The goal of sustainable waste management is to reduce the quantity of solid waste that is burned or dumped in landfills while maximizing the useful life of resources. To help lessen the detrimental effects of 21st-century consumption on the environment, society, and economy, a more comprehensive approach to viable waste management must address a product’s whole lifecycle.
This is because waste in our current linear economy starts from the moment products are manufactured. Therefore, if we are to hone and enhance our current waste management systems, the question of what precisely constitutes sustainable waste management is crucial.
New waste management strategies are being implemented, whether they concentrate on decreasing waste at the end of life or designing waste out of the manufacturing cycle from the conceptual stage to both reduce the quantity of trash produced and properly handle the current waste streams.
Why is sustainable waste management such a big deal?
Within the larger circular economy, sustainable waste management plays a key role. This comprehensive method of advancing the economy seeks to disentangle growth from the depletion of limited resources, and it contradicts the take-make-waste paradigm.
In addition to providing more immediate answers to the numerous challenges trash creates, sustainable waste management also aids in addressing the larger concerns of a society characterized by linear consumption. When the sustainable waste handling hierarchy is not followed, materials and items that may still be used are transported to landfills or energy recovery facilities.
Both paper and paperboard
Paper and paperboard goods make up the majority of solid waste from municipal sources (MSW). Although generally biodegradable and less harmful than plastics, paper products nevertheless cause unnecessary environmental stress owing to their excessive usage.
In addition to consuming enormous quantities of energy and water, the usage of raw resources in the production of new products like paper and cards results in deforestation.
Furthermore, even though this specific waste stream has exceptionally high recycling rates, processing all wastepaper through efficient recycling programs could save over 100 million metric tons of wood annually, with a single tonne saving “17 trees, 2 barrels of gasoline (enough to run a typical vehicle over 1,260 miles), 4,100 kW of electricity (enough power for a typical household for 6 months).”
Food waste
Food waste has a significant influence on society, the economy, and the environment. It ranks as the second-largest component of city solid trash, accounting for 21.59%, according to the EPA. Instead of sending “waste materials” to landfills, where they decompose and emit methane and CO2, which are two major contributors to global warming, sustainable waste management might keep them in the loop via donation or composting.
First, food production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater withdrawals, accounting for about 25% of world emissions. This raises the issue of ineffective solid waste management.
If we are unable to address the root cause of overproduction, the volume of rubbish generated daily appears to be too much for collection systems to handle.
Also Read: A Robot System Fights Against Plastic Waste On The Seabed
Polymer
Plastics make up the third-largest portion of MSW. Single-use plastic goods are strangling the land and water, making plastics the face of a linear economy’s perils. Reducing and eliminating the usage of single-use plastic items while simultaneously increasing the quantity that is recycled—which is now just 8.5%—is what sustainable waste management entails.
Putting garbage in the line of command
The waste management hierarchy—a framework that prioritizes energy recovery, reuse, avoidance, reduction, recycling, and treatment or disposal—is the foundation of sustainable waste management. It seeks to order activities for the most effective use of resources, giving priority to renewable and less wasteful actions at the summit of the hierarchy.
Reduction and avoidance
The primary goal is to prevent and minimize waste production. Reducing consumption and increasing efficiency can help achieve this. First and foremost, companies and consumers ought to select goods that use the fewest resources (including packaging) in their production.
Furthermore, it is best to stay away from single-use or throwaway products wherever feasible. These items represent linear waste, which occurs when resources are harvested, processed, and dispersed only for them to soon become garbage.
Utilize and recycle
If it is not possible to avoid using a product, emphasis should be placed on buying items that can be fixed or reused as instructive materials for recycling garbage. Reusing is favored over choices at the bottom of the hierarchy because it eliminates the need to process fresh materials, which costs money, energy, and frequently other resources.
One of the main principles of the zero-waste concept is reuse, which may be demonstrated by getting shoes fixed, giving away clothing and other goods so that others can use them, or even finding ways to make use of leftover food instead of throwing it away.
Recycling is the greatest choice if something cannot be reused. At this point, the procedure begins to resemble traditional waste management since the materials we are working with are approaching the end of their useful lives in their current state. Reusing, for example, preserves materials in the system, preventing the need to harvest virgin resources and mitigating some of the adverse consequences associated with garbage disposal alone.
Recycling is viewed as less acceptable than the other choices since it needs energy, cash, and other assets to convert waste materials back into useful ones.
However, the advantages of recycling differ significantly depending on the material. For example, aluminum may save over 90% of its energy use when recycled, more than offsetting the cost of recycling itself.
While glass only saves 10 to 15% of energy, it is still a better option than simple garbage disposal. Composting may also be found at this hierarchical level because it enables the diversion of organic waste from landfills and its conversion into a resource for producing fresh crops.
Recovering energy
Energy recovery, the process of turning waste into usable heat, power, or fuel like biogas, is the next stage. Anaerobic digestion, gasification, pyrolysis, incineration (including energy collection), and gas from landfills (LFG) recovery—some of which overlap with the final waste management stage—are some of the techniques used to accomplish this.
For non-hazardous garbage, combustion is a popular energy recovery technique. While it is undoubtedly less ideal than recycling or reuse, it helps lessen the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and produces energy during the process of combustion that is otherwise needed.
using fossil fuels for production
Having said all of this, some in the waste handling industry consider energy recovery to be an unacceptable compromise and it is not listed among the zero waste priorities. However, if you visit ridlyrubbishremoval.com.au, you can view all of the energy recovery measures taken to help increase sustainability.
Processing or getting rid of
Treatment or disposal is the last and least ideal phase in the hierarchy. Generally speaking, this refers to incineration or landfills without energy recovery. While some garbage may unavoidably experience this, it is best to prevent it as long as possible by practicing sustainable waste management.
How to begin implementing a more sustainable waste management system
These pointers will assist you in identifying the sources and modes of trash generation so that you can take the necessary action to address them. There are also straightforward methods for introducing environmentally friendly trash disposal in households and companies.
Throw away single-use products
Use reusable goods instead of single-use ones. Get glasses or mugs for your coffee instead of disposable cups. It’s crucial to remember that many products that appear green, like biodegradable coffee cups, cannot truly be composted and will instead decompose in a landfill. This is true even at professional composting facilities. Changing to a more environmentally friendly option may save both money and the environment.
Make the move to digital
As was already noted, the single greatest component of MSW is paper and paper products. Converting as much paper documentation as possible to digital copies is a comparatively simple approach for firms to enhance sustainable waste management.
This may be transferred to an online invoicing system from a paper one, storing meeting minutes in an online spreadsheet instead of a printed one, or to banking online.
Provide a garbage substitute
A firm will probably produce a wide variety of garbage, and empowering all staff to take initiative is one method to promote more sustainable waste management. This may be as easy as offering compost and recycling containers in addition to ordinary garbage cans and hiring services to handle this material.
Is it useful to anybody else?
Since reusing materials is preferable to recycling them, organizations may increase sustainability (https://earth.org/what-is-sustainability/) by seeing whether they can contribute any resources that would otherwise be thrown away. Overstocked food at shops and restaurants, outdated hardware from workplaces, out-of-promotion items from non-food retailers, or even components from remodeling projects might all be examples of this.
Both firms can achieve sustainable waste management and houses provided the appropriate structure is put in place. More significantly, though, the repercussions of unmanaged waste are too severe to ignore.
Also Read: Embracing Technology: Advancements In Waste Management For A Greener Future