Waste Management and Climate Change

Solid waste is an everyday cumulative environmental problem. What happens to the garbage after site dumping? Inconsiderate dumping often send tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In developing countries, besides the lack of public awareness, lack of corporate commitment, it is costly to implement waste and wastewater collection, transport, recycling, treatment and residuals management. (Pic: Recycle Logo)

Current global rates of post-consumer waste generation are estimated to be 5%. Rates are on the rise especially in developing countries with rapid population growth, economic growth and urbanization.

Fortunately, new and innovative waste management helps reduce solid waste disposal and subsequently reduce visual, respiratory, environmental and health impacts.

Waste management involves the collection, transport, processing, recycling, or disposal of solid, liquid, and gaseous wastes, reducing their impacts on health and the environment.

Waste can be treated using thermal, chemical, biological, physical and other processes in order

to reduce its volume

to recover materials for recycling, or

to produce energy.

Landfill is a common way of disposing of solid waste, while liquid waste is often injected underground.

Recent trend suggest rates peaking probably due to increasing awareness in 3R and revenue-oriented incentives through the CDM and JI. Engineered landfills provide a more environmentally acceptable waste-disposal strategy and accounts for 12% of the annual Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) credits issued in 2006, under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol.

For wastewater management, 90% of the population in developed countries but less than 30% in developing countries has improved sanitation. In addition to GHG reduction, improved sanitation and wastewater management provide a wide range of health and environmental co-benefits

Integrated solid waste management uses a combination of options that emphasize:

Hierarchy of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle ( 3R )

Reducing	The most effective way to avoid emissions at all stages of a life cycle.
Reusing	Diverts waste from disposal temporarily. Waste diversion also improves air quality and reduces water pollution, toxics, land use for landfills, and disposal costs.
Recycling	Reduces emissions most significantly, for materials that require intensive primary processing, such as steel, plastic, and aluminum. For plastics and all types of paper too, recycling is by far the best option for emission saving.

Landfilling releases methane which could either be harnessed (as is the trend now) or flared. Because methane is a much potent greenhouse gas, shifting its emissions to carbon dioxide emissions during flaring significantly reduces the greenhouse warming potential.

Incineration, in the final stage of the waste management, creates more carbon-dioxide equivalent than landfilling. Such management emphasizes the recovery of more valuable products (e.g. valuable metals like gold, silver, indium from electronics wastes) from waste with minimum wastage of energy in the mitigation of global warming.

Pay As You Throw

Certain countries like Japan, Australia, New Zealand implement revolutionary scheme of waste management called Pay As You Throw (Japan); Throw More, Pay More (Sydney). In common, solid wastes are charged according to their weight. Dumpers understand that the more they throw, the more they are charged; the less they throw, the less they are charged. In New Zealand, each house owner is entitled to 26 waste bags annually. The bags loaded with wastes must be securely tied and weigh no more than 15 kg each. Extra bags needed required to be purchased. These schemes create direct economic incentive to recycle more and to generate less wastes.

The waste-management and recycling policies in Japan should be models for all industrialized countries. The Containers and Packaging Recycling Act ("the Act") was established in Japan in 1995 to meet the increasing need to reduce the volume of solid waste and make full use of recyclable resources by means of sorted collection and to recycle waste containers and wrapping.

Reassessment of the Act was started in 2004, and the revised ACT effected in 2006:

To promote a sustainable society based on 3Rs

To improve cost efficiency

To encourage cooperation of all interested parties including the government, municipalities, business enterprises and citizens.

How do the Japanese dump thrash? Myriads of waste classifications!

When Oklahoma in Japan doubled the number of garbage categories to 10, it handed a 27-page booklet to brief its residents on how to sort their trash. Highlights include detailed instructions on 518 items. Take for example:

Socks? If only one, it is burnable; a pair goes (only if the socks are not torn) into used cloth, and the left and right socks match. Neckties to be thrown into used cloth, but only after they have been washed and dried!

In Kamikatsu, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, residents compost and recycle everything. What cannot be composted has to be taken to a recycling center where they must sort their garbage into 34 recycling bins which has recently been increased to 44! (Pic: 34 Assortments!)

		Japan recently enacted the first take-back law in the world, requiring retailers and manufacturers to take back used air conditioners, tv, washing machines and refrigerators. Virtually there is awareness among every citizen about recycling, and everyone does his part of waste management consciously (Pic: Roles of Parties required by the JCPRC Act in Japan)

Waste management in Canada directly produces about 3.5% of the nation's total greenhouse-gas emissions, mainly from landfills. Recycling and composting divert about 25% of solid waste from disposal, the other 75% is disposed in landfill sites or burned in incinerators. Both result in the release of methane and nitrous oxide which are more potent than carbon dioxide in global warming.

In the UK, the household and commercial sectors have relatively low recycling rates in comparison to construction and demolition waste and sewage sludge. UK targets to increase the household waste recycling to 33% by 2015.

10% of paper from household wastes is recycled; to be contrasted with 50% of recycling from newspapers. To encourage paper recycling, many councils offer house to house collection. Bins and recycling depots for used paper collection are set up at various municipal centers and supermarkets.

For glass bottle recycling, there are over 20 000 bottle banks in car parks and supermarkets for collection. Colors are differentiated into clear, green and brown. Recycling rate is about 30% which is low compared to other European countries. Switzerland and the Netherlands for example have recycling rates as high as 80%.

Plastics make up a large amount of waste, since they are so versatile in usage. Plastic waste can be sorted out preliminarily at home or collection centers. The UK plastic recycling rate is only 3% compared to 70% in Germany.

Iron and steel recycling from scrap vehicles and kitchen wares is about 60%, aluminum can is about 1/3, whereas in the USA and Australia, the recycle rate is2/3.

References:

Recycling in Japan - the JCPRA Act
Environment Canada
Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment - Waste Recycling
IPCC AR4 Report on Mitigation of Climate Change
Recycling:stampsru.com

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