Sustainable Waste Management

Sustainable waste management is all about keeping the materials in use for a longer time or reducing the number of solid wastes dumped in landfills or getting incinerated. However, it is of crucial importance that in the 21st century, wastes are created even before the product attains its final form.

So our primary focus should be an in-depth study about sustainable waste management and the entire life cycle of the material so that it helps us to reduce the negative impacts it has on the environment and economy of a country.

The definition of waste can also be subjective. Waste to one person can be something of value to another person. This line of thought can be taken as an advantage so that not everything is treated as a waste. The materials can be used to feedstock some other groups.

Why is sustainable waste management so important?

The amount of waste produced by a person reflects the kind of living. So waste made from daily life can be differentiated between forwarding and backward economies. Sustainable waste management comes under the Broad Circular Economy. It aims against the creation of waste first-hand and separates production and consumerism from limited sources. 

Municipal solid waste production will always increase if nothing is reduced at the sources. Sustainable waste management helps us understand the wastes we are creating and how to tackle them most efficiently.

For example, pharmaceutical wastes should be sent back to the original manufacturers for incineration, food waste and garden wastes should be composted, and plastic can be recycled and thus reused.

Solid waste management and its treatment methods

There are various kinds of waste, and it is often difficult to segregate the wastes since most of them come in the heterogeneous form. So it can be differentiated under the headlines of its sources, even though it has come in its heterogeneous form.

Wastewater from households or industrial places

Wastewater from industrial wastes or households, including sewers, consists of various organic pollutants. These effluent streams need to be treated before being let go of in the environment. Wastewater is treated by a method called Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment.

Anaerobic wastewater treatment is the process of treating sewage waters through microorganisms in anaerobic environments, e.i the absence of oxygen. It is one of the most popular ways of treating wastewater. This process primarily consists of two phases.

Acidification stage

In the first phase of the treatment, the complex organic substances are broken down into acids and volatile short-chain acids.

Methane gas production

The microorganisms that are the anaerobes are now introduced, which synthesise the acids into acetate, carbon dioxide and hydrogen gases. Again they act upon the gases produced, and methane gas is released, which is used as fuel in industries.

Biowastes

Biowastes mainly come from households and are wastes that contain organic components in them. As bio wastes are produced in massive amounts every year, these materials are considered very cheap and are thus used to produce biofuels. 

Biowastes, especially food and green wastes, quickly attract microorganisms; thus, their rotting process kickstarts. This decomposition process produces methane gas which is a greenhouse gas and can cause environmental problems. But this same gas can be captured and used as fuels in various industries. 

In many parts of the world, biowastes are separated from municipal wastes. It reduces the bulkiness of municipal waste and allows the biodegradable scraps (those which can get decomposed e.i the biowastes) to be composted and recycled correctly.

Ecocycle

Ecocycle is a concept that brings about a society with non-toxic and resource effluent cycles. This consists of a reduction in waste production, consumption pattern change, more efficient methods of waste management and a more significant focus on recycling. 

It has sustainable development goals, and thus every minute detail and number are taken into consideration.

Plastic, a threat

If we someday take a look around, we will be able to see a world that cannot survive without plastic. It has become an unavoidable part of our lives in the last few decades and will continue to be so. Plastic is one of the few things in waste that is not at all biodegradable and will continue to be a threat if nothing is done about it.

The prevention of single-use plastic is one of the various ways governments worldwide are trying to control the nuisance. However, if we had to think for the long term, a reduction in the production of plastic overall and replacing them with other reusable or biodegradable materials is a must. 

Plastic is omnipresent and notably a backbone of industrialisation. The majority of the countries are trying hard to control plastic, and it seems absolute management of waste plastic is in the distant future. But it isn’t impossible.

Conclusion

Various technologies and processes give different outcomes for the treatment of waste. To achieve a sustainable way of managing debris, all kinds of wastes, such as industrial wastes, municipal wastes, and biomedical wastes, everything should be appropriately treated under strict guidance and appropriate measures to introduce them into the economy again. Well-educated engineers can take this opportunity to present a viable treatment procedure for waste management to tackle the situation. 

A few days back, a graduate and alumni of IIT Kanpur devised an automatic solar composter that was 30% less costly and was also odour free. The device converted organic wastes into nutrient-rich compost effortlessly.