Reduce means preventing waste before it is created, by using less material and fewer products. It is the first of the three Rs, ahead of reuse and recycle, and sits at the top of the waste hierarchy, because waste that never exists needs no collection, sorting or treatment.
For households, reducing means buying what is needed, choosing durable goods and avoiding unnecessary single-use plastic. For businesses, it means designing packaging with less material: thinner films, lighter bottles, right-sized packs and fewer layers. This is known as lightweighting or source reduction. Reduction has limits, since packaging still has to protect the product, and a pack that fails creates more waste than it saves. The material that remains should be reusable or recyclable and, ideally, made with recycled content.
