Waste Management 2020

presented by:Sankha Ghosh

Waste Disposal Methods

Some of the other widely used concepts

include Waste hierarchy, Extended
producer responsibility and Polluter pays
principle.
 Waste segregation

 EPA divides waste into two basic categories: product-related wastes

and non-product wastes.
 Product-related wastes include :
 durable goods we use (e.g. appliances, furniture, books) - anything that
lasts over five years
 non-durable goods (newspapers, disposable diapers) - anything that
lasts less than five years).
 The non-product waste materials include food scraps (about 11 % of our
total trash pile), yard trimmings (another 12 %) and a small amount of
miscellaneous inorganic waste (1.5 %).
 Recycling or Downclycling: a Failure

 Newspapers are turned into low-value products like cattle bedding and
insulation material.
 Recycled glass is crushed and used in construction as a gravel
substitute.
 Plastic containers come back as throw-away garbage bags.
 A report by EPA claims that 70% of the products are still going to
landfills and incinerators.
 Landfills are is actually larger than in previous years.
 In India , even after the MNCs are coming up with take-back policy only
50% of electronic waste are being recycled.(2 lac metric ton out of 3.8
lac metric ton).
 EPR: an alternative?

 Extended Producer Responsibility(EPR) ,a policy that ensures ‘cradle-to-

cradle’ take –back policy to the consumers.
 The development of composting and sewage treatment systems -
recycling of consumer products and packaging will be a commercial
activity.
 It will be carried out in what some like to call "discard malls.“
 It is an extension of Polluter Pays principle that received wide support
from many countries.
 Waste Hierarchy

The waste hierarchy points to

the “reduce, reuse and recycle”
that classify waste management
strategies as per their
effectiveness in regards to
waste minimization.

The waste hierarchy is the cornerstone of majority of waste

minimization strategies.
It focuses on taking out the maximum practical advantages from
products and generating least amount of waste
 Not Linear -- a Cyclic Society

Resources

discard
Production

consumption
 Nuclear Waste Recycling

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee hope to take a big step

toward solving the nuclear-waste woes.
 It will transform nuclear leftovers into fuel for a new breed of reactors
that will produce up to 100 times as much energy as conventional
reactors and could generate 40 % less waste.
 Basel convention

 The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of

Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal is the most comprehensive global
environmental agreement on hazardous and other wastes.
 It came into force in 1992.
 HCB waste can only be exported to another OECD country under the
exceptional circumstance where there is no technology available in-
country to treat and destroy the waste.
 But tonnes of toxic waste are being shipped from the developed to
developing and under-developed countries (mostly Asian and African) .
 Waste Politics

 The Orica case that recently held in Australia justifies that hardly anyone
abides by.
 The shipping of toxic waste will exponentially increase that will lead the
countries to enter a treaty, a political potboiler will take place.
 But the illegal dumping/disposals will continue.
 The UN research predicts that in South Africa and China, e-waste from
old computers may jump by 200 to 400 per cent from 2010 levels and by
500 per cent in India .And 40% of it will come as illegally imported.
Thank you