Modern consumption habits are creating a waste epidemic. But what are the visible and invisible impacts of a global recycling system? Waste prevention is a more sustainable option than waste minimisation. Action at organisational and government level is required to promote waste-prevention at all scales.

When does waste become a resource? As of 2017, the global population extracts about 60 billion tonnes of raw materials a year, 50% more annually than 30 years ago. This trend, combined with demographic shifts and rapid urbanisation, threatens to make resource scarcity a major concern within our lifetimes. Successful waste reduction depends heavily on imaginative reuse of recoverable materials across product categories.