wasteful

Modifies a noun

• duplication: Evidence suggests that the desire for autonomy is leading to wasteful duplication.
• bureaucracy: A fascinating insight into the wasteful bureaucracy of Quangos.
• spending: The Party has launched a review of public spending, under David James, which aims to identify wasteful spending across the public sector.
• packaging: The Institute for Public Policy Research says such a tax would force firms to cut down on wasteful packaging.
• consumption: Second, we can reduce inputs of carbon dioxide by reducing wasteful energy consumption.
• expenditure: Budget reform must reduce wasteful expenditure in favor of a rigorous selection of priorities.

Modifying Another Word

• incredibly: It is incredibly wasteful in society to have something like three million children growing up in poverty.
• hugely: The sums at the disposal of the United Nations are vast, and the way it spends them often hugely wasteful.
• extremely: Secondly, he argues that the NHS is extremely wasteful.
• somewhat: In a broadcast mode, data would be transmitted to everyone within a certain range, which is somewhat wasteful of precious bandwidth.
• particularly: It is particularly wasteful to leave upstairs bedroom doors open all day during the heating season.
• too: Looked knackered from the start, and too wasteful with the ball.

Infinitive complement

have: It is terribly wasteful to have a television on serving as a clock.

Used with adjective complement

seem: Schemes involving part boxing and part pounding of the catch seems wasteful of space.

Preposition: in

• term: Failing to recognize your best time can actually be wasteful in terms of our productivity.
• front: Unlike the previous game, Scotland were able to create more goalscoring opportunities, but were wasteful in front of Andy Halpin's goal.

Preposition: of

• resource: Failure to address whole system issues is wasteful of public resources.
• time: However for most species, erratic germination and predation by birds and animals means this method is wasteful of time and space.
• space: Schemes involving part boxing and part pounding of the catch seems wasteful of space.
• material: Manipulation of images can be quicker and much less wasteful of materials.