In the past, when life and the environment were simpler, all of life's processes were taken care of by nature itself, including the processing and elimination of natural wastes. When man and society evolved, life became more complicated.

People's needs for survival became competitive. As population grew, needs became more heightened, and material resources for everything had to be increased. Waste became an important item to be solved.

Disposal methods

Waste management is the collection, transport, and processing of waste materials. Generally, this is to reduce the ill-effects on health, the environment or maybe simple aesthetics.

The ill-effects of random and indiscriminate waste disposal had impacted on people's health and the environment. This led to other practices of disposal that includes recycling and the recovering of resources.  

Landfill

In most countries, landfill is the most commonly-practiced of all the waste disposal systems. This is because it is the most inexpensive among all others. Properly managed and designed, the practice can be sanitary and safe.

Poorly managed landfills, however, produce adverse byproducts: leaching of toxic fluids into the ground, noxious odor caused by organic breakdown, destruction of surface vegetation, and the production of greenhouse gases.

Incineration

This waste disposal method involves the combustion of waste materials (sometimes called "thermal treatment") producing heat, gas, steam and ashes. Usually, this is used to dispose of hazardous waste materials (like dangerous wastes from hospitals). What makes it questionable is the fact that it releases gas pollutants.

In some countries, the heat generated in incinerators is used as energy to generate in turn steam and electricity.

Recycling

Plastics, glass, PVC and those made of the same materials are collected and recycled into new products. In progressive countries like Australia, recycling is successfully implemented by the government and the cooperation of more than 90% of the population.

Composting

In composting, organic waste materials (food scraps, paper, and other bio-degradable materials) are decomposed in a controlled environment. Organic end-products are used as fertilizers, mulch soil, etc. Waste gas (methane) is captured to generate electricity.  

Waste reduction

This campaign is being vigorously pushed in many industrialized countries. People are encouraged to reuse second-hand products, repair broken items, avoiding disposable products, and designing new products that can be refillable or reusable.

Waste hierarchy

This is the three Rs in waste management concept - reduce, reuse, recycle.  Today, it still remains a potent cornerstone in waste minimization strategies. The simple concept is to maximize a product's benefits and generate the most minimum of waste from it.

Awareness campaign

Seen from a global perspective, educational awareness campaigns in waste management are becoming crucial. Several schools and universities have adapted the Taillories Declaration into their curricula. 

The Tailloires Declaration is about the speed of environmental degradation caused by pollution and depletion of natural resources. It details the perils as well as the means to combat this very imminent global danger.

Other waste management concepts

These include EPR or extended producer responsibility which means they are also responsible for their products not only during manufacture but also after use.

The PPP (Polluter Pays Principle) means the producer of a pollutant will have to pay. In waste management, this is the requirement of a waste generator for the proper disposal of waste.

As the world becomes more and more industrialized and consumption of resources increases, so will the production of waste increases. Waste management is a crucial concern for everyone.

In today's complicated world where everything is connected (from manufacturing to consumption to disposal), waste management takes on several disposal methods (landfills, incineration, recycling, pyrolysis, etc.) because there is as yet no ideal disposal system.

One of these processes is composting.

Composting

Composting happens in nature all the time. These days, composting takes on a new meaning as it becomes one additional method of waste disposal under the bigger umbrella of waste management.

Composting is controlling the decomposition of organic matter in a more scientific manner. The product is compost (humus), and is used in gardening and farming (the industrial kind) by mixing it with the soil. This improves the soil quality, soil structure and brings back the nutrients.

Compost or humus is the end-product of decomposed organic matter as performed primarily by microbes, fungi, molds, and other microorganisms. They are helped by larger creatures like the earthworms, ants, snails, millipedes, sow bugs, slugs and others who consume and break down the organic matter.

To encourage the microbes, the compost heap should have the correct mix of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water. If the heap is too wet, it will block the oxygen needed by the bacteria. If the pile is too dry, the bacteria do not have the moisture to survive and reproduce. Nitrogen is needed for the proteins the microbes need.

Decomposition still works even if some ingredients are missing, but not as quickly as is planned. This mix of biodegradable materials is still capable of being completely broken down from the action of microorganisms into carbon dioxide, water and biomass.

Industrial composting

Together with other advanced processing systems, progressive cities and many urban centers around the world are now installing large-scale composting systems as part of their total urban waste management. In landfills, mechanical sorting of mixed wastes is done along with in-vessel composting called mechanical biological treatment.

Today, biodegradable waste materials are treated before it is dumped into landfills, making it industrial-sized compost pits. This is to help reduce global warming. Untreated materials break down anaerobically and produce gas that includes the greenhouse gas methane.

The size of waste materials is also a significant issue in compostability. Big pieces of wood may not make up for fast composting while saw dust is a good one. Contaminating materials are also dealt with bioremediation and other special composting approaches.

Techniques

There are two composting techniques - active (hot) and passive (cold) composting.

Active composting allows the most effective decomposing bacteria to flourish, killing most pathogens and seeds, and producing usable compost quickly. This is used by most commercial and industrial composting ventures because not only this ensures a higher quality, it also produces fast results.

Most home composters usually employ the passive kind unconsciously - just throw in everything in there and leave it for about a year or two. Some, of course, are extra-religious in their home composting endeavor - monitoring temperatures, regularly turning the soil, adjusting the heap, etc.)

Community action

Organic materials included in waste sent to landfills produce the dreaded greenhouse gas methane during decomposition. In suburban areas, organic waste materials can be removed from the total stream from the very start - at household levels.

Promoting backyard composting to the community at large can help reduce organic materials (kitchen scraps, other biodegradable materials) thrown out to landfills. This goes a long way in helping decrease the production of greenhouse gases.

Today's growing problem of waste had given way to many waste management systems. In industrialized countries, waste disposal via landfills is expensive and spaces for them are getting scarce. Incineration then becomes an attractive alternative.

Incineration

Incineration is a waste treatment technology that involves burning of waste materials. It converts them into bottom ash, flue gases, particulates, and heat.

In modern incinerators, the by-product of heat is sometimes used to generate electric power. Flue gases are cleaned of pollutants before their release into the atmosphere.

Benefits

One big advantage of incinerators over landfills is the significant reduction of waste matter into 80-85% of the original volume.

One good use for incineration is destroying highly-hazardous clinical and hospital wastes. The same is true with toxic waste water from chemical multi-product plants that cannot be processed in regular water treatment plants.

In countries like Japan where land is scarce, incineration is particularly popular. In Europe, Denmark and Sweden had been using incinerators for a hundred years. Today, they are the leading countries that re-use the heat energy by-product of incinerators into electricity. The Netherlands, Germany, France and Luxembourg are countries that depend largely on incineration in handling their wastes.

Pros

There are several good reasons why incineration is a good waste management system to augment, if not replace other systems like landfills.

In incineration, the volume of burnt waste is reduced by about 90% which increases the life of landfills.

Incinerators can generate electricity from the produced heat and it can supplement current power needs. These incinerating plants generate a biomass-powered energy that offsets the greenhouse emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

The bottom ash residue from incinerators had been found to be non-hazardous solid waste which can be used safely for landfills or recycled into other useful materials.

With modern incinerators having temperatures ranging from 1800 up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, these ashes become vitrified after incineration. In this form, the leaching capacity and toxicity of these solidified remains are drastically reduced, if not eliminated.

Meantime, the fine particles can be efficiently removed from the flue gases with filters. Even without filters, studies from actual plants showed that incinerators emit only about 0.3% of the total particulates.

Incineration prevents the release of methane and carbon dioxide (equivalent to the weight of MSW or municipal solid wastes incinerated) into the air.

Cons

People are still uneasy over dioxin and furan emissions from old incineration plants. Also, incinerators emit varying levels of heavy metals like vanadium, manganese, nickel, cadmium, chromium, mercury, arsenic and lead. All of these are highly toxic even at minute quantities.

If they are not emitted, these heavy metals remain in the bottom ash which is toxic if not reused properly. Added to this concern is the fact that the technology for metal reuse is still in its infancy.

Today, incineration still ranks high in efficiency among the many other waste management system in use today. Maybe, what is needed is fine-tuning the various technologies associated with it to make the whole system of incineration totally efficient, safe and economical.

The numbers of electronic and electrical wastes being disposed are increasing every year.  In the United States, the National Safety Council estimates that about 63 million computers were disposed in 2005 which is about 5.3 billion pounds of electronic wastes.  Electronic wastes are mounting every year, which is why electronic and electrical waste management is very important.

Improper disposing of electronic waste could be dangerous since they are made of materials that can be very hazardous.  Electronic materials like computers, televisions, batteries and similar items could cause lead and other chemical contamination on soil and water supply.  These e-toxic components could actually come from the heavy metals, cables and plastic used to create the computers. 

Electronic wastes that are not properly distributed have detrimental effects on the environment and human health.  Electronic and electrical wastes produce leachates, especially those that are brought to landfills.  They can cause acidification and chemical contamination of the soil.   They can also cause serious problems to bodies of water where e-waste was disposed.  Acids and sludge's can be found in rivers and other bodies of water. 

When e-wastes are burned, they produce serious environmental problems.  They release toxic fumes and gases. Landfills that have electronic wastes dumped are very susceptible to uncontrolled fires.  Metals and other chemical substances could be very toxic when exposed to fire and hear.  Landfills and incinerators are strictly monitored by government agencies to ensure that these dangers would not happen to communities surrounding the community.

Government agencies are implementing stricter rules about e-waste disposal.  A kind of waste management strategy would be the use of EPR or extended product responsibility.  In this regulation, the manufacturer would be responsible in collecting and disposing products used by the customers. 

Because consumers have to idea on how to manage their wastes, about 75 % of their electronic items are stored because they have no idea what to with it.  They get stored in their garages, offices or warehouses.

There are methods on how consumers could handle their e-waste without compromising the environment:

* Always be aware on the regulations covering e-waste disposal. 

* In the first place, shopping green would help you be more environment-friendly.  You could always ask the manufacturers about the "green" component of their products.  There are also third party firms that would label or evaluate electronic items for being environmentally safe.  You could always look for their logos and ratings.

* Re-use or resell your e-wastes, especially if they are still working.  Even if they are not really state of the art technology, there are some people would still be able to use and benefit from them.

* You could look for recycling centers in your area that would readily buy your electrical items.

* You could always donate old but still working electronic wastes like old television set or desktop. 

E-waste management is not just a problem of the government or the manufacturer or the responsibility of the environmentalists.  It is a social issue and everybody would get affected on the long run.  So everybody should participate in addressing this concern.

Waste management and disposal issues are not just problem of a certain country or a continent.  It is a global issue which should be addressed immediately.  Countries and governments are expressing concern over problems with their waste disposal.  According to the United Nations, there are about 60% of countries worldwide expressed their concern about disposing solid wastes and other environmental concerns in the 1992 Earth Summit. 

Waste management is important since it has a major impact of human and community health.  There could be chemical spills which could pose danger to water supplies.  Poor landfills and incinerators could release cancerous carcinogen in the air and other pollutants.  They could also be causes of pests, vermin, flies and other similar carriers of communicable diseases.

People would often associate that implementing waste management plans and policies is about protecting human health and the environment.  Other than that, waste disposal could also have an impact on different environmental aspects such as climate change. Waste disposal can also be attributed in producing more greenhouse gases that makes the Earth's climate warmer.  Landfills in Asia, Latin America and Africa are to blame for about 40 % of methane emissions every year.  That 40 % is equal to about 37 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Experts approximate that developed and industrialized nations produce more waste compared to developing countries.  In the United States, each American will produce an average of .75 tons of trash every year.  Those in Europe are estimated to accumulate almost half a ton of trash annually. In Asia, an average person would produce .2 tons of trash annually. 

Although, Asia has the lowest waste average, it does not mean that they have better waste management system.  There are studies and surveys conducted in Asia about waste disposal procedure.  According to World Bank, China's whopping 190 million tons of waste every year is not totally properly disposed.  Only less than 50 % of China's solid waste is treated properly, whether it is through landfill or incineration.  China is not alone.  Other Asian countries, like India, Indonesia and the Philippines also have poor waste disposal methods.

Regardless of territories and boundaries, pollution affects everybody.  Environmental problems in Asia could still affect North America, Europe and Africa.  This is why there are efforts among different countries in helping each other resolve environmental and waste problems. 

An example would be the efforts between European and Asian countries.  Europe is leading in environmental technologies, about 60 % of environmental discoveries and technologies came from them.  They would play a major role in helping Asian countries become aware of different environmental damage happening in their nations.  Asian countries mostly would have to deal with issues of water and air pollution, waste management for households and industries, deforestation and loss of biodiversity.

Countries, like the United States and Canada, are encouraging more individuals to go back to the basics of waste reduction:  reduce, reuse and recycle.  The government is passing laws, state regulations about trash disposal that would help homeowners to start smart and proper waste management at home. 

Environmental issues are not just an issue of a specified country.  We should be more away that by starting waste management in our homes, workplace or school, we get to reduce the impact of pollution and climate change. 

Households contribute a lot to the volume of waste produced every year. Fact is a big percentage of this household waste should not have been sent to landfills and incinerators in the first place. The problem is that many people fail to manage household waste and unnecessarily throw things away only to buy something new. The harrowing effect is more waste materials in landfills and incinerators.

Recycling efforts are in place to deal with existing waste, but to solve the problem with future waste, what needs to be done is to hit the core of the problem: waste reduction. In the household setting, there are a lot of ways you can contribute to waste reduction?from as simple as sorting waste to as habit-forming as changing shopping activities. In the long run, waste reduction is not only beneficial to the environment; it also favors your pockets.

"How can I reduce waste?"

Reducing waste should be a lifetime habit, and a good way to start is finding out how much waste your household produces. This can help you measure your progress and perhaps bring closer to home the reality of massive waste production. You might be surprised by your findings, but they should give you the motivation to reduce waste.

The next thing you should do is get to the actual waste reduction. And here's a few of what you can do.

1. Repair instead of throwing stuff away. If you go and look into your trash bin, could you identify how much of your waste could actually be fixed and still be useful? The sad thing is that many people have this habit of getting rid of things even if they are repairable. The next time you have a damaged item; think first if it deserves to be in the trash bin or in the hands of a repairman.

2. Buy only what is necessary. This way you can avoid keeping things that in the end will only graduate into waste. When shopping, you can also purchase products, such as detergent and soap, in bulk sizes, so you need to dispose of just a few containers or packaging. If you don't want to bring home any plastic or packaging at all, bring your own containers to supermarkets and grocery stores.

3. Use a reusable shopping bag. Plastic bags constitute a large percentage of household waste and take a lot of years to decompose. Although you can take advantage of the for-life shopping bags offered by many retailers, you can look through your own things and find if there is something you can use as a shopping bag. Now that's recycling.

4. Avoid using disposable items. You can use washable cups instead of their plastic counterparts and rags in place of paper towels. You can also use rechargeable batteries instead of disposable ones. Look around your house. Do you keep disposable items that you can replace with better alternatives?

5. Limit your purchase of packaged foods. By doing so, you can reduce your waste by a great percentage as packaging and wrappers make up a bulk of household waste. Buy fresh products instead. Not only can you manage household waste effectively, you can also eat healthy.

Because incinerators are perilous to the environment and human health and landfills are becoming scarce, expensive, and in the same way an environmental threat, different efforts in reducing the amount of waste are in place today. Such efforts include composting, a process by which organic waste is made into a soil resource. Organic waste, which includes kitchen and yard garbage, makes up 30% of household waste and if composted would contain the necessary nutrients, microbes, and substances to enrich the soil and benefit the plants. Composting then was only known as a gardening practice, but ever since people became aware of waste and environmental issues, it has become a way of managing organic waste.

There are existing composting efforts on both large and small scales. Many communities, for instance, are running local composting projects using collected organic waste from households. On a smaller scale, many individuals make their own compost at home using different techniques. Regardless of the size of the project, composting should be well-managed in order to produce effective compost.

Making compost relies mainly on organic waste. Not all organic waste, however, can qualify as material for compost. Diseased plants shouldn't be piled for compost as they may infect other plants. Although a hot temperature can kill the disease organisms, it is best not to take chances. Unless weeds and grasses, the kinds that tend to stubbornly re-sprout and re-grow, are dead and dry, never add them to the pile. Cat and dog feces are also not best for composting because they may contain disease organisms that are harmful to human health. Pest-attracting kitchen waste, such as meat scraps and bones shouldn't as well be included in the compost.

Which organic waste then is a good compost ingredient? Here is a list.

1. Fruit and vegetable peels and other debris are best for composting. Because they are high in nitrogen, they are classified as "green" compost ingredients. Eggshells, tea bags, and other food and kitchen scraps can also be added to the compost pile, providing they won't attract too many pests.

2. Sawdust is a "brown" compost ingredient, which means it is low in nitrogen. Sawdust decay in varied speed. Depending on the wood, some sawdust tends to decay more quickly than the others. When using sawdust as a compost ingredient, make sure it does not come from a chemically-treated wood. If it does, it can potentially contaminate the entire compost, soil, and eventually plants.

3. Leaves are common compost ingredients. Whether dead and dry ("brown") or living ("green"), leaves are ideal for composting. Actually, forest trees usually thrive on the dead and decaying leaves on forest floors, which cumulatively act as compost. Lawn clippings are also great for composting.

When making compost, it is very important to thoroughly mix all the organic waste so there won't be clumps that prevent aeration. Brown ingredients are normally best to mix with green ingredients to speed up decay. Other ingredients are also best to use in thin layers. 

If every household in every community is managing organic waste by way of composting, the volume of waste will be reduced by 30%. And in a world that is literally threatened by massive waste production, that is a significant number.

Health care wastes are among the most important waste management programs that state or city government should pay attention to.  Health care wastes or HCW are objects both sharp and non-sharp, body parts, chemicals, drugs, medical devices and radioactive materials that health care institution dispose.   In the United States about 7000 tons of waste everyday or 2 million tons annually is collected from hospitals and health clinics. 

Hospital wastes are mainly solid wastes.  There are bio-hazardous materials, flammable and toxic materials.  There are also radioactive or isotopes which very dangerous to handle.  Medical wastes would also include batteries, fluorescent lamps, e-wastes like computers, and corrosive dangerous items like those drugs used in anesthesiology.

Hospital or health care wastes are divided into categories.  This would help in properly using waste disposal methods based on the nature of the waste materials.  There is the general trash which refers to recyclable materials.  Regulated medical wastes are also referred to as infectious waste since they are capable of causing infectious disease.  While hazardous wastes may pose serious problems to human health and environment.  There are specific disposal regulations that each category should follow, especially hazardous waste.

Any health care institution generates this kind of medicate waste.  Other institutions that produce medical wastes are laboratories, blood banks, morgues and funeral parlors, medical schools and even research institutions. It is important for each of this institution to have and implement a waste management plan.

The World Health Organization (WHO) provides program activities that would help hospital and health care institutions develop programs and technical materials for assessing their wastes, creating action plans, and developing management guidelines for medical institutions. 

Hospitals should have waste management teams that would enhance or develop waste management plan.  Most of the times, the waste management team is comprised of the hospital staff, like the head of hospital and the hospital departments, pharmacists, infection control officer, and hospital manager or administrator.  Normally, there would be a waste management officer that would oversee the implementation of the plan on daily operation. 

When making a waste management plan (WMP), the waste management should be prepared to address different issues like the existing waste disposal practices and the quantity of waste being disposed.  The WMP should be able to come up with different plans and strategies that could minimize waste through recycling and reusing.  It should also cover training health care professionals, staff about waste disposal. 

Forming a waste management team and drafting a waste management plan is not the last step.  The waste management plan should go through evaluation and maybe some changes depending on the result of the evaluation.  Updating the system may be needed especially when the institution is undergoing some major changes or renovation in their system.  There are also national government agencies requiring hospitals and medical institution to submit records of their waste management and disposal methods. 

Health care institutions are not only responsible in making people in communities get the proper health care.  They are also responsible for ensuring that the community is safe from materials that would be detrimental to the health of the people.  Having a waste management plan would surely help in ensuring that health care institutions would make the community safe.

Waste management is all about waste hierarchy or the 3 Rs:  reduce, reuse and recycle.  There are too much waste being produced around the world, that different organizations and countries are being alarmed.  Improper waste management could cause chemical spill, gaseous pollutants and pests. 

But why compost? Landfills and incarceration could be a way to get rid of yard waste, but why bother with composting?  Even though there are government agencies and private companies that collect wastes from homes and industries, landfills and incinerators are not always the best options.

Putting decomposing materials in landfills would be a waste of space and unnecessary.  Yard wastes in landfill produce methane gas, a greenhouse gas that has the potential to explode.  For example in Asia, Latin America and Africa, 40 % of methane emissions or about 37 million metric tons come from landfills.

Incineration or burning is also not a great option. It could result to air pollution, burning yard leaves are even said to have an effect on people's breathing and even increase the risk of asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and allergies.  In the United States, there are some states that have implemented a ban on burning leaves and other yard wastes. Environmental problems in Asia or any part of globe could really affect other parts of the globe.

To reduce wastes being produced, government agencies are encouraging home owners to do composting at home.  For example, in the United States, Illinois are not collecting any yard wastes.  This regulation is to encourage homeowners to recycle and start composting. 

Organic materials can be used as fertilizers to enrich the soil, this is used as composting.  With composting organic materials are sued like yard trimmings, food wastes and animal wastes or manure.  Some would even add bulking agents like wood chips that would hasten the breakdown of organic materials. 

What is so good about composting?  Here are some composting benefits:

* The use compost is proved to be better is preventing plant diseases and pests. Using organic materials to enrich the soil is definitely better than using chemical fertilizers.  Using chemical fertilizers could have some effects on crops which could have an effect on the consumer's health.

* The use of organic fertilizers could also promote higher crop yield and effectively resolve soil problems after being dumped by hazardous wastes.  They can effectively remove oil, grease and heavy metals caused by storm water runoff. 

* They are also proven to be more cost efficient compared with other pollution resolution technologies. 

Farmers find compost to be very important with their crops and their yield.  Landscapers also use compost for areas that they are landscaping like golf courses and athletic fields.  They are also great for parks, median strips and other recreational areas.  Homeowners also find compost great for their backyards and vegetable patches at home. 

Compost as waste management is a great way to help the environment and reduce wastes.  They also offer economic benefits since they are low-cost alternatives compared to other soil amendments.  They are also a more cost-efficient method of revamping or remediating contaminated soil by different pollutants.

There are too many wastes being disposed every year, an average American would generate about .75 tons of wastes annually.  However, disposing wastes is never easy.  The government has implemented stricter regulations that will limit the wastes being disposed and eventually encourage individuals and homeowners to come up with better waste management systems in their homes, like recycling or waste reduction.

A waste management business has the responsibility of helping companies address waste collection, disposal and recycling of disposed items.  Why is there a need for this kind?  For example, there are legislations and regulations stating that manufacturers of waste electrical and electronic materials are responsible for the collection and recycling of old products.  With this kind of rule, manufacturers would often look for waste specialists that would handle waste control for them.

Starting a waste management business will help you address the demands of waste disposal.  But it is important to identify it there is indeed a need in the area for a business in this nature.  If there is indeed a need, then you should also know if there is competition and if you would be able to compete with them.  Waste management and collection industry is a competitive field. 

Starting a business would always require sufficient market research.  However, waste management business is not about doing research on the needs and competition.  You would also have to put a lot of time researching and studying local, federal, state and environmental regulations. 

Also, just choose a subsection of waste management.  It is difficult to have a company that would deal will all kinds of waste.  You could just choose one field, like disposal of waste electrical and electronic materials.

You would also need a solid waste management business plan.  A good waste management business plan would be able to help you set goals, gather all your bright business ideas, map out the future of your business and at the same time sets realistic and achievable goals.   A waste management business plan would ensure that you are communicating your business goals to your business partners, clients and employees.  This would help you create a business strategy, like marketing strategies and methods that would help you monitor your business development.

Just like in making any other business plan, having the objectives, mission and vision of important.  When writing a waste management business plan you would also need to develop marketing, pricing, promotion and distribution strategies.  Having a solid waste management business plan would also help you get company clients. 

If you are not confident with your writing skill, then there are certain websites that offer software in helping you write business plans.  While there are other online sites that offer pre-written business plans and documents. 

Before you go ahead and look for clients, you should start working on the getting permits and license for your operation.   There are different and quite a number of agencies that you are required to acquire approval and permit.  So know the process.  You could ask the local waste management officer or department to assist with this. 

Even if waste management business deals with trash, it is still a profitable and beneficial endeavor.  As a business owner, ensure that you are abreast about different environmental legislation and issues.  You do not want to get entangled with the law.