Waste Prevention

Welcome to Galway County Councils waste prevention page. This aim of this page is to help you understand what waste prevention is and what you can do at home or in the workplace to contribute to successful waste prevention.

It is generally accepted that the excessive generation of waste is bad for the environment and therefore we should try to reduce as much waste arising as possible. This will limit excessive resource use and will assist in reducing on environmental damage. Preventing waste before it’s created does just that and it can also help reduce the cost of disposal because if you don’t create it you don’t have to dispose of it!

What is Waste Prevention?

Prevention can be defined as any action that will save on resource use and also limit environmental damage. Preventing waste as source is the best option because if you don’t create it, then you don’t have to dispose of it and pay for this as well.

What can I do to Prevent Waste?

Preventing waste can be difficult so we must remember that every choice we make in our daily lives can have either a positive or negative impact on our environment – therefore – the choice is ours but remember it’s easy to make a difference. Prevention means identifying the various options you have when choosing a product, for example, instead of buying 4 pre-packed apples, why not buy 4 loose apples, which results in not bringing home a polystyrene or cardboard container covered with plastic wrap.

Waste Prevention in Business

Managing your environmental performance in your business means putting systems in place that will allow you and your staff identify areas where excess waste is produced, or where excess energy or water is consumed in the course of your day-to-day activities.

"Changing Behaviour-Saving Resources" is a booklet which aims to provide you with the information required to implement good environmental practices in your workplace that will not only assist in improving your environmental performance, but should also help you to save some money. Many of the actions outlined are suitable for implementation in business in general, but are based on the outcomes generated by the first phase of the Galway Waste Prevention Programme which focused specifically on retail, hospitality, fish processing, printing and paper based organisations. Environmental improvements can be achieved by employing best practice techniques in efficiency and resource use. This can be achieved relatively simply by studying and monitoring the consumption of resources during a specific period and quantifying the business outputs at the same time.

Food Waste

Based on studies carried out by the Clean Technology Centre Cork, on average wasted food costs each Irish household €700 a year. For some households this can be over €1,000! This is an unbelievable waste of money and food - think of the holidays you could have instead of throwing all this food out. Consider whether you really need every product you buy, every appliance that’s on or on standby, every tap that’s running, every journey in a car or a plane. Follow our top tips for waste prevention:

Less waste going to landfill and recycling means, fewer trucks on the road, fewer landfills and less energy usage
Less waste means savings in CO2 and other greenhouse gases which causes climate change
Less waste means we can conserve valuable resources like trees, oil and metals.

Click here for leaflet on waste prevention at home or www.stopfoodwaste.ie for more advice on food waste prevention, composting and recipes.

USE OF SWILL

THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS WITH FOOD AND CATERING WASTE IS REGULATED BY THE 2001 SWILL ORDER.

CLICK http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2001/en/si/0597.html FOR FULL DETAILS