Statement of problems:
Municipal solid waste (MSW) mainly comes from homes but can also come from commercial establishments, institutional organization such as schools, and from municipal services such as landscaping and street cleaning. MSW mainly consists of food, paper, plastics, etc. but it can also include hazardous materials such as mercury from broken thermometers, batteries, e-waste, etc. There are five conventional ways in which MSW is commonly disposed of, by composting, open burning, landfilling, incineration and others which include recycling.
Problems with Landfills
Landfills, the most popular waste disposal method in
Landfill sites, after being filled and dozed over, need around 20 to 30 years to settle and stop releasing harmful gases, with a gradual emission reduction starting only from the tenth year.
There is usually no attempt at sorting or recycling before waste is dumped into landfills thus harmful substances can easily enter the landfills and eventually the ground water. Some would suggest landfill liners but a survey done by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found 82% of surveyed landfill cells had leaks, with 41% with leaks of up to one square foot.
Other problems
1. Even though waste collection system and centres are in place, we still see indiscriminate dumping in housing areas and roadsides.
2. Collection and transportation of waste are highly labour and capital intensive, according to UNEP.
3. Also according to UNEP, there is lack of general management, formal policies, institutional and regulatory frameworks, budget support, training programs, participation from the public and private sector, and information system for waste management.
Statement of possible solutions:
Reduce
This is simply by reducing the amount we throw away. We can avoid purchasing products with toxic materials in them, such as aerosols, fertilisers and so forth. We should aim for goods which are durable, recyclable, with recycled content and with less packaging. Packaging will eventually be thrown away anyways so avoid goods with heavy packaging including supermarket plastic bags and restaurant’s Styrofoam packaging. Bring your own reusable shopping bags or food containers when shopping or ordering take out. Another way to reduce packaging is to buy in bulk. It is also sometimes cheaper.
Avoid buying unnecessary things such as too much souvenirs which would end up as clutter at home. On a nationwide scale, waste reduction programs can be set up. One such program is the “pay-as-you-throw” program already in place in the
Reuse
Reusing items not only refers to using things over and over again without buying new things but also refers to repairing of old things, donating unneeded things to charity, or selling them. Bruneians generally do reuse things such as plastic bottles to hold water, etc. We, however, still throw away a lot of reusable materials thus we need to educate the public in what other things they can reuse.
Recycling and Composting
Recycling starts from source separation to material recovery and finally the main recycling stage. At the source separation stage, waste can be separated into organic and inorganic substances. The organic substances can be composted and turned to usable fertilisers. It would reduce the load on landfills, greenhouse gases emissions from needless incineration and anaerobic decomposition in the landfills. Recycling has been shown to reduce energy consumption. For example, recycling aluminium uses 95% less energy compared to extracting it from ore.
We first need to educate the society on what can be recycled, how to separate waste, where to bring things to to be recycled, what can be composted, how to compost, and what to do with special wastes such as waste oils and e-waste. This can be done by road shows, through the media, etc. We can show to them that even waste has a value. For example, a ‘junk car’ is worth approximately $200. The private sector needs to be more proactive such as offer collection of recyclable materials and incorporate more materials as recyclable. Glass recycling companies can be set up here.
The government can also enforce stricter waste management laws such as only allowing non-recyclable materials into the landfills, mandatory source separation and recycling, mandatory usage of recycling bins in government buildings including schools, etc.
Incineration
Incineration refers to the burning of waste materials and the possible generation of energy from the combustion. Incinerators save on land use as landfills require a long time for it to be safe for other use. Incinerators would of course have to meet stringent emission laws. The public would however be tempted to incinerate everything thus increase emissions. Incinerating plants would also need to be placed a considerable distance from residential areas for the emissions to sufficiently disperse.
Actions taken:
1. A brochure was developed to disseminate the ideas of the 3R; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The brochure includes why practise 3R, how to practise it, its benefits, some 3R tips, what can be 3R’ed and recycling centres’ contact information.
2. A checklist on how to audit 3R friendliness was planned to be developed but a checklist from EPA South Australia was used instead, and also an office equipment procurement document from Singapore Environment Council was used. The two documents were sent to corporate affairs personnel via e-mails to save on paper.
3. An article was sent to be published on the issues of landfills and the 3R concept for general public awareness. The article was approved for publishing and was in print on the October 24th, 2007 issue of Brunei Times, after being edited by the publishers.
4. The 3R brochure was published on the popular blog and social news website, ranoadidas.com, in two stages. The first on 31st October 2007 and the second on 8th November 2007.
