WASTE MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY

Waste Management Industry



Waste Management Industry

Introduction

Waste management often suffers from poor institutional capacity, unacceptable treatment, substantial long-term environmental risks, and human health risks, especially in the developing world. In the modern industrialized world, a “filter” preventing misuse of chemicals environmental assessments and health declarations, improved waste management, and so on has been developed by better control, research, legislation, and certification. This has meant that the chemical product life cycle is better controlled. However, one leading problem in industrialized countries is old waste disposal or storage sites. Many people consider these sites as “ticking environmental time bombs,” and some of the sites contain materials and chemicals that are unstable and hazardous. Waste treatment is both better and safer today and can be mainly built on the idea of recycling and safe storage (Slade, 2007, Pp 223-256).Discussion and analysis

Tran boundary dumping of hazardous waste is still a problem. Taking care of hazardous waste is costly; one alternative is to export the waste. The export of waste from the industrialized world to developing countries in Asia and Africa regulated in the Basel Convention on the Control of Tran boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. The Basel Convention can be adopted by 170 countries and came into force in 1992. This treaty aims to regulate Tran boundary movements of hazardous waste and that hazardous waste and, other waste managed in an environmentally benign manner. Approximately 338 million metric tons of hazardous and other wastes can be generated in 2001 (Nas, 2004, pp. 337-353).

Even if, the control of chemicals is satisfactory, there is always a risk of illegal transport, treatment, storage, and dumping of hazardous wastes, especially when improper disposal can be very profitable. Often, it is a question of how the hazardous waste can be defined and declared. For example, the same hazardous waste could be declared as materials for recycling or as powerful materials for industrial production.Chemical Use and the Development of Modern Society

There are many challenges and paradoxes to face in relation to the use of chemicals. The use of chemicals and the risk of handling chemicals are very closely related to the development of modern society. For instance, by using pesticides in agriculture (in combination with other measures), many nations have been able to increase production in the agricultural sector, which has resulted in better nutrition conditions for a growing global population. On the other hand, there is a risk of overuse of pesticides, which can be harmful to the environment and to agricultural workers over the long term. This paradox could be called the “development paradox.” A second paradox related to research and replacement (the “replacement paradox”). When people find that a compound is unhealthy and environmentally hazardous, there is a tendency to replace it with another chemical compound that seems to be better but, in fact, sometimes is not. A third paradox relates to the fact that people use large amounts of energy to extract, enrich, produce, and transport chemical compounds around the world, followed by great effort to collect, ...