As waste is one of the major concerns in today’s world, iConservationist is ready to share some insights from the story of waste management. Annually 2.01 billion tons of municipal waste is generated around the world. The mismanagement of waste has become a great concern in many municipalities. Even in Sri Lanka, waste management has become a national level concern and in despite of both national and international level policies and regulations, authorities have failed to make a change in the current system of waste generation. Before moving forward let’s learn about waste!
What is Waste?
Waste are any material that will be discarded after its primary use, considering it is no use any longer. It could be the PET bottle you carried around or the wrapping paper of your biscuit packet. Waste could be consisted of plastic, papers, leftover food, glass and metal. If not managed in a proper manner, waste could lead into many environmental and social complications.
What is Waste Management?
It is the proper method of waste disposal. Without throwing out all the waste material away together, it is important to segregate them accordingly. Segregation is separating waste basically considering whether they are bio degradable or not. Bio degradable waste will be separated again in to food leftover and paper products and non-bio degradable material can be separated as plastic, glass and metal. Segregation helps you to identify if there are any secondary use from those waste and makes it easier to recover them.
When you consider the amounts of waste generated at municipalities, generally its consistency as follows,
- Food/Green waste – 44%
- Paper/ Cardboard waste – 17%
- Plastic – 12%
- Glass – 5%
- Metal – 4%
Apart from these, there are e-waste which can be really harmful if exposed to the environment.
Why we should Manage Our Waste?
As mentioned in the intro, waste is one of the biggest problems in today’s world. Without segregating, people send out mixed waste directly to landfills. Eventually these landfills get piled up with garbage. Since they have mixed waste, harmful gasses and toxins are generated inside these garbage piles, even causing mini explosions and landslides; not to forget the bad odour and the unsanitary environment it creates. It also pollutes the ground water reserves and other water ways. Animals roam in to these waste lands in search of food and end up dying after consuming harmful material such as polythene. It all begins with one misdeed; waste mismanagement.
How can we turn Waste in to a Resource?
The most popular concept in waste management is the 3R Method.
- Reduce
- Reuse
- Recycle
Reducing is lowering the amounts of waste that will be generated at your household or community level. Saying no to excess amounts of products or using the exact amount you need, contribute to the concept of ‘Reduction’.
Reusing is identifying a secondary use from the waste generated. Most of the time we dispose products after its primary use disregarding its potential secondary use. If you pay a close attention, most of our waste can be used again.
Recycling is the most common way of reusing waste; where the waste material will be reused to make the same product again after its initial disposal. It takes a lot of resources and commitment to create a recycled product but its contribution in minimizing waste, is totally worth the effort. Recently, recycling has upgraded to a whole new level which is called waste upcycling!
What is Waste Upcycling?
This is the method of transforming waste in to resources. Some waste materials can be used to make new products with better quality. Since it is different from the source product, it comes with different benefits too. This process is called Upcycling or creative reuse. It gives those products an environmental value. Think about a discarded step ladder. Someone can make it in to a nice book shelf. This is different from recycling because the end product is different from the source product. It is a very creative, resourceful way to manage your waste at home with much less trouble. If you are a “crafty” person, trust me this will even create business opportunities for you.
What are the Benefits of waste segregation and upcycling?
- Less trouble in waste management and disposing material properly
- Improve the quality of your surrounding
- Help to create new cost-effective products
- Protect the environment
- Conserve the limited resources
- Support local industries, providing an income
- Encourage creativity and innovations
In Sri Lanka, the authorities have introduced a color-coded system to segregate waste.
- Green – organic waste
- Blue – paper waste
- Red – glass
- Brown – metal and coconut shells
- Orange – plastic and polythene waste
This system aids in recovering resources from collected waste. The organic waste can be used to make compost manure. Compost is good for home gardening. Paper waste can be directed to recycling plants to produce recycled papers. Glass and metal also can be recycled. Plastic and polythene can be recycled to make plastic beads and pallets which can be used in making new plastic products. But if you ignore this simple rule of “segregation” all these resources will end up in a land fill, causing nothing but trouble. Today, iConservationist is focusing on bringing the essence of a resourceful life to you, the following link will give you some insights about how to create some simple upcycled products at home.
https://www.personalcreations.com/blog/50-new-uses-for-old-things
Plastic Pollution
Moving forward, iConservationist wishes to bring your attention to ‘Plastic Pollution’– one of the biggest threats to the life of this planet. As we are talking about waste management today, the 12% of plastic in annual waste generation has caused a grave danger to all life forms; terrestrial, arboreal and marine. Marine pollution is the biggest threat from all. Trillions of polythene and plastic end up in oceans, destroying thousands of marine ecosystems. Due to complicated food webs, marine creatures consume plastic which eventually accumulate inside our bodies. This can lead in to many health and genetic complications among species. Plastic pollution is a broad yet a very important topic to discuss. Therefore, iConservationist will be back with another article on plastic pollution and how to mitigate its consequences.
Living a resourceful life is important in conservation. I believe it begins with small steps like segregating your own waste at home. This is not impossible once you learn to change your perception towards waste. Look closer! You will find many resources hidden as waste in your surroundings. Do not forget to be creative and innovative while recovering these items! “Think twice before throwing something away!”. With that final remark, iConservationist will wind up for today with the hope of reaching you all with another interesting article soon!
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