SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES
Sustainability indicators of waste
Kohei Watanabe


The main strand of current environmental policies is to set a target based on some indicators and to implement measures to achieve them.  The widely accepted concept of "waste hierarchy" places priority on waste reduction and re-use before recycling, nevertheless most policy measures focus on recycling.  This may be due to the fact that recycling was the easiest for making an indicator.  It is important to devise good indicators in order to get the priorities right.
  An alternative indicator for recycling may be useful, as the recycling rate may not be the best measure for efficient use of resources.  An indicator for reuse is difficult, as e.g. one user using an item for a long period may be as good as having the item re-used many times.  Measuring the degree of waste minimisation is the most difficult as it requires to measure what had been avoided from becoming waste, i.e. "something that is not there".