Waste Stream?
Coming from the waste industry it is all too easy to fall into trade jargon and the use of the words “waste stream� to describe your rubbish is one of the industries favourites.
I have begun to question whether these are the right words after Heather Rogers (author of Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage) wrote that the phrase is too innocuous, it sound too natural and too inevitable.
I am beginning to agree with her.
The word stream is a bit weak and is not the best way to describe the one tonne of stuff every household throws away per year, or to put it another way 31 million tonnes of rubbish thrown away every year in the UK - not so much a stream, more like a tsunami of garbage, a vast rubbish ocean.
I do have some reservations about throwing out the word “waste�. The use of the word waste indicates to me that you are wasting something – hopefully it puts the onus on the user (the waster) to find a use for it, or find someone who can use it.
I don’t really like using the word “rubbish� either – that jam jar you think is rubbish is in fact perfectly usable in the glass industry to make new glass or as a container to keep your screws in.
What is the best way to describe the waste/rubbish in your bin and the huge amount we throw away every year?
Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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What you call things definitely has an impact on how people think about them so although it may sound like arguing over pedantics, but it is a very good point. People understand waste as a thing and an action and it is generally seen as a bad thing, I mean who wants to be called a waster? So why change this?
Sometimes people call waste a resource to try to capture the fact that the things thrown away are still useful. Nice try, but its such a clumsy word. I am not at all sure I would automatically make the connection if someone was talking to be about resources that I they were talking about the contents of my bin, even as a regular recycler and optimist that there is a use for this stuff somewhere.
As to talking about waste streams, I have to agree that the it doesn't seam to do justice to the vast amount produced. It is a constant flow, and it does have potential undercurrents of danger but it is more of a huge river damaging things as it goes along. However I looked in the dictionary and was reminded that stream can also mean to emit, discharge, or exude, such as in streaming eyes when crying or with a cold.
Whatever you call it, I am left wondering how to make people think about the fact they are the ones producing this stream of waste?
Great blog!