Best practice waste management

Basic concept of “Waste Management”
Waste management is a distinct practice from resource recovery which focuses on delaying the rate of consumption of natural resources. Therefore, waste management practices are necessary for every country in the world. “Assessing the environmental impact of waste management systems are needed to underpin the development and implementation of sustainable waste management practices.” (Barton, etc. 1996) The most general, widely used concepts of waste management include the waste hierarchy which refers to the "3 Rs" reduce, reuse, recycle and the Polluter Pays Principle where the polluting party pays for the impact caused to the environment.

What we usually happened in real life I think it is true that in almost every country today each household and family produces a large amount of waste every week. Most of this rubbish comes from the packaging from the things we buy, such as processed food. But even if we buy fresh food without packaging, we still produce rubbish from the plastic bags used everywhere to carry shopping home. The reason why we have so much more on a daily basis than families did in the past. Convenience is also very important in modern life, so we buy packaged or canned food that can be transported from long distances and stored until we need it, first in the supermarket, and then at home. However, the amount of waste produced is also a result of our tendency to use something once and throw it away. We forget that even the cheapest plastic bag has used up valuable resources and energy to produce. We also forget that it is a source of pollution and difficult to dispose of. I think, therefore, that governments need to raise this awareness in the general public. Children can be educated about environmental issues at school, but adults need to take action. Governments can encourage such action by putting taxes on packaging, such as plastic bags, by providing recycling services and by fining households and shops also do not attempt to recycle their waste. “The main objective of a solid waste management system is to effectively safeguard the public health, safety, and welfare. The various options involved in a waste management process are land filling, incineration, and recycling wastes into useful products.” (Rebeiz and Craft, 1995) With the political will, such measures could really reduce the amount of rubbish we produce. Certainly, nobody wants to see our resources used up and our planet poisoned by waste.

Best practice waste management in different places Waste management practices can differ for developed and developing nations, for urban and rural areas. In China, plastic pyrolysis or tire pyrolysis is: the process of converting waste plastic or tires into industrial fuels like pyrolysis oil, carbon black and hydrocarbon gas. End products are used as industrial fuels for producing heat, steam or electricity. Moreover, the municipal solid waste (MSW) problem in China is expanding rapidly, with annual waste production growing at close to 10% per year, but sanitary landfills are still rare. “Commercialization of the MSW industry is the optimal and perhaps only route for effectively purging China of its MSW problem. The development of an ‘industry chain’ with upstream and downstream linkages is required.” (Suocheng.D, etc. 2001)
In Taipei, the city government charges its households and industries for the volume of rubbish they produce. Waste will only be collected by the city council if waste is disposed in government issued rubbish bags. This policy has successfully reduced the amount of waste the city produces and increased the recycling rate.