Waste is both an environmental issue and a financial loss. For Malaysian, In 2021, when the population is projected to reach 32.8 million, there will be an enormous amount of solid garbage produced, amounting to an estimated 38,427 metric tonnes per day (1.17 kg/capita/day). In this situation, waste disposal in Malaysia is a topic that must be paid attention to by people all over Malaysia.
How can we produce and consume more wisely while using all garbage as a resource to produce less and less waste?
Europe produces a lot of waste, including food and yard waste, building and demolition waste, mining waste, industrial waste, sludge, outdated electronics, outdated vehicles, batteries, plastic bags, outdated paper, outdated clothing, and outdated furniture. the list is endless.
Our patterns of consumption and production have a direct impact on the quantity of waste we produce. Another difficulty arises from the large volume of goods that are introduced to the market. A rise in the proportion of one-person families is one demographic development that has an impact on how much waste we produce (e.g. packaging goods in smaller units).
It is challenging to gain a complete picture of the waste produced and its whereabouts due to the wide range of waste kinds and various waste-treatment pathways (including illegal ones). All sorts of garbage have data, albeit of different quality.
How much trash do we produce?
Data on waste are compiled at the European level by the EU Data Center on Waste. The majority of the mineral waste and soil generated in 2010 for 29 European countries (including the EU-28 and Norway) came from mining, construction, and demolition activities. Each sort of garbage, including metal, paper and cardboard, wood, chemical and medical waste, and animal and vegetal waste, made up between 2 and 4 percent of the total.
Municipal garbage, which is mostly produced by families and to a lesser extent by small businesses and public facilities like hospitals and schools, makes up around 10% of all waste produced in Europe.
In each of the 33 nations that make up the European Environment Agency, 481 kg of municipal solid garbage was produced per person in 2012. (EEA). Since 2007, there has been a minor declining tendency, which can be partially attributed to the economic crisis that has been impacting Europe since 2008.
In total, the EU-28 and Norway produced over 2500 million tonnes of garbage in 2010. Here is a summary of the waste’s origins and chemical make-up.
Right direction: More recycling and less landfilling
The minor decline in municipal trash production seen in the EU may have, in part, helped to lessen garbage’s negative effects on the environment. While trash quantity is crucial, waste management is equally vital.
In the EU as a whole, more garbage is being recycled and less is being dumped in landfills. In the EU-27, the proportion of municipal waste that was recycled or composted rose from 31% in 2004 to 41% in 2012.
Despite these successes, there are still significant differences between nations. For instance, Croatia, Latvia, and Malta all landfill more than 90% of their municipal garbage, but Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland each send less than 2% of their municipal waste to landfills. Most of the nations with low rates of landfilling also have high rates of recycling and incineration, both of which are above 30% of total municipal garbage.
EU legislation establishes challenging goals.
Waste law in the EU is a key factor in the change in waste management. The Waste Framework Directive is the most important piece of law in this field (WFD). It presents a hierarchy for waste management, with prevention at the top, followed by getting ready for reuse, recycling, recovery, and disposal at the bottom. It tries to reduce the amount of waste transported to landfills, use garbage that is generated as a resource, and prevent waste formation as much as feasible.
Specific goals are outlined in the WFD and other EU waste regulations (on landfilling, end-of-life vehicles, e-waste, batteries, packaging waste, etc.). For instance, by 2020, every EU member state must recycle 50% of its municipal garbage; by 2016, batteries must be collected at a rate of 45%; and by 2020, non-hazardous construction and demolition waste must be recycled or recovered at a rate of 70% (by weight).
To meet their waste targets, EU nations might take a variety of techniques. Some strategies appear to be more effective than others. For instance, landfill levies seem to be a good approach to cut back on rubbish that is dumped there. It also appears to be successful to require the producer to take back the product at the end of its useful life.
We can recycle a large portion of the trash we produce. By keeping garbage out of landfills and supplying raw materials for new goods, recycling helps the environment. Additionally, recycling can foster creativity and lead to job growth.
Climate change, soil and water poisoning, air pollution…
Poor waste management directly impacts numerous habitats and species as well as air pollution and climate change.
Methane, a potent greenhouse gas linked to climate change, is released by landfills, which are the last resort in the waste hierarchy. Microorganisms in landfills convert biodegradable waste, including food, paper, and yard waste, into methane. Landfills may contaminate soil and water depending on how they are constructed.
Waste is gathered, transported, and then treated. Air pollutants, such as particulate matter, and carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, are released into the atmosphere during transportation.
The garbage may be recycled or burned in part. Heat or electricity can be generated from garbage, which might then take the place of energy produced using coal or other fuels. Waste energy recovery can therefore aid in lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling can further contribute to reducing other emissions as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Fewer new materials need to be mined or manufactured in the first place when recycled resources take the place of new ones.
Our health and environment are impacted by waste.
Unsuccessful waste management and littering can have a negative impact on some ecosystems, such as those in the marine and coastal regions. Not just for aesthetic reasons, but also because many marine animals face serious hazards from entanglement and ingestion, marine litter is a developing concern.
Waste also has an indirect effect on the environment. Anything that is not recycled or recovered from waste represents a loss of raw materials and other inputs used throughout the chain, or during the phases of product creation, transportation, and consumption. The life-cycle chain’s environmental effects are much greater than only the waste management phases’.
Waste has a variety of negative effects on our health and wellbeing, both directly and indirectly. For example, methane gas emissions contribute to climate change, air pollutants are released into the atmosphere, freshwater sources are contaminated, crops are grown in contaminated soil, and fish ingest toxic chemicals, which then end up on our dinner plates.
Illegal operations including exports, dumping, and burning also contribute, but it is challenging to gauge the actual scope of these actions or their effects.
Financial loss and administrative expenses
Additionally, waste costs our society money and burdens it. When the “leftovers” are thrown away, labour and other resources (such as land, energy, etc.) used in its extraction, production, dissemination, and consumption phases are also wasted.
Additionally, trash handling is expensive. Recycling may provide income and create jobs if the infrastructure for collecting, sorting, and recycling is in place.
Waste also has a worldwide component that is connected to our imports and exports. Waste from what we consume and produce in Europe might also occur abroad. And in certain cases, it actually turns into a good that is both legitimately and criminally sold across borders.
As a resource, waste
What if we could reduce the need for resource extraction by using waste as a resource? Fewer materials would need to be extracted, and current resources would need to be used more efficiently. Unused trash in this case also implies a possible loss.
One of the main goals of the EU’s Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe is to turn waste into a resource by 2020. The roadmap also emphasises the necessity of ensuring high-quality recycling, banning landfilling, limiting the use of non-recyclable materials for energy recovery, and halting unauthorised trash shipments.
Additionally, these goals are attainable. The largest portion of municipal solid waste is often made up of food and garden waste. When collected individually, this kind of waste can be converted into fertiliser or electricity. Anaerobic digestion is a waste management technique that entails subjecting bio-waste to a controlled version of the biological degradation process that occurs in landfills. Biogas and leftover materials, which can be utilised as fertiliser similar to compost, are produced via anaerobic digestion.
A 2011 EEA research examined the potential benefits from improved municipal trash management. The results are startling. Between 1995 and 2008, better municipal waste management led to significantly decreased greenhouse gas emissions, mostly due to reduced landfill methane emissions and emissions prevented through recycling. All nations could reduce an additional 62 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from the life cycle if they completely achieve the waste diversion targets set forth in the Landfill Directive by 2020. This would be a substantial contribution to the EU’s efforts to mitigate climate change.
Preventing trash in the first place is the best method to lessen its negative effects on the environment. Many things that we discard have potential for reuse, and others can be recycled to create new materials.
Prevention is the first step in tackling waste.
The potential benefits are enormous, and they may help the EU transition to a circular economy in which nothing is wasted. Even in nations with high recycling and recovery rates, moving up the waste hierarchy has environmental benefits.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many incentives for preventing and decreasing waste in our current production and consumption systems. The entire value chain must be developed with waste prevention in mind, from product design and packaging to material selection, before the “leftovers” of one process can be used as an input for another.
All the parties involved—consumers, manufacturers, policymakers, local governments, trash treatment facilities, etc.—must work together to move up the waste hierarchy. Only if the infrastructure for collecting their sorted waste is in place will consumers who are willing to sort their home waste be able to recycle. The contrary is also true; towns can only increase their recycling rates by recycling a smaller percentage of residential waste.
In the end, how we manage garbage will determine whether it is a resource or a burden.
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