5R Heirarchy
We asked Jeannie to walk us through the hierarchy of zero-waste ideals:
“The idea behind the 5R’s is that they are a hierarchy of actions relating to waste, focusing foremost on avoiding the waste in the first place.”
REFUSE Say no to anything you don’t need; freebies, buy-one-get-one-free and impulse buying just because it is ‘on sale’ are all instances where we can just say a polite ‘no’. A great start is to place a ‘no junk mail’ sign on your mailbox.
REDUCE Look at reducing what you do need. From small things like choosing to buy concentrates (more product, less packaging), or moving to soap, shampoo and detergent bars (little to no packaging and drastically reduced shipping footprint), to much bigger concepts like ‘how big does my house really need to be?’ and ‘am I heating/cooling/cleaning/paying for way more space than I need?’
RE-USE Extending the life of an object by repurposing/upcycling, and making purchases taking the re-usability of that item into account. Where possible, borrowing an item rather than buying.
RECYCLE It’s important to note that recycling, once hailed as the ‘gold standard’ in waste management, is relegated to fourth rung down the ladder. The recycling industry is currently besieged with a host of problems; it’s energy and water costly, relies on careful sorting and separating of materials by both the consumer (historically unreliable) and the recycler, and as a private industry is demand driven (meaning if there isn’t a demand for the recycled material, the industry isn’t viable). Add to this that most plastics can only be downcycled, meaning that they can’t be made back into their original incarnation, recycling starts to lose its appeal. Surely minimising use in the first place makes more sense?
The lifestyle itself links quite organically to the circular and sharing economy concepts and encourages product stewardship. Toy libraries, seed libraries, peer-to-peer trading for solar generated power, community gardens and tool libraries are all examples of initiatives and enterprises popping up globally that are designed to disrupt our current economic and consumer model and foster community resilience.
ROT With what is left after implementing the first four zero-waste ideals, rot (compost) whatever you can. It is particularly important to keep organic (food and garden) waste OUT of landfill, where it breaks down anaerobically and produces ozone-destructive methane gas. If you’re not into/don’t have the resources to compost, platforms like ‘Share My Waste’ can be useful.
“Imagine the reduction in the volume of waste going to landfill in Australia every year if everyone implemented even SOME of these principles?”