This fact sheet will briefly look at the concepts of reduction and reuse as strategies in an integrated waste management system. Reduction, as it applies to waste management and in its broadest sense, is having less stuff to throw away.
Reduction strategies tend to focus on the consumer.
Wise consumer choices regarding purchases and convenience items determine in great part how much a person has to discard. In industry, pollution prevention or management of inputs to avoid pollution is a current trend. This is an individual choice, however, and problems may arise in mandatory reduction efforts. Requiring people to produce less garbage is difficult. As consumers and product users, our society increasingly demands, and gets, more packaged materials.