Waste

You may have heard someone say "This is a waste of time!" or "This is a waste of money!" or you may have thought this yourself. Waste is something that is left over or that it is no longer needed. Waste can cause concerns for our environment. Many people generate waste. A small baby who wears disposable nappies, a child who throws away the packaging off the muesli bar, the plastic bags that your supermarket shopping is in and many other activities cause waste.

The Environment Protection Act 1970 defines waste as including:

• any matter whether solid, liquid, gaseous or radio-active which is discharged, emitted or deposited in the environment in such volume, constituency or manner as to cause an alteration in the environment
• any discarded, rejected, unwanted, surplus or abandoned matter
• any otherwise discarded, rejected, abandoned, unwanted or surplus matter
• any matter prescribed to be waste.

We all have a responsibility to dispose of waste correctly to look after our environment. Dumping waste pollutes land, waterways and groundwater. It also creates havens for pests and vermin. There is also the impact of dust and odour, and litter that's unappealing to look at.

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