ENV 462 NOTES

SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT
Waste – is anything which is no longer useful and needs to be got rid of

Waste Management

Effective management of wastes is a fundamental requirement of ecologically sustainable development

Objectives of WM

Protection of human health
Promotion of hygiene
Protection of environment
Recycling of materials
Avoidance of waste
Reduction of waste quantities
Reduction of emissions and residuals
Protection of natural resources



Waste Management Strategy (WMS)

Waste management strategy (WMS) sets out to deal comprehensively with waste issues

identifies the most effective options for dealing with specific needs and problems

WMS enable a country to achieve a state of sustainable waste management

Waste Management Strategy (WMS)

Primary Objective

Provide a framework within which waste can be managed effectively to minimize or avoid adverse impacts on the environment, while at the same time allowing economic development and improvement in the quality of life

Secondary Objectives

Promote more efficient use and conservation of resources
Reduce the need for waste treatment facilities
Reduce inspection and enforcement costs



Greater cost efficiency within industry by reducing the volume of raw materials and lowering disposal costs
Compatible with international strategies and regulations


Principles of WMS

Integrated waste management
waste management from the point of generation to final disposal

The principles of ‘polluter pays’ and ‘user pAays’

The EU End-of-Life Vehicles Directive (2000/53/EC)

Waste generators and product designers

responsibility for the fate of their wastes and products

Waste management hierarchy

Waste management should be based on a waste management ‘hierarchy’ of

Waste Prevention/Source reduction
avoidance and reduction of waste creation

Recycling & Reuse
reuse and recycling of waste

Treatment
destroying, detoxifying or neutralising wastes
Disposal
discharging wastes

The internationally accepted approach to
waste management
Based on zero waste philosophy


Waste management hierarchyExample 1

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Waste management hierarchyExample 2

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Waste prevention/Minimisation

involves altering the design, manufacture, purchase, or use of products and materials to reduce the amount and toxicity of what gets thrown away

Waste prevention is sometimes called source reduction because it reduces or eliminates pollution at the source

donating an unwanted computer to a charity
photocopying on both sides of a sheet of paper
Altering material specifications so that fewer hazardous constituents are used in a manufacturing process

WASTE MANAGEMENT AND POLLUTION CONTROL
Basic consideration and concepts in
Environmental Quality

Development

An evolutionary process which uses the resource endowment of the planet to improve the welfare of the beneficiary community

Traditionally evaluated by economic and technological growth (measured in terms of GND and GDP)

Human Development Index (HDI) embraces

Health and nutrional status
Education achievement
Assess to resources and information
Equitable distribution of income
Well-paid employment opportunities
Basic freedom

All development activities inevitably lead to
some environmental changes (degradation)


Environment

Where we live, or our surroundings of air, water and land


Health

A state of complete physical, mental and social well being
Determined by population, environment, behavior and level of health services


Pollution

Contamination of the environment by biological, chemical, and/or physical agents and may arise through material events, volcanic eruptions, flooding, drought or human activity


Major driving forces of pollution (environmental decline)

Poverty
Resource-consumption
Economic growth
Rapid population growth


Sustainable Development

A development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs



Environmental Health

The control of all those factors in man’s physical environment which exercise or may exercise a deleterious effect on his physical environment, health and survival

Major components
Water resources management
Air quality management
Sanitation and waste management
Housing
Food safety
Occupational health and safety (incl. chemical safety and safe use of chemical
Control of environmental health

Public Health

The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organized efforts of society


Definitions of Waste

Several definitions used by different countries and organizations (e.g. UK EPA, EEC, US EPA, Botswana WMA 98, etc



Four major classes of waste are recognized

General waste
Controlled waste
Special waste
Hazardous waste


General waste

World Bank definition

A waste is a mixable object which has no direct use and is discarded permanently


UK EPA 1990 definition

Any substance which constitutes a scrap metal or an effluent or other unwanted surplus substance arising from the application of a process

Any substance or article which requires to be disposed of as being broken, worn out, contaminated or otherwise spoiled but excluding Explosives Act 1875




Botswana Waste Management Act 1998

Waste includes the following substances and any combination thereof which are discarded by any person or are accumulated or stored by any person for the purpose of recycling
Undesirable or superfluous by-products;
Residue or remainder of any process or activity;
Any gaseous, liquid or solid matter



Controlled waste

Households
Commercial
Industrial
Or any such waste

Special waste

These are waste “dangerous to life" as a result of their toxicity, corrosivity, volatility and inflammability and restrictive nature

Hazardous waste

Hazardous waste mean waste (solids, sludges, liquids and containerized infectious) which by reason of their chemical activity or toxic, explosive, corrosive and other characteristics, cause danger to health or the environment, whether alone or when coming into contact with other wastes

ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION
Legislation

Is a law or set of laws passed by a parliament

Empower the environmental department or agency act on behalf of the environment and the community

Purpose

All waste disposal sites should be subject to legislative control

3 areas of concern

Planning for landuse
Pollution control
Waste management licenses
Environmental protection
Regulations and controls for health and safety

Botswana
Environmental legislation

Doesn’t exist
Fragmented both in substance and in terms of implementation mechanisms

Waste Management Act, 1998

Makes provision for efficient waste management in the country to prevent harm to human, animal and plant life and to minimize the pollution of the environment and cause provisions of the Basel Convention to prevail

Aim to control and regulate waste management in Botswana

Public Health Act, 1981

Designed to maintain a good environment for the protection of human health
It forbids the pollution of water resources by indiscriminate dumping of chemicals in the water

Local Authorities Bye-Laws

Provision for disposal of wastes
Enforcement by police officials

The Water Act, 1968

Provision on water pollution


Atmospheric Pollution (Prevention) Act, 1997

Aims to prevent atmospheric pollution by an industrial processes in any trade

Agricultural Resources (Conservation) Act, 1974

Aims at proper use and conservation of resources which are of agricultural importance

Agricultural Resources Board can issue regulations or conservation orders at controlling or preventing soil pollution

Environmental Impact Assessment Act, 2005
Mines and Minerals Act, (CAP.66:01 of 1977)
Mines, Quarries and Machinery Act (CAP.44:02 of 1978)
Explosives Act and Explosive Regulation Act (Cap 24:02)
Herbage Preservation (Preservation of fires) (CAP.38:02 of 1978)
United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (1992)
Wildlife Conservation Policy, 1986
National Conservation Strategy, 1990
National Policy on Natural Resources, Conservation and Development
Forestry Act (CAP.38:04 of 1976)
The Roads Act
Monuments and Relics Act (Cap 59:03)
Town and Country Planning Act (Cap.32:09 of 1980)


Basel Convention on the Control of
Transboundary Movements of
Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal,
1989

Botswana ratified convention in 2000
Aim to regulate movement and disposal of hazardous wastes from one country to another

Stockholm Convention on persistent
Organic pollutants (POPS), 2001

Botswana ratified convention in 2002
Aim to protect human health and the environment from persistent organic pollutants (POPs).

Bamako Convention on the ban of the
import into Africa and the Control of
Transboundary Movement of
Hazardous Wastes within Africa, 1991  

Botswana ratified this convention in 2004

Aim to protect human health and the environment from dangers posed by hazardous wastes by reducing their generation to a minimum in terms of quantity and/or hazard potential


The Climate Change Convention,
1992

Botswana acceded to this convention in 1992

To regulate levels of greenhouse gas concentration in atmosphere in order to minimize the occurrence of climate change on a level that would impede sustainable development, or compromise food production.

Vienna Convention on the Protection
of the Ozone layer, 1985

Botswana ratified this convention in 1991

Its objective is to protect human health and the environment against adverse effects resulting from modifications of ozone layer

The Convention encourages and where necessary facilitates cooperation in research and the sharing of information relating to the depletion of ozone layer.


Montreal Protocol on Substances that
Deplete the Ozone layer, 1987

Botswana ratified this convention in 1991

Its objective is to encourage participants to take precautionary measures to control global emissions of the ozone layer depleting substances

It is responsible for the control and use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other chlorine containing substances, with the ultimate objective of their elimination

Waste Management
3 (4) Rs of WM

The three (four) R’s of reduce, reuse and recycle (& refuse) should be looked as partial solutions

All three of these activities serve to lessen the impact that human activities have on the environment

Promote prevention and minimization
Waste prevention – 1st goal

Waste minimization
attitude of mind
Technique for industry
Input materials
Product design
Process change


Recycling

Recycling can be defined as making something new/useful from waste materials that could otherwise be thrown away

Benefits of recycling

Saves Landfill Space

Recycling is one way to reduce the amount of waste that is landfilled


Recycling Can Reduce the Cost of Waste Disposal

Getting rid of waste isn’t a free proposition
Garbage trucks must pay to dump their waste at a landfill
The payment is called a tipping fee, and it is based on the weight or volume of the garbage.

2008 Gaborone Landfill rates

General waste – P40 a ton
Garden waste – P60 a ton
Rubble/soil – P50 for 2tons
Medical waste – P50 a kg


In Vermont, one landfill charges about $65 a ton for the waste it receives

In 2003, recycling and composting diverted 72 million tons of material from landfill


Recycling Can Save Energy

It almost always takes less energy to make a product from recycled materials than it does to make it from new materials
Using recycled aluminum scrap to make new aluminum cans, for example, uses 95 percent less energy than making aluminum cans from bauxite ore, the raw material used to make aluminum

Recycling Saves Natural Resources

Natural resources are riches provided courtesy of Mother Nature
Natural resources include land, plants, minerals, and water
By using materials more than once, we conserve natural resources
In the case of paper, recycling saves trees and water. Making a ton of paper from recycled stock saves up to 17 trees and uses 50 percent less water.


Recycling Can Reduce Air and Water Pollution

Using aluminum scrap instead of bauxite ore to make new aluminum products cuts air and water pollution by 95 percent

Recycling Creates Jobs

Recycling is estimated to create almost five times as many jobs as waste disposal
Recycling requires businesses that collect, haul, and process recyclables, as well as businesses that manufacture products from recycled materials
People employed in the recycling industry may be material sorters, truck drivers, sales representatives, process, engineers, or chemists. The National Recycling Coalition reports that recycling supports 1.1 million jobs in the U.S.

Why Recycling is needed?

Many residents, as well as shops and commercial establishments, dump indiscriminately at unofficial dumping sites, often old sand quarries

These unofficial sites present a direct hazard to people and livestock

They are unfenced, and contain anything from construction debris to plastic bags, tins, paint cans and possibly medical or other infectious wastes

Cows and goats routinely rummage through the sites, sometimes ingesting plastic bags or cutting themselves on glass.

People are also found at these sites, often barefooted, scavenging what reusable material they can find.


Materials that can be recycled include, but
not limited to:

Paper
Steel cans
Aluminum cans
Scrap metal
Plastics
Glass
Tires
Organic/ Garden Waste
Car batteries
Used Oil



Paper

Uncontaminated waste paper such as general office paper, news papers, magazines, food packaging, cement packets, cardboard boxes, corrugated brown and white cartons and craft paper of all kinds can be collected and taken for recycling

Some papers such as plastic-coated, tarred, carbon-paper and contaminated paper are not collected for recycling

In Botswana, the recycling companies collect various kinds of paper from different areas such as shopping malls, schools and institutions

The collected paper is then baled/ compacted into bundles and then loaded into trucks/ train wagons and sent to recycling plants either in Zimbabwe or South Africa.



Steel cans

Hard metal-cans which are often used for food packaging (tin-stuff)
Steel cans can be collected and thereby sent to recycling companies such as Collect-a-Can
Cans are then crushed into ingots and then taken to South African plants for recycling
The crushed cans can be used to make industrial steel products such as reinforcing wire and fencing wire
It takes 75% less energy to make steel from recovered metal than from raw materials
More cans can be made from fewer raw materials, and today every steel can contains 25% of recycled steel.

Aluminium Cans

Relatively soft metal-cans, which are often used to store beverages.

Aluminium drink cans can be recycled time and time again without loss of quality to enable them to be manufactured again and again into new drink cans of high quality

The recycling process of these cans happens in much the same way as steel cans

Recycling aluminium cans is economical and sustainable, i.e. 95 percent of the energy used in producing aluminium from its natural state (Bauxhite) is saved

Scrap Metal

Include old car bodies, engine blocks, gearboxes and any other metal component that is found in used motor-vehicles.
A number of companies around Gaborone collect scrap metal from various sources and send it to South Africa for recycling

Motor vehicle batteries

Old car batteries, which are potentially very polluting can be recycled
Lead acid batteries should be taken back to the supplier after their end of life use
Prevents the harmful substances that are contained in batteries from posing a health hazard to humans and other life forms.

Plastics

Plastics are used world-wide as a packaging material and are routinely classified into seven types according to the following number system:
PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate)
PE-HD (High Density Polyethylene)
PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride)
PE-LD (Low Density Polyethylene)
PP (Polypropylene)
PS (Polystyrene)
Other
The most common type of plastics found in the domestic waste stream in Botswana are polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Each type of plastic is technically recyclable, however, in practice types 1, 2 and 4 are the easiest to recycle into new products


All plastics for recycling must be clean and label free
Plastic shopping bags are the least desirable for recycling but can be re-used for making bags, mats, and hats

Glass
Used glass bottles can be re-used again to store various liquid materials in the household
Some beverage bottles can be returned to retail stores or Kgalagadi Beverages for cash-deposit. Somarelang Tikologo currently collects glass bottles from schools, bars, hotels and shopping malls in and around Gaborone and take them to South Africa for recycling
Local entrepreneurs are encouraged to get into recycling of glass bottles as some financial benefits can be accrued with the environment being kept clean at the same time


Tyres

It takes over 800 years to decompose old tires
This makes them to be persistent in the environment and thereby posing health hazards to humans and other organisms
To remedy this problem, they can be recycled into road asphalt, shoes, and furniture
Some local entrepreneurs re-use tires to produce flowerpots, drinking/ watering troughs and other useful items

Organic Waste:
The non-animal kitchen waste can be easily composted to improve garden soil, for instance: vegetable waste, bread, fruit peels, and grains
These can be mixed with garden waste to enhance the formation of compost
This means that composting could save a large part of the land, which would otherwise be used for disposal of municipal and garden waste