As the name implies, waste management refers to how your business or household manages, and eventually disposes off its waste. These aren’t just limited to the usual solid waste. It comprises everything from biodegradable to liquid and toxic waste materials. When you practice waste management, this means not all of your waste ends up in the landfill. You’re able to segregate them accordingly, so nothing is, in essence, ‘wasted’.
As the world continues to face environmental crises, waste management is now more important than ever. If you haven’t started on this practice yet, it’s about time you do in your homes, offices, and businesses alike. Anywhere in the world, improper waste management is a looming issue. For instance, you can check out the statistics here of Australia’s waste problem to gain some reference. In doing so, you’ll better understand why waste management should still be given emphasis of importance for this year.
That said, here are some pressing reasons why waste management is still very important even in these modern times:
- Landfills Are Still Piling Up Beyond Capacity
Proper waste management system is one of the ways to ensure landfills could cope with the growing compilation of trash. If localities are left without an effective waste management system in place, chances are eventually, landfills are going to be operating way beyond their capacity.
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To put things into perspective, try to think about the amount of waste you have in a day from the moment you wake up, until you go to bed. This includes candy wrappers you had for your little sweet treat at work, to canned ingredients you used up in cooking dinner. These could be the same for every single person in your local area.
This is still an impending problem in 2021, given that now, the use of single plastic products has increased daily. Think of all the disposable masks people now have to wear and dispose of after every use. These masks are going nowhere else but to the landfills.
- Enables You To Meet Legal Standards
Proper waste management is also legally required. All the more is it stringent in 2021, now that the world is scrambling to meet health standards. If you don’t have one, then you could fall into trouble with the law. The fines are hefty, naturally so, to serve a good lesson. In most instances, it’ll cost cheaper to have a waste management system, than to pay for the fines.
When you’re running a business, the last thing you’ll want to happen is to fall into trouble with the law. Permits to operate a business are hard to obtain, and all the more does this become difficult when it already has attached penalties to it.
Now that businesses are also struggling for survival given the current condition of the pandemic, you wouldn’t want to give your business another reason to fail – simply because you failed to comply with the law.
- Ensures Health Standards
Proper waste disposal is also about meeting the appropriate health standards, now that health emergencies have become more dire. It’s not just about the sanitation of the environment it belongs to, but also the makes the community’s overall health standards better.
When wastes are properly disposed of, this means the surroundings are less polluted, particularly referring to the air you breathe. It takes one full dumpsite to affect a surrounding area where residents suffer because of the waste pollution.
For instance, when you’re lucky enough to still have beautiful and clean rivers and other waterways, you wouldn’t want these to be destroyed due to local pollution. At the very least, you’ll want to preserve its quality, so it gets to be enjoyed for many generations in the future.
In some places, instead of properly disposing trash, many of their waste products that aren’t accepted in landfills are being burned. This may seem like a primitive practice, but it’s very much still prevalent in 2021.
While this is a fast solution to otherwise having to go through the more tedious process of segregating, it’s not one that works well in the long run. Burning trash has big, detrimental effects to destroying the ozone layer. Most importantly, it has significant health effects as well.
Especially as of writing when respiratory illnesses are giving a worldwide scare, you’ll want to do everything you can to avoid getting it. The burning of trash releases smoke or fumes that’s unsafe to breathe in. Along with that, it has other negative effects such as:
- It irritates the environment;
- It obscures visibility and may cause accidents;
- It may increase the risk of releasing mercury to the soil, water and air.
Conclusion
Given the weight of importance waste management brings, it’s no surprise it’ll always be a paramount concern for households and businesses alike, even up to today. Poor waste management isn’t just about preserving the environment. On the contrary, it can also bring terrible health consequences, which must also be paid attention to. If anything, proper waste management should always be your priority this year.
