Benefits of Sustainable Waste Management
Sustainable waste management delivers lots of benefits!
- reduced waste disposal costs (notably Landfill and Aggregates taxes)
- reduced pressures on finite resources, such as virgin aggregates
- reduced greenhouse gas emissions from landfill and incineration
- reduced energy consumption from the manufacturing process
- increased economic productivity
- reduced requirement for additional landfill capacity
- reduced nuisance created by odour and visual intrusion from landfill sites
- improved corporate reporting and green credentials for business
Typical practice
A - White goods and scrap
B - Textiles
C- The average household in Hertfordshire send 15kg of waste to landfill every week
D - Furniture
E - Paper and cardboard
F - Kitchen waste
G - Garden waste
Good practice
A - White goods and scrap
B - Textiles
C - The volume of waste sent to landfill from the average family home is reduced to 5kg per week
D - Furniture
E - Paper and cardboard
F - Purchase of food with reduced/no packaging
G - All kitchen and garden waste (other than meat, bones, etc) into compost bin or wormery - 30% of total waste volume
The key nuisance and environmental impacts of waste generation and disposal are:
- creation of methane and carbon dioxide from landfill which contributes to climate change
- long distance transportation of waste in heavy goods vehicles
- air pollution arising from waste transportation and waste decomposition in landfill
- inefficient use of resources
- the generation of nuisance odour, dust and noise. Plus the attraction of vermin to landfills.
- toxicity - many types of waste generate toxic by-products when disposed of. Commonly occurring hazardous materials found in construction and demolition wastes include adhesives, asbestos materials, CFC refrigerants and foam, and treated timber