Waste and Recycling Practices of Households - Essay Example

Name: Tutor: Course: Date: Production of Waste in Australia Introduction Generation of waste is closely connected with wealth and urbanization. Poor disposal of waste brings about pollution which is contamination of water, earth, and air by substances that are very harmful. On a yearly basis, each Australian produces approximately one tonne of waste sent to landfill. Actually, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development stipulate that Australians are the third leading generators of landfill within the developed world on a per head basis. Israel and the United States are the only ones ahead of Australians (O’Connor, 2007). What makes the rubbish in Australia stinkier is that a substantial amount of the waste generated from goods that Australians do not even use. In the Australia Institute’s 2005 report, Wasteful Consumption in Australia it is stated that Australians spend not less than $10.5 billion yearly on services and goods that are hardly or never used (O’Connor, 2007). Of this waste, food forms half of it. The paper critically looks at waste production in Australia. The situation is clearly presented and the problems and causes analysed Situation The growing economy in Australia and its rising energy use as well as other resources have come with affluence and wellbeing to a lot of Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). On the contrary, because of this a lot of waste is generated than ever before. In the current decades, the number and variety of products offered to consumers in Australia has been on the increase. Couple with this is the raise in waste diversity, complexity and toxicity. E-waste which is the electronic waste is among the quickest growing form of waste. It has been documented that every year, Australians purchase not less than 2.4 million computers for personal use and 1 million televisions (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). As people buy a lot of products that are electronic, the accumulation of used, outdated electronic products increases. Waste is a given material thrown away, left over or used up during industrial, commercial, domestic and other activities. A lot of solid waste is taken to landfill for disposal which is a traditional and costly approach. Sites of landfill are a method of treating waste symptoms instead of the underlying issue, which is rising consumption as well as rising generation of waste. It is important to avoid waste generation and decrease, recycle or reuse the waste created. With the current situation in Australia where waste is generated so much, a lot of negative effects are posed on the environment and human beings. Ranging from pollution of water to serious health issues like respiratory and reproductive issues, it is essential to implement effective measures that will help minimize waste generation. Problem and causes During the campaign of Clean up Australia done across Australia, there was collection of not less than 7,200 tonnes of rubbish (Clean up Australia, 2008). From the campaign, major rubbish sources were established. Top on the list was plastics, whose percentage was 31.7 of the rubbish surveyed. Miscellaneous items were ranked second with regards to major rubbish source. In this category, cigarette butts obtained the first position. In third place of the major rubbish source was aluminium /metal with around 14.6%. Glass formed approximately 13.1 % of the rubbish generation. In the fifth position was paper. Others included polystyrene, rubber and wood. With respect to most polluted location types, it was established that outdoor transport was the leading site type that was polluted with majority of rubbish pieces discovered at every location on average. Roadsides were found to be the second site type that was most polluted. Mobile phones are important tools of communication. However with regular upgrades encouraged by the latest advances in technology, mobile phones are quickly turning out to be a major issue of waste. They possess toxic substances which can cause destruction to the environment. A lot of mobile phones’ components are regarded toxic and are likely to cause destruction to human health and the environment in case they are not properly handled (Clean Up Australia, 2009). One mobile phone contains elements that are highly toxic like lead, mercury and cadmium. These toxic elements can percolate from decomposing waste within landfills, leach into groundwater, thus pollute the soil and find its way in the food chain. Subsequently people are at risk of developing health issues when these toxins are exposed to them. The health issues include problems related to respiration, developmental and reproductive. It is hence important that such thousands of unnecessary phones do not find their way in landfill. In the recent decades, a trend not in line with burning and covering waste in support of waste recycling and reusing has existed. From the 1970s, garden incineration as well as burning wastes openly at landfills has been decreasing due to the major worry for the effect of waste on environmental and human health (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007). Decreased burning led to more landfilling, decreasing the intake capacity of landfills that already existed and bringing demand for fresh ones. Communities regularly object to landfills’ sites that are proposed. This type of disposing waste is considered by a couple of people to cause risks for environmental and human health from potential water and soil contamination, disease transmitting pests and gas emissions from greenhouse. Visual aesthetics and odors also add to the trouble in setting up fresh landfills. From the initial years of 1990s, management and sustainable improvement principles have resulted in policies of waste management seeking to reduce waste disposal by decreasing its generations, and by recycling and reusing. In present years, recovery of resource has expanded from waste, with a number of landfill gases being obtained for generation of either electricity or fuel. It is noted that the quantity of solid waste being sent to landfill has reduced in the past five years. Liquid wastes entail grease, solvents, oil and paint sludge. These wastes are treated in various ways, such as neutralization and filtration. They can also be recycled, dumped at landfill or incinerated. Hazardous wastes include substances that pose great risk to human health and the environment. Lastly radioactive waste which is produced from the utility of materials that are radioactive mainly used in research, industrial, medical and agricultural processed, are also potentially risky to the environment and human health. Solutions Minimization of waste via waste avoidance or products and material reuse, with no or little reprocessing, is put into consideration in several Australian and various worldwide strategies of waste management and systems of regulation as the top desirable result of policy of waste management (Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2010). Minimizing generation of waste via reuse or avoidance has the capacity to decrease expenses to the community as well as businesses, by either decreasing used materials or by decreasing the quantity of waste that would be disposed of, in order to decrease the expenses of waste management. There are various measures which when effectively implemented, can lead to proper management of waste in Australia. A lot of measures in Australia to support minimization of waste and reuse are focused on information and education. With respect to avoidance of waste there are also a couple of actions in place to support improvements in the process of production to either decrease waste from process of production or possible waste from final product itself. In terms of evaluation, it is a bit tricky to evaluate the extent to which people in Australia reuse products or avoid waste. Apparently, no system is in place monitor these matters, simply because action may take place at any given time within the chain of supply. Trials have been executed to measure avoidance of waste directed by the National Packaging Covenant by approximating the quantity of materials that are saved via product design transformations like packaging that is lightweighting (Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2010). Evaluation Generally, waste is grouped into three segments. These are: commercial and industrial; municipal and construction and demolition. Different divisions make dissimilar contributions to landfill diversion and disposal of waste to landfill, putting in mind that establishing real waste generation levels, disposal as well as recycling is influenced by the various definitions and methods of measurement for waste across jurisdictions. Every sector has observed a rise in the percentage of recycled material and a rise in generation of waste in general. The characteristic of every sector creates dissimilar challenges with respect to disposal and recovery of resources. In Australia state strategies together with community measures and individual government measures, have resulted in increased rates of recycling for a couple of materials, including; recycling used oil is controlled by the Product Stewardship (Waste Oil) Act 2000 (Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, 2010). In 2007, the rate of recycling for packaging was approximated at 56%. The amount disposed to landfill had reduced by approximately 23 % from 2003, regardless of increased production of waste packaging. In 2007, publishers of newspaper recycled about 76% of newsprint, a diversion of more than 500,000 papers in tonnes from landfill. With regards to the future and provided the capacity for a rise in quantity of landfill waste, it is very essential to reflect on the composition as well as profile of what takes place into landfill. It is also essential to establish how effective present methods will be in controlling future streams of waste and meeting the environmental, social and economic needs of the community. Landfill is still the major type of disposal of sectors of waste in Australia. Even though it is a bit hard to monitor people in light of waste management, some simple and easy to follow measures can be implemented at individual level. For example, people should work out how much their school or household rubbish could be recycled or composted. People should decrease their levels of consumption that is wasteful. It is essential to have a warm farm or compost bin at home. This will decrease the quantity of green or organic waste getting in the landfill. Another effective solution to waste management is to establish a program of recycling waste at various schools. The four Rs which are; reduce, refuse, re-use and recycle need to followed. Another good practice is that people should carry their own bags when going to the supermarkets, this helps reduce taking a lot of plastic bags home. With regards to mobile phones, old ones can be returned either through individual collection or group collection through the Clean up Mobile Phones which is an affiliate of Clean up Australia campaign (Clean up Australia, 2009). Increased prices of commodity have increased the motivation to recover a number of products that are already used for transformation into unprocessed material for the production of fresh products. On the contrary, a number of reasons exist as to why majority of households do not comply with reusing or recycling waste substances that are likely to reusable or recyclable. One of the major reasons for not complying was based on the material type. Conclusion In conclusion, indeed more waste is produced in Australia than before. Some of the major sources and sectors of waste have been highlighted above. Plastics have been noted to top the list in terms of waste sources. For proper management of waste, a number of measures as discussed above can to a great extent help reduce waste disposal. Waste has a number of negative effects on human as well as environment. For instance, there are various health issues brought about by different types of wastes, for example, radioactive wastes may be cancerous on human beings. Poor management of waste can cause pollution to water resources. The more waste substance people throw away, the more fresh resources is deprived of from the environment. Works Cited Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2008). Waste and recycling practices of households. Year book Australia. Retrieved on 13 December, 2012, from Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2007). Australian social trends: Household waste trends. Retrieved on 13 December 2012, from Clean Up Australia. (2009). Mobile phones. Mobile phone fact sheet. In J. Healey (ed) Recycling and managing waste. Issues in society, 305, 38-39. Clean Up Australia. (2008). Rubbish report findings. In J. Healey (ed) Recycling and managing waste. Issues in society, 305, 7-8. Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (2010). Waste management and resource recovery trends. A national waste policy: Managing waste to 2020 Consultation paper. Retrieved on 13 December 2012, from O’Connor, T. (2007, December 5). What a waste. The Sydney Morning Herald Eco, p2. Read More