The waste of biodiversity

While Australian consumers produce large amounts of waste, larger amounts of waste are generated in the course of producing the goods and services consumed. This paper reviews the nature of waste and the impacts of a range of wastes on biodiversity. It demonstrates that the ecological impacts of wastes are pervasive and widespread. Typically, the wastes associated with the production of goods and services have a greater impact on biodiversity than the wastes generated during the consumption of those goods and services. There is consequently an onus on consumers to minimise wasteful consumption and to choose products and services with less embodied waste. There is also an onus on society to establish a system that makes producers and consumers accountable for the wastes embodied in the goods and services that they trade.