What waste reduction strategy aims to lessen landfill contributions?

The strategy that aims to lessen landfill contributions by reprocessing items into new products is recycling. Recycling involves collecting, processing, and transforming waste materials into new products, which minimizes the amount of waste that ends up in landfills. By turning recyclable materials such as paper, glass, metals, and plastics into new items, this process conserves resources, reduces the demand for raw materials, and lowers energy consumption associated with producing new products from virgin materials.

Recycling is particularly effective because it not only prevents waste but also fosters a circular economy where materials are reused multiple times. This cycle plays a critical role in decreasing overall waste and mitigating environmental impacts associated with landfill use, such as greenhouse gas emissions.

Other methods like composting, incineration, and reduction have their own benefits and roles within waste management, but recycling stands out specifically for directly targeting waste that would otherwise contribute to landfill. Composting is effective for organic waste, while incineration reduces volume but does not always address recycling, and reduction focuses on minimizing waste generation in the first place. However, recycling specifically addresses waste that is already produced, making it a critical strategy in waste reduction.