Toward an Extension and Revision of the Concept of Waste

A bstract . Conventionally, the concept of waste has been used largely to indicate physical waste , which itself is of enormous magnitude. Sometimes non‐physical waste is included. But some forms, like the waste of time, talents and career opportunities , are not ordinarily thought of as waste, nor are such wastes as arise, for example, from avoidable economic errors or managerial misjudgments. The concept requires considerable extension and substantial revision if wastes are to be prevented through management expertise and use of standard methodologies in the management sciences. For the number of new forms of non‐physical waste, of which many examples are cited, is legion.