Australian Waste Issues - Essay Example

? Australian Waste Outline Australia generates approximately one tonne of waste every year that is sent into a landfill. After theUnited States and Israel, Australia ranks as the third largest producers of landfill among developed countries. This has been fuelled by the convenience and hygiene promised by disposable products. However, unlike organic waste, industrial waste cannot decompose and thus has to be disposed. Materials that are produced by Australians that require disposal include paper, plastics, plastic chip bags, plastic bottle caps, and pieces of glass, PET drink containers, and metal items, especially aluminium. The most polluted sites in Australia include transport sites, roadsides, park/waterfront areas, rivers and creeks, school grounds, coastal/beach areas, as well as shops and malls. A recent trend exists that seeks to move away from burying and burning of waste in Australia towards its reuse and recycling. This shift towards sustainable development and conservation ideals with regards to waste disposal, as well as policies aimed at recycling, reusing, reduction of generation, and extraction of energy from the waste have caught on in Australia. Since the 1990s, household waste recycling has become more popular. Reasons for this trend can be explained by the presence of kerbside recycling; raising commodity prices, as well as increased levies for land fill services to prohibitive levels. However, mobile phones have introduced a new dilemma since they contain harmful products. This has necessitated novel ways of disposal. AUSTRALIAN WASTE Australia generates approximately one tonne of waste every year that is sent into a landfill. After the United States and Israel, Australia ranks as the third largest producers of landfill among developed countries. Significantly, most of this waste is resultant from goods that Australians do not even use with waste of over $10.5 billion per year occurring. This habit has begun developing in the early 20th century as ideas of convenience and hygiene gave rise to disposable products, which was justified because the consumer was assured of un-contaminated products. Buying into disposability is easy because new products are cheaper than fixing a broken one. However, this kind of disposability is a fantasy that exists because Australians do not have to see, smell, or handle their waste. This is unlike natural systems where waste is critical in the maintenance of life and, therefore, is not removed, but used as a resource for another system. While organic material in nature can decompose and be used to create something new, this is not possible for industrial objects. It, therefore, becomes important to recognize the regenerative power that waste can have. Australia’s recycling habits, however, have been improving, although there is room for improvement. The most important waste management principle, including recycling, repair, reuse, and reduce, is refuse. Australians are encouraged not to buy a lot of products to begin with since the realization of a sustainable environment also needs a reduction in consumption (O'Connor, 2007). For fourteen years, plastics make up the majority of waste collected in Australia with 31.75 of all collected waste being plastics. Miscellaneous items like cigarette butts made up 17.7% of all rubbish. Metal, especially aluminium ranked third at 14.6%, followed by glass at 13.1%, and finally paper at fifth accounting for 12.6% of all collected rubbish (Australia Bureau of Stastistics, 2007). Other material included polystyrene and rubber. These are the major sources of rubbish in Australia. When it comes to rubbish items, cigarette butts rank first accounting for 29.6% of items surveyed. Alcoholic beverage containers made of glass were second with 5.4%. The other rubbish items in order of prevalence include confectionary and plastic chip bags, plastic bottle caps, pieces of glass, PET drink containers, metal items, especially aluminium, and paper. The most polluted sites in Australia include transport sites, roadsides, park/waterfront areas, rivers and creeks, school grounds, coastal/beach areas, as well as shops and malls (Australia Bureau of Stastistics, 2007). Some interesting items discovered at these sites include a slippery drip, Christmas decorations, locked cash boxes, a toilet, and a microwave oven. For all this sites, the average amount of rubbish has dropped by a mean of 15%. Roadsides were the only sites that bucked the trend, increasing by 15.5%. Finally, eight of the top ten identified rubbish items were connected to packaging. A recent trend exists that seeks to move away from burying and burning of waste in Australia towards its reuse and recycling (Australia Bureau of Stastistics, 2008). Open burning and backyard incinerations have decreased, and land filling has taken over. However, this has also faced opposition from communities around proposed landfills concerned with visual aesthetics and environmental degradation. This has seen a shift towards sustainable development and conservation ideals with regards to waste disposal, as well as policies aimed at recycling, reusing, reduction of generation, and extraction of energy from waste. Solid waste generation, however, has still been increasing at a rate of 6% every year from 1996 to 2003, which can be attributed to increased consumption and population numbers. Despite the sizeable increase in waste production, the trend still looks towards an increase in recycling and away from land filling. This can be seen by the decrease in solid waste disposed of in landfills from 21 million tonnes in 1997 to 17 million in 2003, accompanied by an increase of solid waste recycling from 80 kg per head in 1996 to 759 kg in 2003 (Australia Bureau of Stastistics, 2008). Since the 1990s, household waste recycling has become more popular. 5 % of all households reported some form of recycling in 1992. This increased 99% in 2006 with paper recycling accounting for a significant portion of this improvement (Australia Bureau of Stastistics, 2008). Recycling of glass, old clothing, garden waste, and food waste also rose by an average of 12-35%. Recycling of cans and plastics accounted for the largest increase in this form of waste management with recycling of plastics, especially, rising from 37% in 1992 to 97% of households in 2006. Reasons for this trend can be explained by the presence of kerbside recycling; raising commodity prices, as well as increased levies for land fill services to prohibitive levels. However, there are still some barriers of reusing and recycling in Australia. The major reason for not doing so as per data in 2006 had to do with the type of material. Reasons given were that they failed to produce enough waste to warrant it lack of interest and will power to do so, unavailability of recycling services, and lack of room to compost matter (Australia Bureau of Stastistics, 2008). One major reason for not recycling had to do with jurisdiction, with people living in areas providing kerbside recycling more likely to recycle and those living in less densely populated zones more likely to compost kitchen and garden waste. Household recycling in Australia has risen extensively in the past decade. This type of recycling is influenced by a combination of three factors. One is the quantity of recyclable material that is generated by the households. Availability or accessibility of recycling to the households was another factor, as was interest in recycling (Clean Up Australia, 2008). Household participation in waste management through recycling has increased in Australia for all materials surveyed. This is reflective of facilities for recycling being made available, for example, glass, plastic, and paper are Australia’s most recyclable items since they can be recycled via kerbside recycling with at least 90% of all Australian households having access to them. Compared to the year 1996, paper was the most recycled material with the highest rates being in Australian Capital Territory with 99% recycling and the lowest in the Northern Territory with 74%. The next most recycled materials were plastic and glass bottles, which were recycled by at least 90% of Australians (Clean Up Australia, 2008). The highest rates were in ACT (98%). Mobile phones are the freshest headache for Australia’s waste management policy-makers since they contain toxic material that can harm the environment. Since the average Australian replaces their mobile phone every 1 to 2 years, millions of old phones need to be disposed (Clean Up Australia, 2009). Some harmful materials in these phones include mercury, lead, and cadmium, which can leach from landfills and contaminate the soil and water bodies. However, many parts of mobile phones are reusable or recyclable. Nickel in batteries can be used to make more batteries circuit boards with silver and gold can make jewellery, handset housings can be used to make pallets and fence posts after shredding, plastic and metal accessories can be sorted to make new metal and plastic products. To aid in managing the disposal of mobile phones, various methods can be used including individual collection and return to a recycling partner and organization of large collections (Clean Up Australia, 2009). The most desirable waste management outcome is waste minimisation by reusing products and avoiding waste (Department of Environment, water, Heritage, and the Arts, 2010). This has the potential to reduce business costs, as well as community costs, by reducing waste that needs disposal or reducing the materials used. This has a significant effect on waste management costs. Most actions meant to sensitize Australians on waste minimisation are based on information provision and education. Technological advances and changes in design can create new processes and products that can reduce generated waste and reduce required resources. To develop the best way to dispose of waste, materials need to be classified (Department of Environment, water, Heritage, and the Arts, 2008). Despite action by the Australian central government aimed at waste management, not all actions can be adapted to state level. For instance, recycling projects in remote areas could be too expensive. Other things that need to be considered include increased GHG emissions via long distance transport of waste material. Conclusion The most prevalent waste materials in Australia include cigarette Butts, alcoholic beverage containers, confectionary and plastic chip bags, plastic bottle caps, pieces of glass, PET drink containers, metal items, especially aluminium, and paper. These materials are mostly found in transport sites, roadsides, park/waterfront areas, rivers and creeks, school grounds, coastal/beach areas, as well as shops and malls. These materials have been disposed of by incineration, and in land fills in the past, but due to public concerns on pollution and aesthetics, methods of their disposal have turned to reusing, recycling, and reduction of generation. For organic materials, composting and extraction of energy has been the main focus. The most recycled materials in Australia are paper and plastic and glass bottles. References Australia Bureau of Stastistics. (2007). Household Waste Trends. Retrieved December 7, 2012, from Australian Social Trends: http://www.abs.gov.au Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Waste and recycling Practices of Households. Year Book Australia . Clean Up Australia. (2008).Rubbish Report Findings. In J.Healy(ed) Recycling and Managing Waste. Issues in society, 305, 7-8 Clean Up Australia. (2009).Mobile Phones. Mobile Phones Fact Sheet. In J. Healey(ed)Recycling and Managing Waste. Issues in Society, 305, 38-39 Department of Environment, water, Heritage, and the Arts. (2010). Waste Management and Resource recovery Trends. Retrieved December 7, 2012, from A national Waste Policy; Managing Waste to 2020 Consultation Paper: http://www.abs.gov.au O'Connor, T. (2007, December). What a Waste. Retrieved December 7, 2012, from The Sydney Morning Herald Eco Read More