396 Solid Waste: Turning a Health Risk Into a Resource
A Community Solid Waste Program
Once a community has a shared understanding of the problems
caused by waste, it can take steps to solve these problems,
starting with projects that best meet the community’s needs
and abilities.
A complete community solid waste program would include all
of these steps (find more about each step on the next few
pages):
• Reduce the amount of waste created, especially toxic
products and products that cannot be recycled.
• Separate wastes where they are made to make them
easier and safer to handle.
• Compost food scraps and other organic wastes.
• Reuse materials whenever possible.
• Recycle materials and organize
for government and industry to
develop community recycling
programs.
• Collect, transport, and store wastes
safely. Respect and pay fair wages
to the people who do this work.
• Safely dispose of all wastes that
cannot be reused or recycled.
Consider
people’s needs
and abilities,
and begin with
what you can
achieve together
in the short
term.
Not all
communities
will be able
to take all of
these steps,
especially at
the beginning.
Reducing waste
Waste that ends up in our streets, homes, and fields begins with the industrial
manufacturing of products that cannot be reused or recycled. One goal of a
community waste program is to reduce waste over the long term by helping
people use less of the materials that become waste in the first place. Some
ways to reduce waste are:
• not buying products wrapped in a lot of packaging materials.
• choosing glass and cardboard over plastic and metal.
• using your own shopping bag or basket, and refusing plastic bags
at the store.
• buying food in larger quantities to reduce the amount of packaging
you bring home.
• repairing or reusing what you can and buying second hand products
when possible.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012