What Is the Waste Disposal Hierarchy? 5 Steps Explained

The first step in understanding what the waste hierarchy is is that not all methods of waste management are equal. The waste hierarchy is an internationally accepted approach in which waste management actions are prioritized from most preferred (prevention) to least preferred (landfilling).

What is the waste hierarchy? The waste disposal hierarchy forms the basic framework for contemporary environmental policy and serves as a handbook for cities, industry and citizens to deal with products in an environmentally sustainable way. This framework emphasises the conservation of resources at the highest level, thereby decreasing the use of virgin resources, carbon emissions and toxic pollution.

When global consumption is on the rise, it is crucial to know what is the waste management hierarchy for any business or community when thinking about moving to a circular economy. The hierarchy of waste management provides a useful guide to all decisions made on a day-to-day basis, such as at home, in industry or in the electronics sector, that contributes to long-term environmental sustainability. By learning about the 5 steps of the waste hierarchy, organisations can maximise resource efficiency and reduce their environmental impact.

Waste Management Hierarchy Meaning and Origin

In order to set the definition, let’s first understand what is the waste hierarchy? What is the waste management hierarchy?The waste management hierarchy is a prioritised system that classifies waste management possibilities by their environmental favourability with pollution prevention being placed at the top of the list.

The formal concept was established by the European Union in the groundbreaking EU Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC). The EU Directive legally established the 5-tier hierarchy of solid waste management, the “3Rs” (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) principle having been promoted by environmentalists since the 1970s. It set up a guiding principle for member states and corporations that waste management decisions must be made using a resource efficiency, life cycle, and carbon mitigation approach. The framework has become the foundation of international environmental law and corporate global sustainability codes today.

What are the 5 Steps of the Waste Hierarchy?

Let’s first look into what are the 5 steps of waste hierarchy or what is waste disposal hierachy? There are five levels to the waste management hierarchy or solid waste hierarchy. Each step is a step down in environmental preference:

1. Prevention (Most Preferred)
2. Reuse
3. Recycling
4. Recovery (Energy Recovery)
5. Disposal (Least Preferred)

1. Prevention (Most Preferred)

Prevention – or reduction – is concerned with preventing the generation of waste in the first place. Prevention reduces the environmental burden of extracting and processing materials before it begins, by designing fewer materials, longer-lasting products and eliminating all unnecessary packaging.

Everyday Example: Individuals purchasing loose fruits rather than plastic wrapped fruits, or a company redesigning a bottle using 20% less resin.

2. Reuse

Reuse is the reuse of an item after it has been used for its intended use but without chemical or physical reprocessing.

Everyday Example: Putting milk in a glass milk bottle, giving clothing to charity or using a strong cardboard shipping box for storage in the house.

3. Recycling

Recycling process is a process for collecting waste materials, processing them and converting into secondary raw materials and new products. The stage recovers useful materials such as plastics, paper, glass and metals from waste and prevents them from ending up in landfills.

Everyday Example: Recycling post-consumer HDPE Milk Bottles to clean plastic granules for recycled shampoo bottles.

4. Recovery (Energy Recovery)

If materials are not reusable or can not be mechanically recycled, then energy recovery is used to remove the calorific value. Waste can be turned into electricity, heat or biofuels via the processes of incineration with energy recovery, anaerobic digestion, and gasification.

Everyday Example: Waste into steam for electricity turbines in Waste-to-Energy plants, using Municipal solid waste (MSW) that is not collected for recycling.

5. Disposal (Least Preferred)

Disposal is the last of the waste management hierarchy. It covers landfill or incineration (without energy recovery). Any material put into landfill contributes to soil contamination, leaching into the ground and methane emissions, but without any value being recovered on the material.

Everyday Example: Sending mixed (unsegregated) waste directly to an open landfill dump site.

Waste Hierarchy Pyramid Diagram

What is waste disposal hierarchy or order of waste management hierarchy? The pyramid of waste shows the hierarchy of waste in an inverted pyramid. The wide base at the top is the most environmentally beneficial option (Prevention) and the narrow tip at the bottom is the last resort (Disposal).