Waste Management & Sustainability
We live on a tainted planet. Humans generate a lot of waste, affecting the land we live on, the water we drink, and the air we breathe. According to the United Nations, the global tally of solid waste is about 11.2 billion tonnes – and almost all of it results from human activity. As the main perpetrators of earth’s environmental woes, the onus is on us to manage this waste and develop strategies to do so sustainably. Waste management entails collecting, transporting, processing, managing, and disposing of waste materials. Sustainability needs to be integrated into this multifaceted procedure so that waste can be dealt with efficiently instead of dumping in landfills and oceans.
What is Sustainable Waste Management?
Sustainable waste management refers to the collection, transportation, processing, managing, and disposing of waste materials to befit the health of the environment, its inhabitants, and future generations.
Sustainable waste management aims to reduce the extent to which natural resources are consumed, reuse the materials sourced from nature as much as possible, and create as little waste as possible. Sustainable waste management should serve and benefit the economy, society, and the environment. The process itself, which involves collecting, sorting, treating, and recycling, and when correctly facilitated, will offer a source of energy and resources, lending itself to an intricate system of job creation whilst lessening the impact of human activities on the environment. In addition, sustainable waste management curtails food wastage, reduces high environmental costs, and prevents certain human health conditions.
Why Is Sustainable Waste Management Important?
Space – It Creates Space
If waste wasn’t managed, it would end up on land, scattered intermittently, or in a landfill somewhere. Landfills are massive, occupy unnecessary space, and serve as bacterial breeding grounds for Gammaproteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. Efficient, sustainable waste management practices will lessen the increasing size of landfills. Singapore, which measures roughly 700 square kilometres and is home to 5.5 million people, offers the best example. Due to their land constraints, the National Environment Agency fully understands the need to reuse and properly dispose of waste.
It Saves Money & It Makes Money
Once anything gets reused or recycled, the need to purchase another becomes defunct. In other words, money gets saved. It also means that the agencies responsible for waste disposal will have less waste disposed of, leading to lesser garbage. An increase in recycling can cut disposal costs and improve the bottom line. Sustainable waste management can also yield financial returns for specific establishments. For instance, the municipality, typically responsible for trash collection, can charge collection and recycling fees instead. This can have a positive ripple effect in discouraging institutions that generate a lot of waste from doing so, forcing them to adopt new practices and making them sustainable and more environmentally friendly.
A Positive Ripple Effect
Effectively and efficiently managing waste, water, and energy are the core tenants of sustainability, resulting in a positive ripple effect across society and its institutions. By improving our individual, business, government or organisational sustainability, our images in these fields are boosted, thus attracting more quality tenants, clients, and customers to our establishments.
Pollution Control
All forms of waste that get dumped affect the environment. For instance, pharmaceutical waste poisons our water, while food waste breeds flies and invites rodents. Sustainable waste management gives us a more intricate understanding of how to deal with waste. To further illustrate, pharmaceutical waste should be returned to its original manufacturer to be appropriately disposed of through incineration, while food waste should be composted, and plastics recycled. Measures like these and more will help with pollution control. As a result, pharmaceutical waste will not poison water, plastic will not collect in oceans and clog marine life, and food waste won’t incite vermin.
It Is Vital to Environmental Conservation
The greatest threat to the environment is humans. The rate at which we produce waste is staggering and coupled with an inferior waste management system too often. Sustainable waste management is vital to environmental conservation as it will aid in preservation by conserving resources such as trees, metals, and water while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that add to global warming, thus securing the livelihoods of future generations.
It Creates More Responsible Societies
As a society, we cannot live without generating waste; thus, sustainable waste management can help us become more responsible citizens of the planet. By committing to the ideals of sustainability, modern technologies can emerge for dealing with our waste and good waste-specific alternatives.
Here at Cambridge Mask Co, we are firm believers in the concept of responsibility and its far-reaching positive outcomes. Our Corporate Social Responsibility has a ripple effect on those who purchase our masks for several reasons. For one thing, just one Cambridge Mask PRO replaces 170 single-use face masks and prevents a total of 4 kilograms of plastic waste from going to oceans and landfills. In addition, our partnership with One Tree Planted means that everyone who utilises the unique UK defence technology that only a Cambridge Mask PRO offers will also ensure the future of our forests, thus our very livelihoods. Here’s to a sustainable future.
