A waste bin can contain food, plastic, paper, glass, metals, batteries and many other materials. Teaching children simply that “waste is bad” hides the more useful lesson: different materials require different decisions.
Throwing something into a bin removes it from our immediate view. It does not remove the material from the world. Every discarded object continues into another part of the waste system.
Circularity is the idea of keeping products and materials useful instead of discarding them unnecessarily. It begins with using less, maintaining what we have, reusing, repairing and recycling before treating something as waste.