1. Source Reduction: Reducing Household Waste in Local Landfills
Prepared by:
Janice Holm Lloyd
Family Resource Management Specialist
Published by: North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service
Publication Number: HE-379
Last Electronic Revision: March 1996 (JWM)
Source Reduction - the design, manufacture, acquisition and reuse of materials so as to
minimize the quantity and/or toxicity of waste produced. Source reduction prevents waste
either by redesigning products [and packaging] or by otherwise changing societal patterns of
consumption, use and waste generation.
Decision-Maker's Guide to Solid Waste Management, EPA
North Carolina has too much solid waste and too little landfill space. The Solid Waste
Management Act of 1989 (commonly called SB 111) requires cdmmunities to reduce waste
sent to landfills by 25% by 1993. North Carolina's hierarchy of recommended waste
management practices places source reduction at the top of the list, followed by recycling
and reuse. The "3-Rs"-Reduce, Reuse, Recycle-are closely related, and discussion of one
includes discussion of the others.
SOURCE REDUCTION is one of many names for the idea of making responsible decisions that
reduce the amount of household waste. Pre-cycling is a new terrn coined to reinforce the
idea of making careful purchasing decisions, rejecting the purchase of unnecessary products
and packaging that cause disposal problems. Source reduction prevents waste production; it
precedes and lessens the challenge of managing waste. Other terrns used are waste
reduction and waste minimization.
CONSUMER/CITIZEN DECISION MAKING. To reduce the amount of waste which households
send to the local landfill, we must change the way we make decisions:
purchasing/marketplace decisions; household management decisions; and citizen action
decisions.
Purchasing/Marketplace Decisions are confusing. Thousands of products bombard us as
consumers with claims that may or may not be true. We must look at product packaging.
Consumer decisions to select or reject a specific product may include these considerations:
Can it be re-used? (e.g., choose cloth or string grocery bags, rechargeable batteries, a diaper
service using cloth diapers or containers which can serve as A containers or space dividers)

2. Does it have a long product life? (e.g., select well-rnade items which can be repaired if
necessary)
Does it have minimum packaging? (e.g., buy in bulk or choose large containers; avoid blister
packs and excess quantities of filler)
Does it have minimum toxicity? (e.g., choose least hazardous cleaning supplies, paints, other
substances to avoid harming people, land, or the water supply)
Is it really a necessary purchase? (e.g., resist buying clothing, entertaimnent iterns and other
purchases; rent large equipment used infrequently)
Household Management Decisions involve both people and procedures, and require time,
energy, space and system decisions as well as consideration of costs. We must decide
whether, and if so, how to: change household products and procedures; reuse products; and
recycle products.
Citizen Action - Making a Difference! As individual citizens in our homes and of fices, we can
organize and carry out 3-R practices. But we can have an even greater impact if we take
additional action to create demand for 3-R products. Citizen cooperation is helpful in
communities that are already active in a source reduction and recycling program. But
leadership frorn concerned citizens is essential in cornmurlities 3ust beginning to respond to
their solid waste managernent problems.
DECISION COSTS. We need to look at more than just the money costs of source reduction.
We need to consider arld compare: the direct and indirect costs of our current practices; the
overall costs sf adopting 3-R practices; and the long-range costs of not changing our waste
production and management practices.
CONSUMER and THE ENVIRONMENT. "Consumers must be honest, not wasteful of
resources, and they should know how to perform effectively as consumers, both in making
marketplace decisions and in influencing the conditions under which their transactions with
producers and sellers occur." - Classification of Concepts in Consumer Education (Bannister
and Monsma)
Environmental concerns are named by nearly everyone predicting the major consumer
issues of the 90s. Stephen Brobeck, Executive Director of the Consumer Federation of
America, ranks the environment first are among ten issues. "Consumer and environmental
concerns will tend to converge. Increasingly the public will recognize ehat identical solutions
chiefly, conservation and greater use of renewables, serve both interests."
In order to influence the marketplace, we need to understand the relationships between
and among the three major players in our economy-consumer/citizens; industry/business,
and government. In particular, consumers are free to buy, or refuse to buy, a vast array of
products in the marketplace. We are free to make requests or complaints to the providers of
consumer goods. Business, in tum, markets a variety of products to consumerss trying to
persuade us to buy. If there is no demand for a product, business will stop providing it. If
there is enough demand for change in products or packaging, business will respond. If

3. business and consumers do not voluntarily exercise enough self-discipline to reduce excess
solid waste, increased governrnene intervertion will be more likely, with costly regulation
imposed to enforce source reduction in design andtor consumption.
VALUES - MOTIVATION - PERSUASION. Poor societies generate minimal garbage. Affluent
societies generate excessive waste. Individual values will influence what changes people are
willing to make to reduce waste.
What does it take to get us to change our habits, to get concerned enough to ask
manufacturers to rriake changes in their products and packaging? "Changing individual
values and lifestyles is a time-consuming process, and we are naive if we expect to see
results from our efforts in a short time." (Deacon & Firebaugh, 1989)
We necd to understand that we are wrestling with conflicting values within ourselves, such
as convenience, cost and responsibility. In order to reduce the residential waste going to
landfills, we need to use both rational and emotional appeals to ourselves and to others
whom we want to encourage to participate.
We need to identify our options. It is less difficult to reinforce current beliefs, attitudes or
opinions in order to molivate people to act than it i$ to change their beliefs, attitudes or
opinions in order to persuade them to act. (Psychological Principles of Marketing and
Consumer Behavior, Britt) We need to locate reliable sources and inform ourselves. We need
to realize that different organizations represent different viewpoints, and may overstate or
under-state the problem. And we need tQ use positive techniques, not a scolding or
judgmental tone, to influence people to participate. Most of us value t he convenience,
sanitation and reduced time provided by waste-producing products and packaging. We need
to weigh these values against the satisfaction and pride of using more responsible practices.
Only by informing and influencing peopie cari we involve them. And only if the majority of
citizens in the comrnunity become involved, will we achieve a measurable impact.
MEASURING SOURCE REDUCTION. We need to learn how to measure the waste that we do
not produce in order to tell whether we are making a difference in source reduction.
Waste stream analysis is a procedurc used to find out the kinds and amounts and sources of
waste in a specific location such as a-landfill. Each county needs to measure the
weight/volume of the different kinds of waste, and find out the sources of each-residential
wastes, household andVmunicipal yard wastes, specific business or industry wastes. This is
an essential step in developing a cornprehensive plan for both source reduction or recycling,
Household waste audit is a procedure used to measure changes in the kinds and amounts o£
waste produced in an individual home, a "before" and 4'after" measure of the household's
waste stream. If large numbers of individuals and families begin practicing source reduction
and cooperate in measuring the impact of those changes, we can make a difference in the
home, at the workplace, and, as required by 1993 in SB 111, at the landfill.