What's in our waste?

Waste is a resource.

•  Waste can been defined as: "any material, solid, liquid or gas, that is unwanted and/ or unvalued, and discarded or discharged by its owner."
  This definition recognises that what one person or organisation regards as waste can be a useful resource when used again for a beneficial purpose.

(Towards Zero Waste and a Sustainable New Zealand, The New Zealand Waste Strategy, Ministry for the Environment)

We are concerned with solid waste; in particular, domestic (refuse & recyclables) and construction & demolition waste.

• The most recent national waste data available in New Zealand is from the Ministry for the Environment's National Waste Data Report, 1997.
• It is difficult to judge how quickly New Zealand's waste problem is growing as collected data is inconsistent, difficult to compare and in many cases is incomplete.
•  Data from the Auckland region, where total landfill waste has been monitored since 1983, shows a huge increase in waste disposed to landfill per person of 73%.
• Nationally we dispose of 3.4 million tonnes of waste into our landfills every year. In addition, similar amounts of waste from building and demolition activities are disposed of into cleanfill sites.
  (The New Zealand Waste Strategy)

See also What's the problem?, Waste Composition