Applied Environmental and Waste Management - Essay Example

Applied Environmental and Waste management Contents Introduction The Role of the Government Case Study: Norfolk Current Research: Research by Denise Brehm at MIT Introduction Human beings are very particular in choosing commodities and appliances based on their efficiency. In this context, efficiency means "how better the commodities serve". However efficiency of an item largely depends on its utility factor, that is, how effectively and efficiently it is utilized. From domestic purposes to a large-scale industry there are many items that are being utilized. Now the million-dollar question is to prove the effectiveness of that utilization. Any product or item provides two kinds of services: A primary service, in which is of main interest and concern. Apart from this, a commodity also provides a secondary service which is generally looked over. If the secondary service is not utilized then it means that the item has not been used to its fullest potential. Such unwanted materials are known as waste. Zero waste America (www.zerowasteameraica.com, 2002) considers waste as a "resource that is not safely recycled back into the environment or the market place." This definition puts forward two important things: 1) It considers waste as a resource that has a potential to be reused again. 2) It also throws light on possible affects on the ecosystem due to improper recycling. Hence waste management becomes an essential aspect for every member in a society. The individual may be a single person, an organization, a community, a state or a nation as a whole. The Role of the Government: The UK government recognizes the wastes by classifying them into two broad categories namely 'controlled' and 'non-controlled' wastes. Controlled wastes can be further divided into domestic wastes, wastes from industries, commercial and other wastes from hospitals etc. These can be further divided as Hazardous and non-hazardous wastes. Agricultural and other wastes from mines and quarries are recognized as the non-controlled wastes (www.uclan.ac.uk, 2006). The Government of UK has an environmental Agency that takes care of the Quality of Air, Water and other natural resources. It handles the job of authorizing and monitoring organizations to see if they abide by to the rules. They provide licensing for organizations to discharge wastes into the environment. Defra, (www.defra.gov.uk, nd) an organizational body of England deals with the government policies and showcases the affects and changes on the environment due to these policies. It comes out with environmental protection acts, regulating licenses to waste disposal, pollution control and prevention strategies that force all organizations to follow the prescribed conditions. These conditions are put forward after a thorough research of the present environmental situation and the effects the policies will have on various organizations. Continuous work is carried out regarding the changes in environment and correspondingly amendments are done to the existing policies. Few of the recent policies include the 'landfill regulation act' that came in 2002 (www.defra.gov.uk, nd) regarding the area to be allocated for establishing landfills and their location. The 'hazardous waste regulation act' came in 2005 (www.defra.gov.uk, nd) regarding the norms for disposal of hazardous wastes such as nuclear wastes and toxic wastes. Organizations that do not abide by these rules are liable for punishments, the severity of which is dependant on the amount of leniency taken by the organization. The UK government uses approximately around 10% (www.defra.gov.uk, 3) of the taxes paid by public in the interest of environmental protection activities and waste management techniques. Case Study: Norfolk Norfolk county council is an organization that provides a variety of services to ensure appropriate waste management. This organization coordinates various tasks from collection of wastes to its safe and effective disposal. In simple terms they utilize waste as a resource. They follow an effective procedure for waste management. They divide their tasks into modules where each module is responsible for a specific task. They recognize their modules as: 1) A module that identifies agencies that collect waste from various sources. 2) A module that deals with providing stats related to the quantity of waste, costs incurred and expected costs, important ratios of interest like waste recycled for waste produced, and plans for management of waste in the future. The module comes out with the strategy on which Norfolk must manage waste and also plans for new methods in the future. 3) A module that deals with spreading awareness among public to inform them the necessity and importance of waste reduction. 4) A module that coordinates the action of various recycling units. This includes recycling of metals, paper and glass. Each unit has a design stage followed by its implementation rules. 5) A module that handles finance and payments. Credits will be paid for organizations that take up recycling, land filling and waste material disposal. 6) A module that coordinates the work among various agencies that perform waste disposal and treat wastes including Norfolk itself. Norfolk divides the entire region into a number of zones and assigns an agency for each zone. Each Agency of a zone is responsible for collecting wastes in that zone. Some agencies also have the recycling option with them. Each zone has an associated target for waste collection and recycling which the agency must reach. Prompt monitoring of each agency is done to ensure its efficiency. The second module has a functional unit that works out the quantity of municipal waste generated; amount of waste sent to land fills, quantities of various genres of wastes and also shows interesting statistics like the annual increase in percentage of waste, quantity of waste recycled and quantity of waste converted into energy (www.norfolk.gov.uk, 2007). Basically this module comes up with directives and strategies for better waste management. Norfolk works in partnership with many other authorities for working better. Taking public opinion, conducting questionnaires and consulting other working members and continuing working with partners improved this module's functionality. Norfolk also conducts activities and events that spread awareness among public and teach them methods of recycling, reducing wastes and dividing biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes while throwing them away. Plays, road shows, mini events etc are all carried out in order to give information and spread awareness. Norfolk has around twenty recycling centers (www.norfolk.gov.uk, 2007) and all recycling units have a recycling head maintaining and controlling all the issues concerned with these plants. About 60% (www.norfolk.gov.uk, 2007) of the wastes are recycled by this organization. They have been very successful in recycling of metals and biodegradable items like paper, glass and textiles (www.norfolk.gov.uk, 2007). They have recently been very successful in dry battery recycling and fluorescent tube recycling (www.norfolk.gov.uk, 2007). They have customer training centers that teach public regarding effective ways of waste management. They even manage hazardous wastes like paints. Norfolk gives a provision for financial recycling, that is, it gives credit for materials like paper, glass and biodegradable or resalable furniture etc. Around 300,000L of credit was paid by this organization last year (www.norfolk.gov.uk/credits, 2007). Norfolk gives high priority for disposing wastes. Old vehicles and others that have come to end of their life are either disposed for free or stored. All these things are managed with the help of well-established networks. Landfills are maintained and wastes are transferred to them in a routine manner. Landfills are properly covered and are continuously monitored for gas extraction. Municipal and biodegradable wastes are set for biological treatment that includes anaerobic digestion. Current Research: Research by Denise Brehm at MIT A research work done by Denise Brehm (web.mit.org, 2007) in MIT reported the following results on 7th of February 2007. The study and experimentation was about storing the Green house gas, Carbon dioxide in an effective manner. Green house effect is a phenomenon by which the gases like Carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen dioxide and nitrous oxide increase the atmospheric temperature. These gases have a property to absorb light rays in the atmosphere and prevent them from escaping earth's atmosphere. This results in melting of polar ice caps that in turn results in raise in sea level. This effect is known as Green house Effect and these gases are known as green house gases. The research done by Brehm provides an effective mechanism to store CO2 under earth and preventing it from going above. His explanation tells that CO2 gas emitted into atmosphere from various sources like industries, power plants etc can be captured into specially designed containers. These containers can be transported and later the gas can be blown or injected into the ground. After this the gas would be caught in the form of small bubbles. These bubbles can be stored in a convenient and safe manner in rocks that have high salt content. The emissions by industries and power plants can be captured and later pumped into the ground. This process out emitting CO2 and storing can be done for many years without worrying about any affects. The report also mentions that the CO2 will get dissolved in the salt, present in the rock with time. They also help in formation of minerals. The research work shows that formation of minerals of Iron, Magnesium Carbonate and many more are possible. There were problems concerned with the issue of escape of the compressed gas, that is, the gas may escape from the cracks present in the rocks back to the atmosphere. However, Ruben (web.mit.edu, 2007) asserted that this gas would never come up to the surface. CO2 reduction would reduce the green house effect and this process of storing the CO2 gas as bubbles underground is known as Sequestration. This is reported to be a very efficient technique for controlling the amount of CO2 liberated. The Explanation for this process is very simple. The CO2 will be captured as small bubbles in the salt content present in rocks that exhibit porous behavior. These bubbles would occupy the space between and never come out. As the time moves on, they become a part of the salt content of the rock. Simple properties in physics show as CO2 is heavier, it will never flow up again to cause damage to the environment. This research showed that industries can be located at a few specific locations and the emitted CO2 can be directly injected to underground with the help of deep tunnels that end up in a rock that has high salt content like sandstone or lime. This gas will remain as a bubble and because of the difference in pressures, objects tend to move up, that is, the bubble tries to move up but its path is blocked by salt content and the gas remains attached to the inner surface of the rock. These bubbles will expand and break due to pressure difference and form many smaller bubbles that will be in the rock. Basically, there are three methods of storing CO2 underground (web.mit.edu, 2007) 1) Trapping them in oil and gas fields. 2) Saline rocks 3) In coal mines A diagrammatic representation of the above said process is taken from web.mit.edu. Figure: Sequestration Process, web.mit.edu Possibly similar methods to store other hazardous gases may be found out. A similar form of compression and storage of nuclear wastes and other non-biodegradable wastes may be found out in the future. Although costly, this method helps to prevent the amount of CO2 in air. All these activities show the importance of waste management. Organizations like Norfolk teach other institutes the way to work out for a better environment. Money on research is an important aspect that the governments should understand. Together we can and we should conserve resources and provide a better and safer environment for coming generations. References: 1) Zerowasteamerica.org (2002), "Waste definition: What is Waste", Found at: www.zerowasteamerica.org/WhatIsWaste.htm 2) Uclan.ac.uk (2006), "Classification of wastes in UK", Found at: www.uclan.ac.uk/other/hseo/waste/waste_ovrll.htm 3) Defra.gov.uk (nd), "UK government policies for Environmental protection and waste management", Found at: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/waste/statistics/index.htm 4) Norfolk (2007), Facts and Figures about Norfolk county council, Found at: www.norfolk.gov.uk 5) Denise Brehm (2007), "Storing Carbon dioxide", Found at: web.mit.edu/newsoffice/topic/environment-archive.html Read More