Urban Waste Presents a Crisis in Sustainable Development - Essay Example

Running head: Urban Waste Presents a Crisis in Sustainable Development Student’s name Institution Course Professor Date Introduction Sustainable development has been a subject of debate for a long time. The widely agreed definition of sustainable development is the “ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, (Kates, 2005, pg. 10). Sustainable development is thus the attempt to maximise our utility as well as ensuring the future generations’ needs are taken into consideration. This may be in terms of ensuring there is minimum pollution, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, non-depletion of scarce resources among other ways. The emergence of urbanisation is a threat to achievement of sustainable development. The past century has seen great rise in urbanisation as compared to those living in the rural areas. Urbanisation as resulted into high movement of people into urban centres and introduction of many industries hence increasing the amount of waste generated in the urban centres and cities. Urban waste either solid, gas or liquid comes with many harmful effects to the environment thus reducing the possibility of having sustainable development. Despite the fact that urban waste have some benefits, those benefits resulting from urban waste are too minimal as compared to their threats. In this essay, I will analyse some of the effects of urban waste that are a threat to sustainable development hence making urban waste a crisis rather than an opportunity to sustainable development. Urban waste comes in different forms thus negatively affecting different sectors of the environment and causing several types of pollution that are a threat to sustainable development. Some of the waste forms types include construction waste, gas emissions, liquid chemicals, solid waste among others. Each of these types of waste have negative effects to the current and future generations. Construction waste Urbanisation has come up with massive construction of buildings either residential or industrial buildings hence high construction waste in the process of construction. Construction wastes come in different ways that are harmful to the environment if not well managed. During construction, there is massive emission of dust, harmful gases, solid and liquid waste that are harmful to the environment. Chen,( 2000), notes that construction pollution in China not only annoy the people in the surrounding but also cause health problems, lowers well-being of the urban areas dwellers. Gas emissions during construction activities has caused air pollution in some of the major cities for instance, in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai there is high deterioration in air quality due to the extensive construction activities (Li, 2000). Construction activities also come with liquid wastes that are harmful to the ecosystem. Liquid waste resulting from the construction materials used and machinery waste sometimes find their way into water bodies or land. Presence of harmful waste in the construction liquid waste will harm aquatic life, human beings and may be harmful on other uses of the polluted water. Construction liquid waste sometimes also find their way into land surfaces, this creates soil pollution. This may be due to changing the soil PH; killing soil nutrients and soil microorganisms. Soil pollution is a threat to sustainable food security given the high need of food to sustain the increased population. These chemicals are harmful to both current and future generations. Construction liquid waste should thus be well managed in order to ensure that they do not find their way to both land and into water bodies. Construction solid waste is another big threat to sustainable development. High solid waste resulting from demolished buildings, concrete and other materials are creatable during construction activities. Many construction companies have not devised means of recycling such waste hence most of it is dumped in landfills. Such waste takes a lot of land and makes those areas not suitable for other uses like agriculture, afforestation, among other land uses. High dumping of solid waste makes more land unsuitable for carrying out useful sustainable development projects and programs and hence bringing a crisis in achieving sustainable development. Gas emissions Urbanisation has resulted into massive gas emissions that brings a crisis to attainment of sustainable development. Urbanisation has resulted into massive air pollution through high production of harmful gases in combustion of fuels both in industries, transport sector and in homes. Most of the air pollution in the urban areas is fabricated and largely resulting from the combustion process. Derwent (2009), notes that the combustion of fossil fuels for power generation, transportation, and other human activities produce complex mixture of pollutants comprising thousands of chemical constituents. Most of the chemicals contains gaseous pollutants such as, sulfur dioxide (SO2, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX) emitted directly from the combustion activities as well as secondary pollutants like ozone (O3), that are formed in the atmosphere from their emissions. These gases are harmful to human survival through creation of health problems and causing global warming. Emission of greenhouse gases in urban areas is the major cause of global warming. Greenhouse gases like Ozone and carbon dioxide are the biggest causes of global warming that is the greatest threat to sustainable development and human existence. Global warming causes unfavourable climatic changes like droughts and floods, rising of the sea level, greenhouse effect, diseases among other unpredictable outcomes, (Sorensen, 2003). The effects of global warming are very harmful to the ecosystem and the general human being sustainable life. The burning of fossil fuels into air causes the formation of acidic particles in the atmosphere. Such particles are disastrous in that they result into the formation of acidic rain. This form of rainfall is harmful to many sectors of the economy like agriculture, aquatic life, availability of clean water among other effects, (Goel, 2006). This is hence a hindrance towards attainment of sustainable development. The emission of gases into the atmosphere also creates health problems by directly inhaling them. Urbanisation has resulted into emission of huge volumes of harmful gases like lead, PM, carbon monoxide, black smoke, sulphur dioxide among others that are harmful if inhaled. Generally, waste gas emissions in urban areas have resulted into many environmental problems and hence they tend to bring out a crisis in sustainable development. Solid waste Urbanisation has resulted into creation of huge volumes of solid waste that are a threat to environmental sustainability. Both human residence and industries in urban cities and centres produce high solid waste daily that are threat to the environment in case they are not well managed. The solid wastes include medical waste, industrial waste and domestic waste. Poor dumping, processing and the general management of solid waste in urban areas has resulted into wide range of problems ranging from marine environmental pollution, land pollution, health risks among other problems, (Allen and Taylor, 2007). Marine pollution by solids waste is a threat to marine life, transportation and other human activities that depend on marine water. This is due the high volumes of the solid waste and their chemical contents. Poor dumping of solid waste causes health problems to those near the dumping sites this may occur in terms of physical personal injuries they cause, the irritating smell they cause, and air pollution they cause upon reacting. Poor management of the waste also consume huge volumes of landfills that could have been otherwise put into other sustainable development projects. Solid waste is a big threat to the attainment of sustainable development in urban areas. Some forms of solid waste like plastic materials takes many years nearly 400 years in order to decompose. Environmental effects of solid waste affects both the current and future generations. Solid waste should be properly managed in order to reduce the hazardous effects they inflict to the current and future generations. This is because as urbanisation continues to increase their volumes continue to rise at a great rate and poor management will be a great disaster to further generations. Urban solid waste is a crisis in achievement of sustainable development in urban areas rather than an opportunity. Liquid waste Liquid waste from the industrial set up and from the domestic residence is a threat to sustainable development if not well managed. Industrial liquid waste in many occasions contains many harmful chemicals that are a threat to the environment if not well disposed. Many residential and industries have poor management of their liquid waste. Poor management of the liquid waste in urban centres has seen a lot of the industrial liquid waste finding their way into water bodies thus creating water pollution, (Agarwal, 2008). Sewage lines from factories, households and commercial buildings are many times channelled to water bodies, oceans and seas. Water pollution is a threat to human survival given the high dependence of human and industrial activities on water. Presence of chemicals in the liquid waste makes the water unsuitable for both domestic and industrial use. Consumption of chemically polluted water has resulted in health problems in many towns. The chemicals also destroy aquatic life. E-waste Urbanisation and industrialisation has resulted into huge production of volumes of electronic devices that are dumped after their use. Poor dumping of electronic materials result to health and environmental threats to current and future generations. Electronic trash of cell phones, computers and TVS that are poorly dumped realise fumes that have a range of toxic chemicals and substances like polycyclic, hydrocarbons, PAHS and many other chemicals, (Oregon State University, 2013) . Most of these chemicals are deadly when inhaled. Some of them cause lung cancer that is very hard to treat. Some of this e-waste contributes towards the emission of greenhouse gases that are a threat to human survival through causing global warming, (Letcher and Vallero, 2011). Urbanisation continues to see the rise of high use of electronic devices hence each day sees increase in e-waste. Means of effective disposal of e-waste must be devised as e-waste are a crisis in achievement of sustainable development. Despite urban waste being a crisis to sustainable development, it slightly creates an opportunity for sustainable development. Urban waste sometimes creates an avenue for development and creation of economic wealth than can be used for the implementation of sustainable development projects. When urban waste are recycled the economic benefits resulting from the waste is sometimes high given the fact that the recycling expenses are sometimes too low. Such economic wealth generated from the waste are sometimes put into environmental mitigation and environmental pollution prevention measures. Such measures are very crucial in aiding the attainment of sustainable development. Some urban wastes are raw materials for processing of other industrial goods. Such materials are thus beneficial in helping urban centres increase job opportunities, industries, people welfare thus generally helping in development. Conclusion Sustainable development is of many benefits to both the current and future generations. The wide spreading of urbanisation has created a crisis to sustainable development. Urbanisation has resulted into massive generation of different forms of waste products that has resulted into threats for enjoyment of life by the current and future generations. The urban waste has highly contributed to the increasing air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution. Increased environmental pollution has seen increase in health problems, global warming, inability to generate enough food, reduction in safe and clean water, poor quality of air, threats to aquatic life among many other negative effects. These effects hinder the attainment of sustainable development. The waste only positive effect is the possibility of obtaining economic benefits after recycling them. Given the high negative effects as compared to its positives it can be truthfully argued that urban waste creates crisis than opportunities to sustainable development. Various municipalities, urban managers, governments and non-governmental organisations should thus put in place various measures to manage urban waste in order to ensure that great steps are taken towards the achievement of sustainable development. Reference Agarwal, S. K. 2008. Water pollution. New Delhi, A.P.H. Pub. Corp. Chen, Z. 2000. Environmental management of urban construction projects in China. Derwent, R. 2009. Atmospheric chemistry. In: Air pollution and health.Holgate ST, Samet JM, Koren HS, Maynard R, eds. Academic Press, London. Goel, P. K. 2006. Water pollution: causes, effects and control. New Delhi, New Age International. . Letcher, T. M., & Vallero, D. A. 2011. Waste a handbook for management. Amsterdam, Elsevier/AcademicPress.http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=667711. Li, Z. 2000. Statutebook of Japanese Laws in Construction Industruy. China Aerial Industry Press. Beijing. Oregon State University. 2013. Residents near Chinese e-waste site face greater cancer risk. ScienceDaily.RetrievedFebruary8,2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130123101615.htm. Robert, W. Kates, Thomas, M. Parris, and Anthony A.2005. Leiserowitz. What is sustainable development. Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Volume 47. Sorensen, C. 2003. Global warming and its impacts on climate of india. Retrieved on 8th Feb from Read More

Gas emissions Urbanisation has resulted into massive gas emissions that brings a crisis to attainment of sustainable development. Urbanisation has resulted into massive air pollution through high production of harmful gases in combustion of fuels both in industries, transport sector and in homes. Most of the air pollution in the urban areas is fabricated and largely resulting from the combustion process. Derwent (2009), notes that the combustion of fossil fuels for power generation, transportation, and other human activities produce complex mixture of pollutants comprising thousands of chemical constituents.

Most of the chemicals contains gaseous pollutants such as, sulfur dioxide (SO2, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX) emitted directly from the combustion activities as well as secondary pollutants like ozone (O3), that are formed in the atmosphere from their emissions. These gases are harmful to human survival through creation of health problems and causing global warming. Emission of greenhouse gases in urban areas is the major cause of global warming. Greenhouse gases like Ozone and carbon dioxide are the biggest causes of global warming that is the greatest threat to sustainable development and human existence.

Global warming causes unfavourable climatic changes like droughts and floods, rising of the sea level, greenhouse effect, diseases among other unpredictable outcomes, (Sorensen, 2003). The effects of global warming are very harmful to the ecosystem and the general human being sustainable life. The burning of fossil fuels into air causes the formation of acidic particles in the atmosphere. Such particles are disastrous in that they result into the formation of acidic rain. This form of rainfall is harmful to many sectors of the economy like agriculture, aquatic life, availability of clean water among other effects, (Goel, 2006).

This is hence a hindrance towards attainment of sustainable development. The emission of gases into the atmosphere also creates health problems by directly inhaling them. Urbanisation has resulted into emission of huge volumes of harmful gases like lead, PM, carbon monoxide, black smoke, sulphur dioxide among others that are harmful if inhaled. Generally, waste gas emissions in urban areas have resulted into many environmental problems and hence they tend to bring out a crisis in sustainable development.

Solid waste Urbanisation has resulted into creation of huge volumes of solid waste that are a threat to environmental sustainability. Both human residence and industries in urban cities and centres produce high solid waste daily that are threat to the environment in case they are not well managed. The solid wastes include medical waste, industrial waste and domestic waste. Poor dumping, processing and the general management of solid waste in urban areas has resulted into wide range of problems ranging from marine environmental pollution, land pollution, health risks among other problems, (Allen and Taylor, 2007).

Marine pollution by solids waste is a threat to marine life, transportation and other human activities that depend on marine water. This is due the high volumes of the solid waste and their chemical contents. Poor dumping of solid waste causes health problems to those near the dumping sites this may occur in terms of physical personal injuries they cause, the irritating smell they cause, and air pollution they cause upon reacting. Poor management of the waste also consume huge volumes of landfills that could have been otherwise put into other sustainable development projects.

Solid waste is a big threat to the attainment of sustainable development in urban areas. Some forms of solid waste like plastic materials takes many years nearly 400 years in order to decompose. Environmental effects of solid waste affects both the current and future generations. Solid waste should be properly managed in order to reduce the hazardous effects they inflict to the current and future generations.

Read More