11 In 1989, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggested that the waste hierarchy should form the basis of state recycling laws, and thus formulated a tier hierarchical
order incorporating, source reduction and reuse, recycling/composting, energy recovery as well as, treatment and disposal (O’Brien, 2008). This was obviously to ensure that states in the USA keep the hierarchy in mind when formulating waste management legislations.
In the European Union, Directive EC on waste (Waste Framework Directive) is a tier hierarchical order which states that,
“Waste legislation and policy of the EU Member States shall apply as a priority order the following waste management hierarchy” (European
Commission,
2008)
. The EU’s waste hierarchy guideline incorporates, prevention,
preparing for reuse, recycling, recovery and disposal, which becomes a binding regulation that guides the formulation of waste management policies in all member states of the European Union.
In Canada, a report prepared for the Canadian Council of Ministers of Environment by Giroux & Bury (2014), also presented the waste management hierarchy in a tier hierarchical order of reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery of energy and residual management/disposal. It is pertinent to
note from the foregoing that, the influence of the waste hierarchy philosophy in developed countries is undeniable given its integration into their waste management policies (Dijkgraaf & Volleberg,
2004 in Ewikj & Stegemann, 2016), and although the guideline’s interpretation
differ according to locations, as noted earlier, its main objective of advocating landfill disposal as the last resort in the waste management process, after fully ensuring the efficient use of
waste resources as appropriate, is the same. The interpretation of the tier waste hierarchy adopted in the European Union will now be discussed in relation to other locations where it is widely used.
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