Reduce Reuse Recycle

Hi everyone,

Ever heard those three words that begin with the letter R? I bet you have. It is one of the most popular mantras in waste management. The European Union has it included in its 2008 waste framework directive on how waste is to be managed without endangering human health and harming the environment with particular reference to water, air, soil, plants or animals as well as not being a nuisance in the form of odours and not affecting the aesthethic value of the countryside and places of interest. Big grammar! What that means in plain English is managing waste in such a way that it does not adversely affect the living and non living components of the environment. So what is waste? Is it something you dump in the bin? Is it something you have no use for? Is it what you pass out in the toilet?

Waste is generally defined as unwanted or useless material and has also been used in place of terms such as rubbish, trash, refuse, garbage, junk, litter and so on. but that is quite an ambiguous definition because in what context would you say an  object or material becomes unwanted? An empty plastic bottle that contained your milk is no longer useful for that purpose, but does it become waste? The contents of a newspaper you bought today becomes stale news tomorrow but would you consider the newspaper useless?? Maybe or Maybe not. The European Union goes on to place waste in several categories including municipal or household waste, which is waste generated at home and include substances like food particles, green or garden waste, used plastic and glass bottles, newspapers etc. Other categories include industrial waste, which as the name implies is waste generated during industrial purposes and can include cement. Clinical waste is another example generated from hospitals and includes syringes, plasters etc.

To the more dangerous ones, we have hazardous waste which as the name implies are types of waste that can be deadly on contact with humans, plants, animals and buildings. They include toxic chemicals.

The different categories of wastes are collected and disposed off or treated in different ways. My focus today will be on municipal/household waste.

In developed parts of the world like the UK, household wastes are collected according to the way in which they will be disposed off and the further uses to which they can be used. Food and garden wastes are collected separately from plastics newspapers and bottles and are known as mixed recyclables.The food and garden wastes are transported to waste management/treatment companies where they are treated and used to generate electricity from bio gas which powers some of their processes while some of the electricity is transported to the national grid. Another useful product generated from food/garden waste is garden compost which is used to improve soil quality in gardens and allotments for the growth of fruits and vegetables.

The plastics, bottles, bags and papers are transported to a materials reclamation facility where they are sorted into similar kinds, batched and compressed and then transported to recycling companies where they are used as raw materials in the manufacture of new products. Large out of life materials like fridges, computer screens, television are also transported in a similar way to specialist companies that dispose them off. The remainder of the wastes that cannot be reused or recycled are then transported to landfill sites. Now landfill sites have a problem of their own which we shall discuss later.

In developing countries where there is a problem of infrastructure, waste materials used to be initially burnt by households in small pits near their houses. More recently however, more waste management guidelines and regulations are being put in place that allow waste management authorities to have partnerships with private sector participants to collect wastes from households. The waste are collected jointly irrespective of type and transported to landfill. At landfill, certain groups of people called scavengers are registered to pick  through the wastes and sort them and sell the sorted materials (plastic bags and bottles as well as glass materials) to small and medium scale enterprises, thereby generating a small market for recyclable products.

There you go. Your waste materials do not end up useless after all. Some of them can be Re used in your households which will in turn Reduce the amount of waste generated. Others are Recycled and used in the generation of new products. The concept of reusing, reducing and recycling waste reduces our dependence on landfills and consequently the health effects that they pose. It also reduces the need for large parcels of land for landfill, allowing for more economic use of land such as in the construction of roads and industries.