What is Waste?
The term waste is neither easy to define nor to delimit in scope. Waste can be seen as a parallax object, possessing a range of qualities, utility values and attitude attachments depending on one’s perspective. Waste is both filthy and valuable, toxic, yet useful – what waste is and how, why and to whom it matters varies greatly . Opinions diverge sharply on an appropriate definition of waste, both with respect to legal and operational uses of the term/ Table 1 below highlights several definitions of waste found within the literature
Table 1: Various definitions on the concept of waste
| Author | Definition |
| Baran (1959) | Waste is the difference between the level of output of useful goods and services that would be obtained if all productive factors were allocated to their best and highest uses under rational social order, and the level that is actually obtained |
| Elwood (1993) | Waste, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder |
| EU (1991) | Waste shall mean any substance or object in the categories set out in Annex I, which the holder discards or is required to discard |
| Gutberlet (2011) | Waste is a potential resource |
| Hollander (1998) | Waste is something that needs to be expelled in order that the system continues to function |
| Lox (1994) | Waste is either an output with (‘a negative market’) ‘no economic’ value from an industrial system or any substance or object that has ‘been used for its intended purpose’ (or ‘served its intended function’) by the consumer and will not be re-used |
| McKinnie (1986) | Waste is the unnecessary costs that result from inefficient
practices, systems or controls |
| OECD (1994) | Wastes are materials other than radioactive materials intended for Disposal |
| Pongracz (2002) | Waste is an unwanted, but not avoided output, whence its creation was not avoided either because it was not possible, or because one failed to avoid it |
| Pongracz (2002) | Waste is a man-made thing that has no purpose; or is not able to perform with respect to its purpose |
| Tchobanoglous et al. (1993) | Items which have may no immediate use value, but due to their intrinsic properties are often reusable and may be considered a resource in another setting |
| UNEP (1989) | Wastes are substances or objects, which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of national law |
