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Waste Reduction Week is a national campaign aimed at building awareness around the issue of sustainable and responsible consumption. WRW happens during the fourth week of Circular Economy Month, a public awareness campaign that takes place annually throughout the month of October to highlight the benefits of a circular economy and to encourage Canadians to embrace circular solutions that will help build a stronger community for all. Focusing on the core principles of the circular economy, Waste Reduction Week will address seven different but related themes. Participants may choose to explore one or several of these during the week-long event.

Waste Reduction Week provides students and teachers from across Canada with an excellent opportunity to explore the social, economic and environmental impacts of waste and to take action to reduce, re-use, and recycle waste within their own communities.

Why Care about Waste Reduction?

• Canadians currently divert less than 25% of the waste we generate. The remainder ends up in landfills.

• There are well over 10,000 landfill sites in Canada.*

• Landfill sites account for about 38% of Canada's total methane emissions*

• In a lifetime, the average Canadian will throw away 600 times his or her adult weight in garbage. A 68 kg adult will leave a legacy of 40,825 kg of trash.**

• By the age of 6 months the average Canadian has consumed the same amount of resources as the average person in the developing world consumes in a lifetime.**

• E-waste is the fastest growing source of waste in North America

• E-waste is hazardous material and over time can leak toxic elements like mercury and lead into the environment.

• In 2022 the world produced 62 billion kg of electronic waste -the equivalent of 1.55 million trucks. This is double the amount generated in 2010^

• Only 12.5% of e-waste is currently being recycled***

• Canadians throw away over 3 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Only 9% is recycled while the rest ends up in our landfills*

• An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our oceans annually—that’s the equivalent of one garbage truck full of plastic every minute.^

• By 2050, it’s estimated there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish, by weight.^

• Across Canada, nearly 46.5% of all food produced is wasted – that’s 21.18 million metric tonnes of food waste, nearly 41.7% of which is still edible. ^

• The circular economy redefines products and services to design the waste out.

*Environment & Climate Change Canada

**Natural Resources Canada

***EPA

^Circular Innovation Council

 Resources 4 Rethinking encourages students and teachers to participate in Waste Reduction Week and offers a number of resources to help explore this year’s themes.

More information and activities can be found here and here.