Can source reduction reduce municipal solid waste?
The U.S. EPA lists source reduction as the number one initiative in combatting our municipal solid waste issues. The National Recycling Coalition (NRC) and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) also view source reduction as a viable means to reducing municipal solid waste. Recently, the NRC broadened its mission statement to include source reduction. It states that “ton-for-ton, source reduction is more valuable to society than recycling.” The EDF has stated that eliminating excessive layers of packaging is one of the most obvious and most important forms of source reduction, and that source reduction has the potential to alleviate natural resource depletion. In Canada, source reduction efforts have been quantified and documented. The University of Toronto estimates that source reduction efforts between 1970-88 led to a 22 percent reduction in packaging waste.
