Waste management problems

[dan19_83]

I thought i could get everyones thoughts on this massive problem in the world today.

 

I'm not sure if people are even interested in talking about this but i said i'd check anyway!!

 

Here in Ireland, we are quickly running out of landfill space to put all our waste. what are we going to do? Is incineration the way to go?

I want to know if the rest of the world has this kind of problem.

[dan19_83]

On a side note, here's a quick quiz.

 

What volume (in percent) do these three items take up in a typical landfill?

 

1. Polystyrene

2. Disposable Nappies/Diapers!

3. Fast Food Waste

 

This was ask at an environmentalist conference and they were way off.

 

Take a guess (in percent, don't forget) and i'll post the answers in a few days.

[alt_f13]

I don't know.

 

However, I always thought there should be some sort of automated way of disposing of garbage. Most garbage is still reusable. If the metals and plastics could be sifted out, the rest could be heated and compressed getting rid of polystyrene etc., and the remaining waste should be biomass, suitable for burning.

[atinymonkey]

Here in Ireland' date=' we are quickly running out of landfill space to put all our waste. what are we going to do? Is incineration the way to go?

I want to know if the rest of the world has this kind of problem.[/quote']

 

Yes they do, and trebuchets into space.

 

 

On a side note' date=' here's a quick quiz.

[/quote']

 

1. Polystyrene = 1 %

2. Disposable Nappies/Diapers! = 1 %

3. Fast Food Waste = 25 %

[Guest Yvonne]

I would really like to see the anwers to the quiz - was antinymonkey correct?

 

In South Africa the landfill gas emissions contain above average concentrations of benzene, chlorobenzene, carbon tetrachloride (etc.) due to our inability to adequately sort our waste. So paints, solvents (etc.) used by households all end up in our general (municipal) landfills.

 

The local green groups are totally anti incineration. Various other technologies are currently being assessed as alternatives (e.g. plasma conversion). The public are however very suspicious of these due to the bad track record of some of the project proponents.

 

Given that SA is relatively large, landfills seem to be where our authorities are putting their money - at least for the forseeable future.

[dan19_83]

give a gues yourself yvonne and if you haven't guessed by next monday (cause i'm gone the weekend) then i'll give you the answers!

[Phi for All]

1. Polystyrenes = 20%

2. Disposable Diapers = < 1 %

3. Fast Food Waste = < 1%

 

I think the fast food waste mostly ends up as litter on the ground.

[Xavier]

1. Polystyrenes = 20%

2. Disposable Diapers = 10 %

3. Fast Food Waste = 10%

 

The only permanent solution is 100% recycling or living in an infinite universe. It may not be so bad as we might run out of resourses to make the stuff before we run out of places to put it once we're bored with it.

Even the 100% recycling isn't possible yet but not making the stuff in the first place is the best solution. Disposable diapers are the classic example - 2,000,000 babies in the UK use 3 diapers each at, say, 0.5KG each = 100,000 tons of waste per year that just didn't exist when tery nappies were washed and reused for years. The Grune Punkt law in Germany said that for every product displaying the green point symbol (and there were tax penalties if it didn't) the manufacturer was resposible for the entire cost of disposal of the item. Designing in recycling potential then became a way of mitigating these costs, excessive packaging was removed from products and environmentally toxic - therefore expensive to dispose of - materials like heavy metals and CFCs were used more sparingly or replaced. Connecting the disposal with the production and profit stopped a lot of waste-material-to-be from ever being made.

 

The german scheme helped but not enough and, of course the companies were more interested in finding loopholes, cutting deals with the regulators and using the law as a stick to beat their competitors with than with the spirit of the exercise. The teeth of the, initially quite draconian laws were pulled when it was found that the big companies were driving smaller competitors out of business and a sort of 'cartel' had formed around the deals between big business and the waste disposal business.

 

Best thing to do is ignore the problem and give the nanotechnology research business even more billions in the vain hope that it really isn't a bunch of pie-in-the-sky hooey.

 

No, everything will be fine just as soon as we run up a couple of nanobots! That'll be One Squillion Bucks, thank you.

[dan19_83]

My view on the whole view on our ever increasing waste problem in incinerators.

They are the way to go to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills.

The reason every one is so opposed to them is because of the dioxins that they release, which are only 1nanometre per metre cubed, max. This is way, way smaller than the dioxins level released when people burn their rubbish in the back garden, which is still going on today.

It also has other advantages in that the heat produced can be used to heat water to steam which can be used to produce ellectricity.

 

In a perfect world there would be no need for incinerators because there would be no waste but this is not a perfect world!

 

I agree with Xavier aswell. Gone are the days when people used to re-use waste, e.g diapers, bags, bottles, etc etc.

If waste is reused then waste itself will decrease. I hope I'm making sense!!

[dan19_83]

Ok, no posts in a while so here are the results.

 

1. Polystyrenes = < 1%

2. Disposable Diapers = < 1 %

3. Fast Food Waste = 1.48%

 

 

There are all qutie small as you can see. I think Phi for All may have been right wwhen he said that all fast food waste goes on the ground. A disgrace really.

[Merrie]

Hazardous waste presents immediate or long-term risks to humans, animals, plants, or the environment. It requires special handling for detoxification or safe disposal.

 

 

[stopsweating]

Waste management should be given more attention. Our planet is badly suffering now and we are all responsible regarding this. Let's all provide considerations for this problem.

Edited March 25, 2011 by stopsweating

[JorgeLobo]

Very melodramatic. Planets do not "suffer." Waste management is given quite a bit of attention but I'm sure we'd love to hear what stopsweating is doing about it. Do tell us.

[ashlyn]

Very melodramatic. Planets do not "suffer." Waste management is given quite a bit of attention but I'm sure we'd love to hear what stopsweating is doing about it. Do tell us.

 

Agreed with Merrie and stopsweating.

 

We should do our minimum contribution just by disposing the waste properly in the bins and to recycle the recyclable items. Recycling would prevent the grow of unwanted bacteria, big piles of waste in your surrounding. I have seen solar chairs made of reusable materials, the idea is amazing, saves energy and provider you seat to sit.

 

Likewise, we can do some creative work with the reusable items to cut our bills and save the energy.

 

All creative ideas are welcome here.

[rossini11]

you might want to take a look at this promo-video of a documentary coming out this october (so i'm told)... it answers all your questions...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pufuqiaa7pg

[PECO]

Hi, In your country are not the worst to thought of about waste. There are countries in the possible of worst scenario. In Japan, they're in latest technology and they also in in technology waste. And Philippines, I don't know if they have the word "recycle."

[JorgeLobo]

Japan has used incineration and built land mass using cement encased ash. But as is one might expect in its highly ordered society, citizens arewilling (trying) to comply with pedantic soritng requirements - in some cities up to 40+ categories of trash for burn, recycle etc. To outisde eyes, this is often absrub - for example one sock goes to brun but two socks go to recycled cloth.

 

Effective management beenfits alot if folks drop holier than tho', ill-informed judgements of the pracices of others. For example, life cycle studies have clearly shown the major environmetal impact of cloth diaper. Recycling is often more expensive. In some cases, landfill is the lesser of necessry evils of large advanced societies.

 

 

Hi, In your country are not the worst to thought of about waste. There are countries in the possible of worst scenario. In Japan, they're in latest technology and they also in in technology waste. And Philippines, I don't know if they have the word "recycle."