From trash removal and recycling pickup to dumpster rental service, waste management covers a range of offers environmental solutions that deal with the collection, transport, processing or disposal of waste materials. This can include anything from recycling plastic, glass and metal to disposing of perishable garbage, project demolition debris, and any waste produced due to human activity. It involves the complex integration of resource management, economic development, public policy and acceptance, and government regulations while protecting the environment, preserving economic prosperity, and improving quality of life. Traditionally, urban and residential waste metropolitan and rural areas is disposed of by a local government body, while industrial waste is managed by the industry or company generating it. .
Waste management begins with waste collection. The most common method of collection is curbside collection, where garbage trucks pick up disposed garbage from communal bins stationed along roads, or from the side of the road itself. It's predominant in first-world countries like Canada, New Zealand, United States, and many other parts of the developed world in which waste is collected at regular intervals by specialised trucks. This goes hand-in-hand with curbside waste segregation, where citizens are responsible for separating their garbage into recyclable and non-recyclable piles. In other countries with a larger rural population, waste may need to be taken to a transfer station, where it is then transported to an appropriate disposal facility and segregated onsite.
Disposed waste that can be recycled is then further separated into the type of material the item is made out of. This resource recovery practice ensures that used, raw materials can reprocessed into new products, thus reducing the amount of waste in the environment. Commonly recycled items include aluminium such as beverage cans, copper such as wire, steel from food and aerosol cans, old steel furnishings or equipment, rubber tyres, polyethylene and PET bottles, glass bottles and jars, paperboard cartons, newspapers, magazines and light paper, and corrugated fiberboard boxes. Additionally, materials like PVC, LDPE, PP, and PS are also recyclable, as they are usually composed of a single type of material.
Unrecyclable waste is disposed off in landfills, where deposited items are generally and gradually compressed, or incarcerated. The former is one of the more popular - and controversial - methods of waste disposal around the world. Aside from common problems like wind-blown debris and liquid generation, poorly designed landfills can also cause an increase in gas production, which is extremely hazardous. If left untreated, these gases can kill surface vegetation, cause increase greenhouse effects, and emanate a nasty odor. On the other hand is incaceration, where solid organic wastes are subjected to combustion so as to convert them into residue and gaseous products. This method is extremely environmentally-friendly, resulting in the volumes of solid waste being reduced by 80 to 95 percent. They dispose of both municipal solid waste and solid residue from waste water treatment, and work by converting waste materials into heat, gas, steam, and ash. This method is carried out both on a small scale by individuals and on a large scale by industry, and is often used as a best practice to dispose of solid, liquid and gaseous waste. However, incarceration also gives rise to issues such as emission of gaseous pollutants, making it a disputed topic.
Other less popular forms of waste management include biological reprocessing, energy recovery, pyrolysis, and energy recovery, all of which work to reduce, reuse, and recycle garbage, extract the maximum practical benefits from used products, and generate the minimum amount of end waste.
Interested in learning more about how your garbage is managed? Take a look at some of our local waste management experts in Doha, Qatar, below.