Stop it, or clean it up: A preventative strategy deals with waste before it causes harm. A restorative strategy repairs harm already done. Prevention is the more sustainable of the two.
The points to remember
- A preventative strategy stops waste being made, or stops it reaching the environment.
- A restorative strategy cleans up waste that is already there and repairs the damage.
- Prevention works before the damage; restoration works after it.
- The most sustainable choice of all: use and buy less, so less waste is made.
Remember it as: A tap left running: turn it off before you mop the floor.
Preventative
- Before the damage
- Make less waste
- Stop waste getting out
Restorative
- After the damage
- Clean up waste
- Repair habitats
Real example: in 2018 the UK banned microbeads in rinse-off cosmetics. That is preventative: the plastic is never made. Picking plastic off a beach later is restorative.
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The pollution management model shows where action can happen.
The three levels
- Level 1, change human activity: make less waste (campaigns, taxes, bans, longer-lasting goods).
- Level 2, control the release: dispose of waste safely (lined landfill, recycling, composting).
- Level 3, clean up and restore: litter picks, ocean clean-ups, capping and planting old landfills.
- Levels 1 and 2 are preventative; level 3 is restorative.
- Level 1 is the most sustainable, but changing people's habits is slow, so most action is at levels 2 and 3.
Level 1: change
- Ireland's 2002 bag charge cut plastic bag use by over 90%.
Level 2: control
- Norway's bottle deposit: about 97% of plastic bottles come back to be recycled.
Level 3: restore
- Versova beach, Mumbai: from 2015 volunteers cleared thousands of tonnes of rubbish.
In a [9] essay: Cover all three levels, each with a named example, then judge which works best. Level 1 is best in theory, but people's habits change slowly.
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The waste hierarchy puts the same idea in order: the best waste is waste that is never made.
The points to remember
- The waste hierarchy ranks options from best to worst.
- Prevent/reduce > reuse > recycle/compost > recover energy > dispose.
- Even recycling uses energy and makes some pollution, so reducing waste beats it.
- Extra Rs: refuse what you do not need; rot (compost) food and garden waste.
- Products that last and can be repaired keep waste out of the bin for years.
Remember it as: Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, rot: in that order.
Real example: in 2003 the small Japanese town of Kamikatsu set a goal of zero waste. Residents sort waste into about 45 types, and a free reuse shop takes unwanted goods. About 80% of its waste is now recycled or composted.
Why reduce beats recycle: Recycling still needs collection lorries, energy and water, and some material is lost each time. Reducing uses no extra resources at all.
Governments, companies and people can use many preventative tools. Each one makes it easier, cheaper or more normal to make less waste.
Preventative tools
- Education and campaigns so people buy, use and throw away less.
- Laws and bans: ban single-use plastics; limit packaging; set waste limits for companies.
- Taxes and charges: a bag charge, a tax on waste or packaging, pay-as-you-throw bins.
- Incentives: money back on returned bottles; grants for repair or home composting.
- Better design: goods that last, can be repaired or reused; biodegradable packaging.
- Better facilities: easy places to donate, reuse and recycle.
Change minds
- Awareness campaigns
- School lessons on waste
- Labels on what to recycle
Change prices
- Bag and packaging charges
- Waste taxes
- Deposits on bottles
Change rules
- Bans on single-use plastic
- Limits on packaging
- Repair rules for goods
Real example: in March 2002 Ireland put a 15 cent charge on every plastic shopping bag. Bag use fell by over 90% within months, and the money went into an environment fund.
Name a strategy, not an action: Asked for strategies? 'Recycle clothes' is an action, not a strategy. Say who does what: 'the government subsidises clothes-donation points' or 'a campaign encourages people to repair'.
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Some waste will always be left. Disposing of it safely is still preventative: it stops leachate and gases reaching the environment.
Making a landfill safer
- Line the landfill with clay or a plastic liner, or build it on impermeable rock.
- Collect and treat leachate, the polluted liquid that drains out of waste.
- Collect methane and burn it for energy; this also stops fires and explosions.
- Build landfills away from rivers, groundwater, homes and valuable ecosystems.
- Cover and compact waste daily so litter does not blow away; screen it from view.
- Send less waste there in the first place: recycle, compost or burn it for energy.
Open dump
- No liner: leachate soaks into soil
- Gas builds up: fires
- Litter blows away
Sanitary landfill
- Liner and leachate pipes
- Methane collected for energy
- Daily soil cover
Real example: Singapore's Semakau Landfill was built offshore in 1999. Its walls are sealed with clay and a plastic membrane so waste cannot leak into the sea, and it mainly takes ash from incinerators, which is far smaller than the waste itself.
Restorative strategies are needed where damage is already done, but they come too late for much of it.
Why prevention is more sustainable
- Restoration: clean-ups of beaches, rivers and oceans, landfill mining, capping and replanting.
- It works after the harm: species may already be lost and habitats hard to restore.
- It has to be repeated while waste keeps arriving, using more energy and resources.
- Prevention protects biodiversity and keeps ecosystems away from tipping points.
- Prevention cuts how much and what kind of waste is released, so less harm to species.
Remember it as: Prevention stops the harm; restoration chases it.
Real example: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers about 1.6 million km2 and holds at least 79,000 tonnes of plastic. Since 2019 the charity The Ocean Cleanup has towed long barriers to collect it, but more plastic arrives every day, and broken-up microplastics are too small to catch.
Two traps: Do not say prevention is better because it is cheaper: that point is not credited. Give the ecological reason: less waste released, biodiversity protected, tipping points avoided.
Asked for one preventative and one restorative strategy? Safest: preventative stops waste being made (a ban, a tax, a campaign); restorative removes waste already in nature (a clean-up). Recycling and incineration deal with waste already made, so never give them as preventative.
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How this comes up: Paper 2, Section A: a graph of rising waste, then one preventative and one restorative strategy [2], and why prevention is better [2].
Figure 1 shows the municipal solid waste made in the world each year, measured in 2016 and projected for 2030 and 2050.
(a) Outline one preventative strategy and one restorative strategy to reduce the trend shown in Figure 1. (b) Justify why preventative strategies are more effective than restorative strategies for ecosystem sustainability.
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