Waste Managament

A large number of interrelated waste management tasks and their high complexity require a systematic approach to sweepings management. Waste management essay is an integral part of the overall stewardship system. The structure, responsibilities, practices, procedures, and processes should be coordinated with work in other areas, for example, in production and economic activities, in the field of public health, etc. Ending the waste management essay introduction, it is necessary to say that this structure alone can not exist, therefore, it should be included in the environmental stewardship system.Stages of the Amplification of a Sweepings Management System in the Second Half of the 20th Century

• Disposal of waste in small landfills;
• The end of the 70’s: construction of landfills – engineering structures with wastewater filtrate purification systems and biogas utilization;
• 80-is. amplification of a separate collection system for SHW, amplification of the secondary market;
• 90-is.

Processing of solid sweepings with the separation of organic component and its subsequent composting.

The current scheme of waste processing is the sorting of sweepings to remove secondary raw materials, separation of the organic part for composting and solid fractions to be burned or buried.

The New Approach to Waste Management

The main promise of any speech on waste management is in the fact that the transition from the landfilling of the entire mass of solid domestic sweepings to industrial processing to 50-60% of its weight is the main trend in solving the problem of waste in world practice. It should be understood that the practical solution of industrial sweepings processing is associated with large capital investments, so the construction of industrial waste processing facilities is rather slow.Waste stewardship begins with a change in the look at what household sweepings are. A well-known expert on the waste problem, Paul Connett, has a formulation expressing this new view: “Rubbish is not a substance, but the art of mixing together different useful things and objects, thereby determining their place in a landfill.”Traditional approaches to the sweepings problem focused on reducing the hazardous impact on the environment by isolating the landfill from groundwater, cleaning emissions from incineration plants, etc.

The basis of the concept of waste management is that the sweepings consist of various components that must not mix with each other, but be disposed of separately from each other in the most economical and environmentally acceptable ways.The system assumes that in addition to traditional methods, waste reduction, recycling and composting (reduce reuse recycle approach) should become an integral part of sweepings management. It is assumed that the combination of several mutually complementary programs and activities, rather than one technology, even the most modern one, can contribute to an effective solution of the waste problem.For each specific region, it is necessary to choose a certain combination of approaches that take into account local experience and local resources. The plan of measures in the sweepings stewardship system is based on the study of the flows of waste generated in different industries (including households), the evaluation of available options, and includes the implementation of small pilot projects that allow gathering information and gaining experience. At present, sweepings management is regulated by separate provisions of laws, regulations, and rules in the field of environmental protection and waste management. A lot of useful information can also be found in the scientific essay on waste disposal.

The modern structure of the system of environmental law combines legal regulation of nature stewardship for facilities with functional regulation of environmental protection and environmental safety.Thus, the use of a set of different methods for processing sweepings, focused on regional and sectoral applications, is a waste management system. It should be built in the form of a hierarchical structure in which priority is given to methods that reduce the generation of sweepings , their reuse, and recycling, thereby reducing the volume of waste to be buried or destroyed.

Waste Management System Hierarchy

1. The hierarchy begins with the diminution of sweepings at the source. This implies a diminution in the total amount of waste and a decrease in their toxicity and other harmful properties. The diminution of sweepings is achieved by reorienting producers and consumers to products and packaging, resulting in less waste.
2. The next level is recycling.This makes it possible to make full use of materials and reduce the amount of sweepings generated, and also significantly reduce the amount of waste that is consumed in landfills or incineration plants.
3. The third level of “recuperation” is the processing of materials, including composting of organic matter, melting glass, metal, plastic and other forms of recuperation of useful materials, preventing their disposal. At the same time, recycling is the return of sweepings to the same technological process that led to their formation, and the recuperation is the use of waste after processing, or without it, in other technological processes or to generate energy.
4. The fourth level is the extraction of energy. Incineration reduces the amount of sweepings that enters landfills and can be used to generate electricity. Modern incineration plants are equipped with emission cleaning systems, power generators used in combination with other methods.
5. The fifth level is a burial on polygons.This remains necessary for wastes that are not recyclable, fireproof or combustible with the release of toxic substances. Modern sanitary polygons that meet environmental requirements do not closely resemble the landfills that are familiar to everyone: they are the most complicated engineering structures equipped with water and air pollution control systems that use methane generated during the rotting process to produce heat and electricity.

The use of various combinations of recyclization, processing, composting and diminution of sweepings volumes leads to the most efficient functioning of the system and, ultimately, to a diminution in the amount of waste generated. At the same time, the sweepings stewardship structure should be organized in such a way that it has the opportunity to adapt to changing conditions in the economic and technological sphere, that is, to develop and improve as the approaches to management and methods of processing materials change. Elements of flexibility, mobility, and consistency that ensure the amplification of a waste stewardship system based on the results and experience of previous stages of its amplification and operation represent the conditions for its self-development.The concept of creating a sweepings  management system provides for the amplification of a set of related organizational, managerial, legal, regulatory, technical, and economic tools for sweepings management, waste monitoring, and the implementation of promising scientific developments aimed both at improving the technical level of sweepings processing and on the creation and implementation of low-sweepings  technologies. One of the main directions in this area is the improvement of information support and training of specialists in sweepings management.

Objects and Management Methods in the Waste Stewardship System

When developing a system of state (and regional) sweepings management, one should proceed from the fact that management objects are all sources of sweepings  generation and their consumers and the controlled impact must be carried out in three strategic areas:

• creation of conditions for reducing the amount of waste;
• maintenance of growth of volumes of use of sweepings;
• creation of ecologically safe conditions of storage and a burial place of a waste.

In a market economy, priority should be given to legal, regulatory and economic methods of management, that is, it is possible to use both economic incentive methods and economic impact methods. However, at present, sweepings producers do not bear the full economic and social burden of their destruction, shifting it to society. Therefore, the sweepings producer must compensate for the full social cost of handling waste.

Main Principles of Waste Management Systems

The basic principles of economic regulation in the field of sweepings stewardship are the following.

• Reducing the amount of sweepings through the introduction of low- and non-sweepings technologies and the involvement in the economic circulation of waste generated during the production process. However, the recycling of certain types of sweepings is economically unprofitable for one enterprise, since it requires certain efforts to collect and store special technologies and production facilities for their processing.
• Waste disposal costs. The payment for sweepings disposal is a form of compensation for damage to the environment. Funds are accumulated in the accounts of environmental funds and are used to finance environmental activities.

Economic stimulation of activities in the field of sweepings management. The main levers of economic incentives should be tax and credit benefits to those users of natural resources who implement measures for resource saving and transition to clean production.