Waste Management: this article provides a practical explanation of waste management. After reading, you’ll understand the basics of this powerful management tool.
What is Waste Management?
Waste management can be defined as all the activities that are required to manage waste from the point of collecting the waste to recycling and monitoring.
Waste in waste management refers to unwanted or unusable material that is produced through the activity of humans and can have different forms. Waste can be liquid, solid, or gas with each having its disposal method and way of managing the waste.
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Besides the state of the matter, there are also different types of waste, such as household, biological, commercial and industrial waste. Some types of waste can form a threat to the environment and human health, such as radioactive and chemical waste. These types of waste are called hazardous waste.
The aim of waste management is to reduce the dangerous effects of such waste on the environment and human health. A big part of waste management deals with municipal solid waste, which is created by industrial, commercial, and household activity.
History of Waste Management
The amount of waste that is being produced by humans has changed throughout history. In Europe, a sudden increase was a result of industrialisation, together with the growth in urban population. Due to a lack of clearance regulations, the waste in the streets started to pile up and affect the hygiene and health of the urban populations.
After cholera outbreaks in England during the mid-19th century, social reformer Edwin Chadwick published a report on ‘The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population’. In this report, he wrote about the need for effective waste removal and management facilities to improve the population’s health and wellbeing.
This led to the ‘Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act’ in 1846. Followed by this act, the Public Health Act 1975 was introduced and it became compulsory for households to use a ‘dust-bin’ for the weekly disposal of their waste.
A sudden increase in waste for disposal was followed by the creation of incineration plants, created for the destruction of waste. At the beginning of the 20th century, similar waste systems were being adapted by other cities in Europe and Northern America.
However, waste management nowadays is not the same in every country, region or can even vary among different sectors such as the industrial and residential sector.
6 Elements of Waste Management
Waste management consists of 6 elements and activities:
