The waste hierarchy is intended to guide choices about waste management options.

The hierarchy encourages the adoption of options for managing waste in the following order of priority:

• Waste should be prevented or reduced at source as far as possible;
  
  
• Where waste cannot be prevented, waste materials or products should be reused directly, or refurbished then reused;
  
  
• Waste materials should then be recycled or reprocessed into a form that allows them to be reclaimed as a secondary raw material;
  
  
• Where useful secondary materials cannot be reclaimed, the energy content of waste should be recovered and used as a substitute for non-renewable energy resources;
  
  
• Only if waste cannot be prevented, reclaimed or recovered, should it be disposed of into the environment by landfilling, and this should only be undertaken in a controlled manner.