Household Waste Management:Reuse

The average American creates 5 pounds of waste per day, half which is recycled in some manner, leaving

roughly 2.5 pounds of waste per day.

The ultimate goal of waste management is to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfills to the absolute minimum through recycling and/or reuse of all suitable materials.

Reuse

Reuse is essentially any action that extends the life of a product and keeps it out of the waste system.

There are three ways to reuse

items.

Purchasing Durable Items

Repurposing

Reassigning

Reassigning

Reassigning

Photo: Bullitt County Prom Dress Exchange Event (photo courtesy of Lorilee George).

Reassigning

Reassigning

Reassigning

Reuse can take some thinking, planning, and work on your

part, but the substantial benefits in cost and waste

reduction make reuse worth it.

References:HENV-101 Household Waste Management: Reduce (2010). Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/henv/henv101/henv101.pdf.

HENV-102 Household Waste Management: Reuse (2010). Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/henv/henv102/henv102.pdf.

HENV-103 Household Waste Management: Recycle(2010). Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/henv/henv103/henv103.pdf.

HENV-104 Household Waste Management: Hazardous Waste (2010). Retrieved November 15, 2011, from http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/henv/henv104/henv104.pdf.

Photo credits:Unless otherwise noted photos and clipart used in this presentation were obtained from Microsoft Office (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/), November 2011.

Contact: Ashley Osborne, M.S., Extension Associate for Environmental and Natural Resource Issues. E: ashley.osborne@uky.edu. P:859-257-2505.

Date: November 2011