Poorly managed waste impacts our environment by contaminating water, creating health hazards through landfills and burn sites, causing landslides and injuring those who live near them, and contributing to global warming through greenhouse gasses.

Getting to know your waste streams is essential for developing targeted disposal practices and ensuring regulatory compliance. Streamlining tracking and reporting with consistent metrics makes it easier to set goals for waste reduction. Contact Baltimore County Waste Management now!

Practicing prevention of waste management involves avoiding the creation of trash in the first place. It can be done through purchasing products with minimal packaging, using reusable containers and utensils, and recycling and composting as much as possible. This helps reduce the need for landfills and incineration, which releases harmful pollutants into the air and soil. It also conserves natural resources and saves energy.

In many developing countries, most industrial and household waste is landfilled or burned. Landfilling exposes contaminated materials to the environment, which contaminates groundwater and depletes the flora and fauna of the area. Burning, meanwhile, pollutes the atmosphere with smog and releases toxic chemicals into the water and air. These pollutants may cause respiratory disease, bronchitis, asthma, gastrointestinal diseases, cancer, and other health issues.

Most cities have inadequate waste management systems, resulting in improper storage and disposal of waste. Uncontrolled landfills and open dumps release methane under anaerobic conditions, which contributes to global warming. Moreover, co-mingling of solid waste with medical and industrial waste releases chemical and radioactive hazards, Hepatitis B and C, tetanus, infectious diseases, chest pains, psychological disorders, and other health problems.

Proper waste reduction is a vital part of sustainable development and environmental protection. It reduces the amount of garbage produced and minimizes the need for landfills, incineration, and mining to obtain new raw materials. It also conserves natural resources, reduces carbon emissions, and saves energy. However, it is not always easy to implement and requires commitment by the people of a community. Educating residents and businesses about the importance of sustainable practices, ensuring that they know what is recyclable, and encouraging them to participate in community events are important.

Minimization

The old adage “waste not, want not” is more than just common sense; it’s a necessary part of good waste management. Responsible waste minimization can reduce environmental impact, save your business money, and attract new eco-conscious customers. This is especially important for small businesses that may have limited resources.

Waste minimization is the process of reducing waste production at the source rather than focusing on post-production treatment or disposal (Cheremisinoff, 2003). This can be done through equipment or process modification, reformulation and redesign, substitution with less toxic materials, improved maintenance, worker training, and more. It is a vital part of any effective environmental management program and should be incorporated into all aspects of your business operations.

To identify opportunities for waste minimization, you must collect and analyze your facility’s waste streams. This will help you determine which materials are most problematic and how to address them. This will also allow you to compare your facilities performance with similar companies in the industry and make informed decisions about how to improve your practices.

One of the most common methods for waste minimization is to reduce chemical waste production at the source. This can be accomplished through recycling, which uses a chemical or physical method to return the material to its original state for reuse. In laboratories, this can be accomplished by using the byproducts of one experiment as a reagent or reactant for another.

Another method for minimizing waste is through reprocessing. This involves reusing or repurposing chemicals that have already been treated by other processes, such as neutralization. This is an effective way to reduce the amount of hazardous waste your business produces. However, this is not an option for all industries, as it can be costly.

Recycling

While recycling makes a difference, it is only one part of a complete waste management practice. The process requires careful sorting of the different types of materials and a market for recycled materials. It also needs to be promoted to consumers so that they buy recycled products and support the industry.

Despite the popular mantra of “every little helps,” people need to get more serious about recycling. It’s not enough to just set out bins, especially in the workplace. A better approach is to have recycling habits instilled in the culture of the organization. This includes refusing to use single-use plastics and reducing wasteful consumption.

It’s essential to have a clear plan for what to do with the waste that is generated. The most common consumer products that are recycled include aluminium beverage cans, copper wire, steel furnishings and equipment, glass bottles and jars, paper and cardboard cartons, newspapers and magazines, and polyethylene and PET plastics (see resin identification codes).

Another option is to use biological waste processing, such as anaerobic digestion or plasma gasification. This turns the organic fraction of solid waste into methane-rich biogas, which can be used to produce electricity or to fuel vehicles.

Lastly, incinerating waste can be an effective solution for some wastes. However, it produces carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, which all contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. It’s far better to recycle old products than damage the environment in search for new raw materials. For example, creating a new aluminium product from recycled cans uses 95% less energy than producing it from scratch.

Ultimately, the best way to reduce waste is by stopping it from being produced in the first place. The ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager is a free, easy-to-use online tool that can help you track building and energy performance over time, and learn more about implementing waste reduction strategies.

Reuse

The reuse of materials, products and packaging extends their useful lives and delays the need for disposal. Reuse includes repairing, refurbishing and cleaning used items as well as buying durable goods with long lifespans to avoid repeated purchases and the resulting waste. It also means using reusable cups or jars instead of disposable ones and switching to double-sided printing to reduce paper use.

The process of reusing materials or products reduces the amount of new natural resources that need to be extracted from the earth, processed and manufactured into finished goods. It also reduces air, water and land pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change. Reusing products, materials and equipment also saves energy, labor and money compared to recycling, incineration or landfilling.

Reusing, reprocessing and repurposing are the first steps in a holistic approach to waste management that goes beyond simply disposing of unwanted materials or products. Understanding your business and production processes allows you to streamline them and reduce the overall amount of waste generated.

During your records examination, note the types and amounts of waste your facility produces and how much you spend on collection and disposal each year. You can also conduct a facility walk-through and evaluate each of the departments that produce waste. During this step, talk to employees and managers and observe daily activities and operations to gather more information about the organization’s current waste management practices.

Once you’ve gathered your data, it’s time to create an action plan. Your goals should include a reduction in the amount of waste your facility generates, as well as the type and quantity of each type of waste.

Disposal

Whether you operate in the construction, manufacturing or oil and gas refining industries, creating environmental waste is an unavoidable part of your company’s operations. Developing effective protocols for managing your waste helps you satisfy customer expectations, maintain industry regulations and minimize the impact on our planet. Start by completing a waste assessment to gather information on your current practices, including the types of materials you produce and how you generate them. This includes examining your records, conducting interviews with employees and managers and observing your daily operations. You can then evaluate the physical arrangement and operations of departments that generate waste as well as analyze purchasing and management decisions that contribute to it.

Discarded waste poses many dangers to human health and the environment. Leachate from landfills can contaminate groundwater and fresh water systems, while incinerating trash releases toxic gases into the air that affect humans and animals. In addition, wind can scatter debris from a trash dump into local ecosystems and waterways, posing hazards for wildlife and people and polluting the natural environment.

The most sustainable way to dispose of waste is to use it as an energy source. Using an integrated waste management approach, you can transform non-recyclable waste into heat, electricity and fuel through processes such as anaerobic digestion and plasma gasification. You can also take advantage of bioremediation, which reprocesses contaminants, toxins and pollutants through micro-organisms.

To ensure that your company’s new procedures become a reality, create a waste management action plan and follow it consistently. Communicate the plan to all employees and hold regular training sessions to reinforce the importance of the new waste reduction initiatives. These will help your workers understand and embrace the new guidelines as they become a part of their day-to-day responsibilities.