Waste is another name for rubbish. It is all the stuff that people at home and work throw away because they no longer need it. In England and Wales we produce millions of tonnes of waste every year. All this waste must be carefully managed so that it has less effect on the environment and health.
The UK's approach to waste management has historically been simply to throw waste in holes in the ground (landfill sites) or more recently to burn it.
Waste management and disposal have improved over the last 25 years. Most of this improvement has resulted from regulation (using the law to set tighter controls and higher standards) and from the waste management industry's positive response to this regulation.
Government policy is pushing waste management towards reducing, reusing and recycling more of our waste. Some disposal will always be necessary, but as a last resort. The emphasis is on managing waste in more sustainable ways, conserving raw materials but still protecting the environment and public health. Products and services are increasingly designed with re-use and recycling in mind.
Waste is a resource and it is right to plan to recover, re-use and recycle as much of this material as possible, always provided that sustainable demand and markets can be established for it. Proposals for alternatives such as energy recovery and composting, must stand on their own merits as viable alternatives.