Waste

According to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal of 1989, Art. 2(1), "'Wastes' are substance or objects, which are disposed of or are intended to be disposed of or are required to be disposed of by the provisions of national law".[2]

The UNSD Glossary of Environment Statistics[3] describes waste as "materials that are not prime products (that is, products produced for the market) for which the generator has no further use in terms of his/her own purposes of production, transformation or consumption, and of which he/she wants to dispose. Wastes may be generated during the extraction of raw materials, the processing of raw materials into intermediate and final products, the consumption of final products, and other human activities. Residuals recycled or reused at the place of generation are excluded."

Under the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, Art. 3(1), the European Union defines waste as "an object the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard."[4] For a more structural description of the Waste Directive, see the European Commission's summary.

Inappropriately managed waste can attract rodents and insects, which can harbour gastrointestinal parasites, yellow fever, worms, the plague and other conditions for humans, and exposure to hazardous wastes, particularly when they are burned, can cause various other diseases including cancers. [8]Toxic waste materials can contaminate surface water, groundwater, soil, and air which causes more problems for humans, other species, and ecosystems.[9] Waste treatment and disposal produces significant green house gas (GHG) emissions, notably methane, which are contributing significantly to global warming.[6] As global warming and CO₂ emission increase, soil begins to become a larger carbon sink and will become increasingly volatile for our plant life. [10]

Waste management is a significant environmental justice issue. Many of the environmental burdens cited above are more often borne by marginalized groups, such as racial minorities, women, and residents of developing nations. NIMBY (not in my back yard) is the opposition of residents to a proposal for a new development because it is close to them.[11] However, the need for expansion and siting of waste treatment and disposal facilities is increasing worldwide. There is now a growing market in the transboundary movement of waste, and although most waste that flows between countries goes between developed nations, a significant amount of waste is moved from developed to developing nations.[12]

The economic costs of managing waste are high, and are often paid for by municipal governments;[13] money can often be saved with more efficiently designed collection routes, modifying vehicles, and with public education. Environmental policies such as pay as you throw can reduce the cost of management and reduce waste quantities. Waste recovery (that is, recycling, reuse) can curb economic costs because it avoids extracting raw materials and often cuts transportation costs. "Economic assessment of municipal waste management systems – case studies using a combination of life-cycle assessment (LCA) and life-cycle costing (LCC)".[14] The location of waste treatment and disposal facilities often reduces property values due to noise, dust, pollution, unsightliness, and negative stigma. The informal waste sector consists mostly of waste pickers who scavenge for metals, glass, plastic, textiles, and other materials and then trade them for a profit. This sector can significantly alter or reduce waste in a particular system, but other negative economic effects come with the disease, poverty, exploitation, and abuse of its workers.[15]

People in developing countries suffer from contaminated water and landfills caused by unlawful government policies that allow first-world countries and companies to transport their trash to their homes and oftentimes near bodies of water.  Those same governments do not use any waste trade profits to create ways to manage landfills or clean water sources.  Photographer Kevin McElvaney[16] documents the world’s biggest e-waste dump called Agbogbloshie in Accra, Ghana, which used to be a wetland.  The young men and children that work in Agbogbloshie smash devices to get to the metals, obtain burns, eye damage, lung and back problems, chronic nausea, debilitating headaches, and respiratory problems and most workers die from cancer in their 20s (McElvaney)[17].  In McElvaney’s photos, kids in fields burning refrigerators and computers with blackened hands and trashed clothes and animals, such as cows with open wounds, in the dumpsite. There are piles of waste used as makeshift bridges over lakes, with metals and chemicals just seeping into the water and groundwater that could be linked to homes' water systems.  The same unfortunate situation and dumps/landfills can be seen in similar countries that are considered the third world, such as other West African countries and China.  Many Advocating for waste management, stop waste trade, create wastewater treatment facilities, and ultimately provide a clean and accessible water source.  The health of all these people in landfills and water are human necessities/rights that are being taken away.[18]

Wastewater treatment facilities remove pollutants and contaminants physically and chemically to clean water to be returned to society.  The South Gippsland Water organization breaks down the three steps of waste-water treatment.  The primary treatment is to sift through the water to remove large solids to leave oils and small particles in the water.  Secondary treatment to dissolve/remove oils, particles, and micro-organisms from the water to be prepared for tertiary treatment to chemically disinfect the water with chlorine or with UV light.   “For most industrial applications, a 150,000 GPD capacity WWTS would cost an estimated $500,000 to $1.5 million inclusive of all necessary design, engineering, equipment, installation, and startup”[33].  With such a simple solution that has been proven to clean our water to be reused and is relatively inexpensive, there is no excuse why there should not be a waste-water treatment facility in every country, every state, and every town.

“Right now, according to a Nasa-led study, many of the world’s freshwater sources are being drained faster than they are being replenished.  The water table is dropping all over the world. There’s not an infinite supply of water”.[34]   There is a need to preserve every resource, every finite water source that we do have left to maintain our lives and lifestyles.  Able countries helping under-developed countries with their creation of wastewater treatments benefits society.  With the addition of wastewater treatment facilities with spending a few million dollars and infrastructure to clean our areas and freshwater to reuse instead of over-using our land and water supply, which would be the greatest cost.  Another cost of not adding wastewater treatments in countries is that people have no choice but to clean with, cook with, or drink the contaminated water which has caused millions of disease cases and deaths.  “Between 400,000 and 1 million people die each year in developing countries because of diseases caused by mismanaged waste, estimates poverty charity Tearfund”[35].  Society has the means to decrease or even eliminate this way of death and save millions of lives by providing the simple human necessity of clean water.

Energy recovery from waste is using non-recyclable waste materials and extracting from it heat, electricity, or energy through a variety of processes, including combustion, gasification, pyrolyzation, and anaerobic digestion.[40] This process is referred to as waste-to-energy.

There are several ways to recover energy from waste. Anaerobic digestion is a naturally occurring process of decomposition where organic matter is reduced to a simpler chemical component in the absence of oxygen.[40] Incineration or direct controlled burning of municipal solid waste to reduce waste and make energy. Secondary recovered fuel is the energy recovery from waste that cannot be reused or recycled from mechanical and biological treatment activities.[40] Pyrolysis involves heating of waste, with the absence of oxygen, to high temperatures to break down any carbon content into a mixture of gaseous and liquid fuels and solid residue.[40] Gasification is the conversion of carbon rich material through high temperature with partial oxidation into a gas stream.[40] Plasma arc heating is the very high heating of municipal solid waste to temperatures ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 °C, where energy is released by an electrical discharge in an inert atmosphere.[40]

Using waste as fuel can offer important environmental benefits. It can provide a safe and cost-effective option for wastes that would normally have to be dealt with through disposal.[40] It can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by diverting energy use from fossil fuels, while also generating energy and using waste as fuel can reduce the methane emissions generated in landfills by averting waste from landfills.[40]

There is some debate in the classification of certain biomass feedstock as wastes. Crude Tall Oil (CTO), a co-product of the pulp and papermaking process, is defined as a waste or residue in some European countries when in fact it is produced “on purpose” and has significant value add potential in industrial applications. Several companies use CTO to produce fuel,[41] while the pine chemicals industry maximizes it as a feedstock “producing low-carbon, bio-based chemicals” through cascading use.[42]