What Is Waste? What Is Waste Management?

Every human activity results in the generation of a substantial amount of waste in either solid, liquid, or gaseous form. Unplanned urbanization and industrialization have added to the amount of solid waste, biomedical waste, and also hazardous waste which has impacted the environment quite heavily. The amount of waste that is being generated is increasing on a daily basis, and also the complexity of the waste that is generated changes consistently, making its disposal a big problem for all countries.
Reducing the quantity of waste that is generated and effectively disposing of this waste after proper segregation and treatment is termed as waste management. Waste can either be solid waste that is generated from residential, industrial, commercial, and other agricultural sources, biomedical waste that is generated from hospitals, or even hazardous waste that is generated from reactors. Waste management involves proper segregation of all types of wastes and their different methods of treatment and disposal. Waste management as an industry is quite new and is still growing because of the enormous effect that it has on the environment and human health on a global scale.
Ironically, the amount of waste generated has been directly related to high economic development that is mostly associated with developed countries. But the amount of waste generated varies from city to city, season to season, and on many other factors. This gives us a rough estimate of the difficulty of disposing of this waste. Waste management is a multi-level process that involves government policymaking, financial, legal, researching, and administrative facilities. Safe and efficient disposal of waste is very costly and that is making waste management a difficult industry to invest. A lot of research and development in this sector is needed which is a very long-term process. The waste management system has categorized waste into several categories like municipal, industrial, and construction and each of them undergoes a different kind of collection and disposal system.
Waste Management Trends Around The World

Waste Management Trends Around The World
Europe has made more stringent government rules and has actively taken up recycling policies which have made it number one in the waste management industry. Europe’s waste management industry has shown a steep growth and has become a labor-intensive industry with 70 billion Euro turnover. This is estimated to grow to 500 billion Euros in another five years.
The Asia Pacific region is also showing a growth trend in this sector, with better awareness and strict government regulations. Encouraging government policies like funding research and giving tax benefits to private players has brought in private investment to the industry. This sector is seeing a boost in investment, process sophistication, efficiency, as well as employment. General awareness has helped to adopt recycling and reusing policies to reduce the problem considerably.
Biomedical waste and hazardous waste disposal in itself is an industry because of its sheer sophisticated technology and efficiency and the finance required. This special section of the waste management industry needs large R&D investment and large amounts of government interference in terms of policies, regulations, and tax sops.
Waste Management In India

The scenario in India is both bright and bleak for the waste management industry. The rapid growth of megacities along with unplanned industrialization has increased the need for a quick and effective waste management system for sustainable growth, which is still in the unorganized rudimentary stage. These, along with a lack of finance and general awareness, give a bleak picture of this industry in India. But on the bright side, India has an unparalleled tradition of recycling and reusing waste in an eco-friendly way, although on a smaller individual household scale. If this can be converted into an industry, it will be effective to cope with the rising problem of waste disposal. In India, we have a quick and efficient scrap dealer network that helps in easy and effective sorting and collection but the disposal and the treatment of waste are not yet efficient. The Government of India, under the BIRAC Ministry, is investing in R&D on sustainable solutions for waste management. Existing rules have been amended and policies have been made more stringent and compulsory to effectively generate awareness for waste management both at the industrial and the individual level.
Reuse And Recycle

India is now considered a pioneer in recycling plastic waste into road construction tar. India has run a very successful pilot project on this reusable technology which is now replicated around the world. A leading research lab in India has successfully reused organic lab waste to produce eco-friendly Agro Plastic (AGA-PLASTIC) that can be used as packing material. India has also undertaken the Waste to Energy technology, which involves recovering useful materials, producing energy, and freeing the land from dumping. Scientific and more technically viable projects have been started in India for waste management.
The waste management sector is largely unorganized and there is a lack of training in waste management. Climate variation causes a change in waste composition which causes some projects to suffer. Insufficient budget and low levels of public motivation are causing a hindrance to the growth of the waste management industry in India.
BinCrusher is a Mumbai-based manufacturing company that has taken food waste disposal to a new level. Their environment-friendly food waste crusher is a quick solution for food waste disposal at the domestic level and also at the medium-size community level. Promoting a greener environment through effective usage of technology, BinCrusher makes organic waste disposal at the individual level a fast and easy process, thereby indirectly reducing the waste load of disposal on the government. BinCrusher can be effectively coupled with compost generation to follow the Waste to Energy technology.
Endnote
The amount of waste that is generated, as projected by surveys, is quite alarming and yet far from the truth. In fact, the reporting of waste generation is not very scientific and parameters to measure the quality and the quantity of waste do not exist in most corners of the world. This has caused variation of the data from the actual facts. Now we can understand that the waste management industry is still at a nascent stage and needs rapid expansion and up-gradation. At this juncture of time, chain contamination from biomedical waste has reached a deadly proportion, so to prevent the worldwide effect, a robust waste management system has to be developed and that needs a lot of financial and scientific investment. But on our part, we can surely make Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle our individual waste management system.
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