Global Waste Management Issues
Introduction
Human activities and various other things produce waste. This production of high amounts waste and the way such wastes are handled, collected, stored and disposed of, which can pose risks to public health and the environment. Where extreme human activities concentrate such as in urban centers, safe and appropriate solid waste management is of utmost importance in order to allow healthy living conditions for the population . The issues of waste management and its disposal are not just problems of a specific nation or a city. It is a serious problem at a global level, which calls for immediate attention. Several global nations and governments are articulating their concern about the various problems with respect to waste disposal. The term recycling has morphed into a new concept known as "Zero Waste" and all of a sudden, ’recycling’ has turned out into a ultimate challenge to businesses world over. ““Zero Waste” has the probability to motivate people to demand new products, change their lifestyles and insist that governments and corporations behave in new ways. This is for sure a very exciting development .”
Solid waste is basically garbage – a waste that gets generated in households, business establishments as well as a few industrial sources. Solid waste production is increasing in leaps and bounds, in terms of extent as well as toxicity in several nations currently.
Increasing number of several daily use products today possess toxic chemicals and these when united with a myriad range of other chemical substances, ultimately tend to effect the public health as well as also the environment at large. There are several solid waste management facilities that are currently available in various places of the world, which comprise of landfills, furnaces, as well as an increasing number of transfer points. “Many of the older facilities that were run by municipalities have been closed down because of environmental concerns, thus paving the way for the waste industry to market their “state-of-the-art” management facilities.”
Waste management is extremely crucial because there is a major impact that it has got upon the health of the people as well as on communities. Danger is posed to water supplies if there are chemical spills. Poorly done landfills and furnaces could give out cancerous carcinogen and several other contaminants into the air. They could also generate various types of worms, insects and also similar carriers of communicable diseases. A city which is not efficient enough in effective waste management is seldom capable of managing other complex public issues like “health, education, or transportation.” Also, enhancing the process of waste management is possibly one of the most highly effective methods of supporting the overall municipal management .
Solid Waste Management System and its elements
A Solid Waste Management System in a few low income Asian countries encompasses the following:
Household generation of waste and its storage
Re-use and recycling on a household level which also includes animal feed and composting
Primary waste collection and its transport to the transfer point or community bin
“Management of the transfer station or community bin
Secondary collection and transport to the waste disposal site
Waste disposal in landfills”
Recovering and recycling usually takes place in all elements of the waste management systems and is extensively practiced for extra income by the informal sector referred as waste pickers or by the solid waste management staff themselves. The products that are thus recovered enter a chain of dealers before they finally get sold to manufacturing enterprises for being recycled .
Often observed in Asian cities, the typical schemes provide primary collection service, which is collection and transportation of waste from each house to an intermediate point where everything is collected. This form of primary collection that is often handled by smaller enterprises is generally an initiative of the residents who are in a desperate state for getting the wastes collected from their homes. In a few scenarios, the residents are also willing to pay monthly collection fees to the collecting service partner. A possible ways to effectively handle this is to recycle as much of the waste locally with a decentralized approach so that there is very little need for the ongoing transport of collected waste .
Costs and Benefits of Waste Management
The future of waste management on an over-crowded planet still cannot be predicted. Even the most superior global waste management systems have shown that they cannot endure the test of the global economic downturn as well as keep pace with the growing population of world, GDP per capita and hence, the amount of waste that is being produced at a global level is increasing constantly, and it is really high time that we must become cognizant of the detrimental consequences and act immediately to address this issue.
Research and discussions suggest that an integrated solid waste management plan is needed. The key to successful plan is input and consultation from all the affected parties including citizen groups and those working on behalf of the poor and the underprivileged. Such a plan will also need to take into consideration the Public health and environmental protection aspects. The reports and figures showcase a relatively silent problem that is growing daily. The challenges that surround the municipal solid waste management are going to be enormous, if not greater than the challenges we currently experience with climate change. Therefore these data facts should be seen as a giant wake up call to the policy makers everywhere .
The Costs of inaction in Solid Waste management will lead to the following impacts
Impact on Public health due to uncollected waste
• Gastro intestinal and respiratory toxicities, especially in kids
• Drains that are blocked have a chance of intensifying floods and also resulting in the spreading of communicable disease
Effect on the environment because of dumping of waste in open areas and burning the same
• Massive land contamination as well as pollution of all natural water resources
• Pollution of the overall environment
Effect in the form of the costs on the society at large, in terms of health care, lost productivity, flood damage and damage to business and tourism
Although appropriate waste management has a monetary element, it makes a kind of economic sense. Affordability is possibly one of the biggest challenges with respect to waste management in emerging economies.
Garnering funds for investing into contemporary facilities continues to be a challenge in all countries. However, even the poor people have to bear some cost, considering the benefits of a clean and healthy community and the environment at large, which even they will enjoy .
Solutions – What needs to be done?
The solution to waste management rests in reducing the volume as well as the toxicity of our garbage. Zero Waste aims for the elimination of waste rather than just “managing” the waste .
A few actions that might help in effective waste management are:
Awareness and attitudes of the public to waste can affect the population's readiness to co-operate and participate in adequate waste management practices. Awareness and information on general environmental and health risks due to deficient solid waste management are important factors and thus need to be continuously communicated to all sectors of the population. General population can participate by carrying waste to a shared container or by segregating waste to assist recycling activities. They may even contribute only by paying for waste management services.
End unrestrained waste dumping as well as burning - Collection services that are easy on the wallet, should be extended to all the various levels of the society, regardless of the income level of the people
Bring hazardous wastes under control – The hazardous waste, particularly the hazardous medical waste needs to be alienated from other forms of wastes at their origin itself. The wastes that are thus separated, call for separate management in facilities that are ecofriendly in nature. The need of the hour is thus a holistic approach for the effective management of all residuals .
Increased attention to prevention of waste generation – Resource security and general well-being is improved by reducing waste. It also saves everyone’s money. Maximize repair, re-use and re-manufacture of resources. Separate materials waste at the source in order to reduce the degree of pollution, thus enabling reuse as well as recycling
Feedback loops are to be concentrated upon – Recycling to be maximized. In nations that have low income levels, integrating the current small scale recycling players into the conventional waste management supply chain would be a good thing. Environmentally strong and robust energy recovery amenities and landfills for gathering the residual waste are required to be created for specifically those wastes which are not possible for being recycled in a sustainable manner .
Methods of Implementation
The governance factors needed for establishing a successful waste management system should essentially focus on a few action initiatives as discussed under:
Pre-emptive policies and comprehensive establishments
A bundle of several policy instruments are required, which encompass direct legislation, and both economic and social instruments. A national level agenda for waste management and a legal setup is required. A waste department that is comprehensively and adequately resourced should be established with the apt level of power as well as self-sufficiency.
Money matters
First of all, the revenues and the cost availability are to be identified and ascertained. Finding the appropriate and applicable financing sources and model of funding that would help accrue investments is of high importance. The generators of high amounts of waste should be the ones who are supposed to be taking into account the economic charges of effective waste management for the waste they had generated. It is important to make sure that disposal is also priced and a reward for the 3 ‘R’s namely, reduce, reuse and recycle is offered. It is also recommended that a few costs of handling residual produces should be transferred from the municipality to the producers of such waste
Conclusion
Waste management has strong associations with a plethora of other international challenges like global warming, climate change, food security, growing health concerns, reduction of poverty levels, and sustainability in the field of production as well as consumption, among others. The political efforts can be robustly strengthened, when waste management is seen as a starting point to deal with a wide range of other sustainable development tasks, quite a few of them being pretty complicated to be dealt with. In a few Asian countries with low and middle income levels, municipal managers still face many common problems related to robust and effective waste management.
Works Cited
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