Waste management
Recycling
Recycling turns materials that would otherwise become wastes into
valuable resources.
Benefits of Recycling
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Recycling protects and expands U.S. manufacturing jobs and
increases U.S. competitiveness.
Recycling reduces the need for landfilling and incineration.
Recycling prevents pollution caused by the manufacturing of
products from virgin materials.
Recycling saves energy.
Recycling decreases emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute
to global climate change.
Recycling conserves natural resources such as timber, water, and
minerals.
Recycling helps sustain the environment for future generations.
Reuse
Reuse is to use an item more than once. This includes conventional reuse
where the item is used again for the same function, and new-life reuse
where it is used for a new function.
Advantages & disadvantages
Reuse has certain potential advantages:
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Energy and raw materials savings as replacing many single use
products with one reusable one reduces the number that need to be
manufactured.
Reduced disposal needs and costs.
Refurbishment can bring sophisticated, sustainable, well paid jobs
to underdeveloped economies.
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Cost savings for business and consumers as a reusable product is
often cheaper than the many single use products it replaces.
Some older items were better handcrafted and appreciate in value.
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Disadvantages are also apparent:
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Reuse often requires cleaning or transport, which have
environmental costs.
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Some items, such as Freon appliances or infant auto seats, could be
hazardous or less energy efficient as they continue to be used.
Reusable products need to be more durable than single-use
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products, and hence require more material per item. This is
particularly significant if only a small proportion of the reusable
products are in fact reused.
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Sorting and preparing items for reuse takes time, which is
inconvenient for consumers and costs money for businesses
Reduction
When one reduces the use of different products.
Benefits of Reduction
Saves natural resources. Waste is not just created when
consumers throw items away. Throughout the life cycle of a
product from extraction of raw materials to transportation to
processing and manufacturing facilities to manufacture and use
waste is generated. Reusing items or making them with less
material decreases waste dramatically. Ultimately, less materials
will need to be recycled or sent to landfills or waste combustion
facilities.
 Reduces toxicity of waste. Selecting nonhazardous or less
hazardous items is another important component of source
reduction. Using less hazardous alternatives for certain items
(e.g., cleaning products and pesticides), sharing products that
contain hazardous chemicals instead of throwing out leftovers,
reading label directions carefully, and using the smallest amount
necessary are ways to reduce waste toxicity.
 Reduces costs. The benefits of preventing waste go beyond
reducing reliance on other forms of waste disposal. Preventing
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waste also can mean economic savings for communities,
businesses, schools, and individual consumers.
Communities. More than 7,000 communities have instituted
"pay-as-you-throw" programs where citizens pay for each
can or bag of trash they set out for disposal rather than
through the tax base or a flat fee. When these households
reduce waste at the source, they dispose of less trash and
pay lower trash bills.
o Businesses. Industry also has an economic incentive to
practice source reduction. When businesses manufacture
their products with less packaging, they are buying less raw
material. A decrease in manufacturing costs can mean a
larger profit margin, with savings that can be passed on to
the consumer.
o Consumers. Consumers also can share in the economic
benefits of source reduction. Buying products in bulk, with
less packaging, or that are reusable (not single-use)
frequently means a cost savings. What is good for the
environment can be good for the pocketbook as well.
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Engineered Landfill
Problems created by normal landfills.
A large number of adverse impacts may occur from landfill
operations.
These
impacts
can
vary:
fatal
accidents
(e.g., scavengers buried under waste piles); infrastructure damage (e.g.,
damage to access roads by heavy vehicles); pollution of the
local environment (such
as
contamination
of
groundwater and/or aquifers by
leakage
and
residual soil
contamination during landfill usage, as well as after landfill closure);
offgassing of methane generated by decaying organic wastes (methane is
a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide, and can
itself be a danger to inhabitants of an area); harbouring of
disease vectors such as rats and flies, particularly from improperly
operated landfills, which are common in Third-world countries; injuries
to wildlife; and simple nuisance problems (e.g., dust, odour, vermin,
or noise pollution).
Environmental noise and dust are generated from vehicles
accessing a landfill as well as from working face operations. These
impacts are best to intercept at the planning stage where access routes
and landfill geometrics can be used to mitigate such issues. Vector
control is also important, but can be managed reasonably well with the
daily cover protocols.
Engineered Landfills
Engineered landfills are landfills where usually the land is dug out,
covered with a number of layers in order to stop toxic liquids from
leaching down and out of the landfill into the underground water sources.
Thus engineered landfills are much more protective of the environment.
For example, an engineered landfill in Malta is Ta’ Zwejr, near Maghatab.
Cross-section of how an Engineered landfill looks like.