The Wake up call: Waste management : What can we do?

Rtr. Dilhan Jayasinghe

It is appreciated when a less amount of waste is produced rather than finding ways of disposing tons of wastes. All of us have individual contributions to make this a reality. 

A popular way of Waste management is 4R. This is a way of minimizing the issues aligned with wastes. As the hierarchy goes on, after the 4R method, Energy Recovery and Disposal comes next. What is 4R? 

The hierarchy starts with Refuse. If we can refuse the use of unnecessary items, not essential for our day to day living, production of wastes can be minimized. Next is the Reduce. When it is essential to use a certain item, we can reduce and optimize the usage. This is another way of minimizing the collection of a lot of wastes. 

The next in the ladder is Reuse. If we cannot even reduce the use, but can reuse the same item again and again without disposing, it is greatly appreciated. The ideal example will be the use of bags made of polythene. If we can carry some bags to the supermarket, how much of polythene bag consumption can be minimized? This is a very simple habit if people can begin to practice.

                                              

Next step will be the use of Recycling methods. This has been a very specific method and will not be practically applied to any kind of wastes. But there is another recycling type called Upcycle. The difference between recycling and upcycling is the change of the standard of the final product. Recycling involves a conversion of waste to another usable item of lesser quality. But upcycling includes the conversion of wastes to an upgraded standard of the item. These have become popular in the last few decades but there are disadvantages in them as not all wastes are upcycled or recycled with the current developments available. The best example was the ‘Sri Lanka Cricket’ jersey made from oceanic wastes with the use of ‘upgrading’.

 The next in the hierarchy will be recovering energy from wastes. This is again an upcoming way of harnessing a use from wastes. The scientists are improving these energy harnessing methods. But current developments have not been good enough to mitigate severe issues aligned with non- degradable wastes. 

The least favoured way of dealing with wastes is the disposal, which we discussed in the previous article.

“Nothing is a waste if you utilize it properly”

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