Basic Methods of Waste Management: Incineration, Landfills and Recycling

Waste management is the control of materials that have become redundant and therefore need to be discarded. The process includes collection, transportation, sorting, recycling, clearance, and disposal of waste materials. Waste management includes radioactive substances and other materials that are in a solid, liquid, or gaseous state, and their management techniques also differ from each…

An Introduction to Solid Waste Management

What Is Solid Waste? Before introducing solid waste management, let’s start with a discussion of the material being managed — solid waste. Solid waste refers to the range of garbage arising from animal and human activities that are discarded as unwanted and useless. Solid waste is generated from industrial, residential and commercial activities in a…

Hazardous Wastes

Government Management Strategies A complex web of federal agencies and legislation oversee and regulate storage, transportation, disposal, recycling, and use of hazardous wastes n the United States. State and local governments also have hazardous waste regulations. The private environmental consulting industry helps government agencies, industrial manufacturers, cities, and businesses of all sizes assess their hazardous waste…

Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) – An Overview

Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) represents a contemporary and systematic approach to solid waste management. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines ISWM as a complete waste reduction, collection, composting, recycling, and disposal system. An efficient ISWM system considers how to reduce, reuse, recycle, and manage waste to protect human health and the natural environment. It…

Waste Treatment and Disposal Methods

When people think about solid waste management, they likely associate it with garbage being dumped in landfills or incinerated. While such activities comprise an important part of the process, a variety of elements is involved in the creation of an optimal integrated solid waste management (ISWM) system. For example, treatment techniques act to reduce the volume and…

What is Waste Management?

Americans alone are responsible for producing a hopping 220 million tons of waste a year. This number is far more than any other nation in the world. Because of this fact both the government and environmental associations have developed numerous methods of dealing with the problem. Waste management is that solution, a rather complex issue that encompasses…

Health Effects of Hazardous Waste

Hazardous waste carries environmental risks and also health risks for humans and wildlife. Some pollutants such as mercury can accumulate in human and animal tissue, thus compounding their effects. Hazardous waste is primarily generated by industry and businesses. Although regulations exist, contamination still occurs. In 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recorded 23 million…

Sustainable Materials Management: Non-Hazardous Materials and Waste Management Hierarchy

EPA developed the non-hazardous materials and waste management hierarchy in recognition that no single waste management approach is suitable for managing all materials and waste streams in all circumstances. The hierarchy ranks the various management strategies from most to least environmentally preferred. The hierarchy places emphasis on reducing, reusing, and recycling as key to sustainable…