent It, Donate

It—But Don’t Throw It Away!

To order, contact: 

New York City Department of

Sanitation 

P.O. Box 156 

Bowling Green Station 

New York, NY 10274-0156 

Phone: 212 837-8089

▼

Making Source Reduction and Reuse

Work in Your Community

To order, contact:

National Recycling Coalition, Inc.

1727 King Street

Suite 105 

Alexandria, VA 22314-2720 

Phone: 703 683-9025, Ext. 405

▼

Making Less Garbage: A Planning

Guide for Communities

Making Less Garbage on Campus: A

Hands-On Guide

Reducing Office Paper Waste

To order, contact:

Inform, Inc.

120 Wall Street

New York, NY 10005-4001 

Phone: 212 361-2400

▼

Source Reduction Now

How to implement a source reduction program at an organization. 

To order, contact:

Minnesota Office of 

Waste Management 

1350 Energy Lane

St. Paul, MN 55108

Phone: 800 657-3843

▼

Weaving Textile Reuse into

Waste Reduction

To order, contact:

Institute for Local Self-Reliance

2425 18th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20009-2096

Phone: 202 232-4108

Selected Internet Resources

▼

California Integrated Waste

Management Board (CIWMB)

www.ciwmb.ca.gov/

▼

Indiana Institute on Recycling (IIR)

web.indstate.edu:80/recycle/

▼

INFORM

www.informinc.org/

▼

National Pollution Prevention

Roundtable

www.p2.org/

▼

National Waste Prevention Coalition

(NWPC)

www.metrokc.gov/nwpc/

▼

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse’s

Reducing Junk Mail Fact Sheet

www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs4-junk.htm

▼

The Solid Waste Association of

North America (SWANA)

www.swana.org/

National Reuse Organizations

Reuse organizations are points of

contact for organizations interested

in buying, selling, or donating excess

material that would otherwise go to

waste. Contact your state recycling

agency for information about local

and regional reuse organizations.

▼

Reuse Development Organization,

Inc.

Indianapolis, IN 46244

Phone: 317 631-5396 

E-mail: info@redo.org

Internet: www.redo.org/

▼

Chicago Board of Trade Recyclables

Exchange 

141 West Jackson Boulevard

Chicago, IL 60604-2994

Phone: 312 435-7223

Internet: cbot-recycle.com

▼

National Association for the

Exchange of Industrial Resources 

560 McClure Street

Galesburg, IL 61401

Phone: 800 562-0955 

E-mail: donor.naier@misslink.net

Internet: www.freegoods.com/

How Do I Get More Information on Source Reduction?

4