It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it is formed.
Pollution prevention in the home actually begins when you're out shopping. Most things that you buy, whether they're groceries or electronics or media like CDs or DVDs, are packaged in a variety of ways. What you really want is inside the packaging. Even though you usually throw away that packaging, you still have to pay for it and when you get home you're going to have to throw it away. So one example of pollution prevention in the home would be "purchasing things that have the least packaging."
Preventing pollution within the home is often similar to preventing pollution whithin a laboratory or manufacturing setting. Within a laboratory setting pollution can be prevented by using less materials to generate a product or produce a result. Within the setting of the home, if we can avoid or minimize the use of certain products or certain practices, then we can avoid pollution in a number of ways. An example of this form of pollution prevention in the home is "using the least amount of detergent to get the clothes clean." The fact that we can put as much detergent as we like in the clothes washer doesn't mean that the more detergent we use, the cleaner the clothes will be. Any excess detergent is simply waste and that waste goes down the drain with our rinse water, or worse, is left as a film on our clothes, sometimes causing a rash or otherwise reacting with our skin. The excess - whether it goes down the drain or sticks to our clothes - costs us money and costs the environment.
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