The purpose of this report is to understand what is sustainability, what is the role of Sustainability Victoria and its priorities in terms of integrated waste management. By focusing on two aspects of integrated waste management, material recovery and waste minimisation I will try to identify different ways for practising sustainability in everyday lives.
1.2 Aims & Objectives
To define Sustainability Victoria, its role, purpose and statutory objective;
To explain what is integrated waste management;
To identify current initiatives/programs used to increase materials recovery;
To identify current campaigns used in waste minimisation;
To explain ways for improving practising of sustainability in everyday lives.
2.0 Sustainability
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This means taking what we need to live now, without threatening the potential for people in the future to meet their needs.
‘Being Green’ means making decisions that are more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible that can help in protecting the environment and preserve natural resources for present and future generations.
Environmentally Friendly means that something is good for the environment, example is riding a bicycle which is good for the environment compared to driving a car which is causing air pollution.
3.0 Integrated Waste Management
Integrated waste management is the management of the entire life cycle of waste system such as avoidance, production, collection, recovery, reuse, treatment and disposal (as shown in Figure 1.0).
Better waste management includes:
• maximising the value of resources by recovering and reusing materials;
• keeping environmental impacts related to disposing of waste to landfill at minimum; and
• making sure that the waste management service meets current and future community
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3.1 Material Recovery
Material recovery means separating and processing waste products in order to recover components that can be re-used. Waste that is going to landfill is a valuable resource that adds a value to the economy once it is recovered. Recovering and reusing materials provides additional $100 per tonne compared to sending those materials to landfill (Inside Waste, Industry Report 2011-2012). On the other hand recycling of waste materials into new products requires less energy than creating these from raw materials.
Some of the initiatives used in material recovery are listed below.
Household Chemical Collection Program
Household chemical collection program through permanent drop-off sites and mobile collection events. Permanent drop-off sites are opened all year round and accept household paint, batteries and compact florescent lamps. ‘Detox your Home’ is the annual mobile collection event held across 31 locations in order to dispose of highly toxic household chemicals free of charge.
Waste management is the operation of how waste materials are handled. The affair of waste management is relevant to everyone world-wide. Wastes are materials that have no further economic use, and when disposed of, are hazardous to humans and the environment. Wastes include solid waste, liquid wastes, and air pollutants created by humans and cannot be naturally recycled. Current waste management techniques need to be completely overhauled because funding in government budget is not enough to meet standards, landfills are reaching their maximum capacity worldwide, and nuclear waste storage must be handled correctly. Waste management has been a highly thought about complication for global authorities. Due to
As the population of Victoria is rapidly growing, with an approximate and anticipated population growth of 8.9 million people by 2043, the Victorian government has integrated the waste management approach. This approach has been integrated into the lives
McKenzie, A. D. “Recycling: It’s Rubbish to Waste Like This.” Global Information Netwrok 18 Nov. 2013: n. pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
Collection of segregated solid waste is scheduled per community. References: https://global.britannica.com/technology/solid-waste-management www.encyclopedia.com/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/waste-disposal http://www.eschooltoday.com/waste-recycling/what-is-recycling.html https://www.epa.gov/recycle/recycling- basicshttp://solidwastemngt.weebly.com/chapter-ii-rrl.html http://www.recyclingcenters.org/ https://global.britannica.com/technology/solid-waste-management
In conclusion, going green in the workplace is catchy new trend. Choosing to go verdant can be a grueling task and one that is confronted with some unique pros and cons. Although making green choices come at a slightly higher price, the rewards that are earned more than cover these costs. When a company chooses wisely going green can not only help the environment, and reduce the carbon foot-print the company makes but it can also prove to be a very smart business decision that can be financially gratifying.
A. Recycling is the recovery of useful materials such as paper, glass, plastic and metals from the municipal solid waste stream to use to make new products, reducing the amount of virgin raw materials needed. (http://www.epa.gov/waste/nonhaz/municipal - I plan to cite on PP)
“Going Green” means to pursue knowledge and practices that can lead to more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions and lifestyle. It is a movement that many participate in to help improve the environment. Technology improves the “Going Green” movement since machines can help one save money, energy, and resources from being wasted (i.e. using hand dryers in replacement of having paper towels exchange periodically). There are many ways the society pursues “Going Green” such as going paperless, carpooling, and using solar panels. “Going Green” affects human behavior because it involves technological advancement, sometimes resulting in job loss.
STATE THESIS & MAIN POINTS: I’m going to persuade you that going green is one solution you could do to help improve the environment by first explaining the problem, then by explaining the factors responsible for pollution, and lastly by listing ways that can help solve this problem.
Environmental health has been a very important issue to talk about internationally these days. We, human beings are leading the earth toward its edge unconsciously. We are using natural resource more than we give to the Mother Nature. Day by Day, people are aware of what damage they do the environment, but they do not care of fixing this damage. In a very simple step, the road of a better healthy environment will begin; recycling is the best idea that illustrate the previous point. To Andrew Roper, recycling is the conversion of waste products into new materials, such as waste paper that can be converts into new paper goods (n.d). There are many types of recycling, for example, there are glass, paper, metal, plastics, textiles and electronics recycling (Evans , 2011). This research will focus on recycling papers in the United Arab Emirates, the benefits or recycling and its effect on the environment, the difficulties of recycling, the process of recycling paper, and the finals products of recycling.
Green technology is the technology whose main aim is reduce the impact of human activities on the environment. In other words the target of green technology is to consume less natural resources, reduce the emission, produce goods with energy efficiency, take care of health and safety issues and reuse and recycle the goods after their usage.
"Recycling | Reduce, Reuse, Recycle | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. .
As humanity develops new technology, the magnitude and severity of waste increases. When computers were developed, it widely was believed that the need for paper would be eliminated. On the contrary this was widely proven false and we are now utilizing more paper than ever. Canada is not an exception as the typical Canadian generates an average of three pounds of solid waste each day1. This alone shows what a careless species we have become- using and disposing materials without even considering the damage we are causing. With half a trillion tones of waste around the world, only 25% may be reused for a second or third time and less than 5% can be renewed limitlessly1. These facts are true only in developed countries. Since these traditional waste reduction methods have been proven inefficient, we must endorse new innovative technology to arrive at a solution.
By showing the world the severity of our need for conservation, we will be able to save the earth and get the most out of our resources. We need to fix this problem before it becomes uncontrollable to the point of having no resources to supply our needs. By reducing our consumption of resources, we will be able to become closer to fixing the problem of global warming, high gasoline prices and pesticide filled meats. The outcome of respecting our world and “going green” will better how we live our lives, our communities and the environment. The concept of “going green” is a necessity for the future because “our children deserve cities as beautiful as they are.
Policy is needed to regulate which course of action should be taken and how it should be implemented. Because of this, many plans and policies revolving around the management of solid waste have been put in place. Sometimes however, a particular policy can have its shortfalls, potentially resulting in its negative aspects outweighing the positive ones. According to the Conference Board of Canada Report, “Canadians dispose of more municipal solid waste per capita than any other country” (2013). Solid waste management in particular, involves many aspects, ranging from packaging waste, food waste, etc. (White & Franke 1999), hence, the following analysis revolves around household and commercial waste – referred to as Municipal Solid Waste (White & Franke. 1999) – in the Greater Vancouver Regional District. Municipal waste is a major health and environmental concern as it contributes to numerous problems like habitat destruction, surface groundwater pollution, and other forms of air, soil, and water contamination. Waste disposal methods like incineration create toxic substances, and landfills emit methane, which contributes to global warming. According to the Zero Waste Objective Report, “The impact of climate change and the increasing awareness of the role of “waste” and “wasting” in the production of greenhouse gas emissions is a constant environmental pressure… (2009). This leads to an increasing limitation of government to prevent and control the volume and toxicity of products in the waste stream and a growing need to shift responsibility to the product manufacturer.
Efficient waste managing approaches help with reducing and avoiding unpleasant impact on the environment and human health, while allowing financial development and progress in the quality of people’s life. People do not even imagine what is the size and capacity of their activities and the impact they produce on the environment. Garbage is an important ecological problem. It is seems amazing that approximately all of the citizens of the world identify rubbish as a major environmental problem and yet these people still litter. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (2008), an American produces 250 million tons of garbage per year (para.2). There are different circumstances that are based on the society, environmental conditions, occupation and size of each of the different family. As Richmond (2010) stated, if no administration organizations has the responsibility or resources to concentrate their efforts on the waste disposal, then the responsibility to do that is on ...