Reducing waste and complying with environmental regulations is key for industries and sustainable practices. The waste hierarchy offers a strategic outline to achieve this.
Learn how its progressive stages—from prevention to disposal—guide effective waste management decisions and how to act upon them for various waste streams.
What is the Waste Hierarchy?
Imagine a pyramid that holds the key to managing waste sustainably. At the top, you have waste prevention – reducing or preventing waste generation as much as possible.
This pyramid, known as the Waste Hierarchy, is a practical guide for managing waste sustainably, prioritising waste management options from the most preferable (prevention) to the least preferable (disposal).
This framework applies not only to processed materials like paper, food, and plastics but also to a wide array of raw materials. Everyone, from waste producers to disposers, has a role in applying the waste hierarchy, a legal obligation for businesses. It aids businesses in complying with waste laws and lessening waste sent to landfills.
The Essence of Waste Prevention
Waste prevention focuses on minimising waste creation by using fewer materials and avoiding unnecessary ones during the design and manufacturing processes. This step involves a series of actions such as waste avoidance, reuse, recycling, recovery, and removal, all of which help to prevent waste.
Waste prevention is a big deal in the waste hierarchy because it reduces the need for disposal facilities by preventing as much waste generation as possible. For businesses, waste prevention can lead to significant cost savings, improved worker safety, and a boost in the company’s image in the community.
Maximising Reuse Opportunities
Following prevention, preparing materials for reuse in their original form or recycling them is the next best waste management strategy. Success stories include zero-waste projects and collaborations with recycling facilities focusing on reusing building materials and crushing concrete for reuse.
However, maximising reuse opportunities is not without challenges. These challenges include:
- Lack of sufficient waste collection, transport, and treatment facilities
- Added cost of preparing waste for recycling
- Struggle to balance waste containment with reuse
These challenges can often be overcome by working with a reputable waste management provider, who can help guide you through the complex area of waste management and find effective and sometimes profitable ways to comply with legislation.
The Role of Recycling in Waste Management
Recycling, the third step in the waste management hierarchy, comes after reduction and reuse. To recycle effectively, a business needs the right infrastructure, such as an on-site recycling facility or a waste management provider.
At the recycling facility, machines sort and separate materials. Similar materials are grouped and used to make new products, reducing the need for raw materials and conserving resources using recycled materials.
Recovering Value from Waste
The waste hierarchy encourages recovery when recycling isn’t feasible. Waste recovery involves extracting value from waste materials through processes like energy recovery or composting.
Waste-to-energy, for instance, involves burning non-recyclable waste to generate electricity instead of creating waste. The process involves sorting out recyclable and hazardous materials, combusting the waste to generate steam, and creating electricity. The remaining ash is processed and disposed of.
On the other hand, composting transforms organic wastes into nutrient-rich food for plants. This process helps to reduce waste and enrich the soil.
The Last Resort: Disposal
Waste disposal, which includes landfill sites and incineration, is the least sustainable and most expensive waste management option, reserved as the last resort when there are no other choices.
Disposal in landfills can lead to habitat loss, climate change, soil and water contamination, air and water pollution, and land degradation.
What does the Waste Hierarchy mean for businesses?
More than just a theoretical framework, the waste hierarchy is a legal requirement guiding businesses’ waste management decisions. It helps companies to save money, comply with legislation, and reduce their environmental footprint.
Businesses can implement various strategies to align with the waste hierarchy. These include cutting down on packaging waste, setting up recycling programs, and conducting waste audits to identify areas for improvement.
These strategies help businesses reduce their waste and ensure that they comply with waste management regulations.
Tailoring the Waste Hierarchy to Different Waste Streams
Although the waste hierarchy is a useful guide, remember that each type of waste is unique and may necessitate distinct management strategies. Let’s explore how the waste hierarchy can be tailored to various waste streams, such as:
- Commercial waste
- Industrial waste
- Food waste
- Packaging waste
- Non-recyclable waste
Commercial Waste
Commercial waste can vary from biodegradable waste, like paper and food waste, to construction and hazardous waste. Businesses can manage commercial waste by tracking their waste generation and exploring ways to reduce it, seeking the support of a waste management company, sorting waste well, and establishing recycling programs. One essential aspect of managing waste is using waste transfer notes, which help document and ensure proper disposal.
Effective waste management can also involve engaging employees, cutting down on packaging waste, and keeping waste management practices up to date. These steps help businesses reduce waste generation, save and even make money, and positively contribute to the environment.
Industrial Waste
Industrial waste comprises a wide array of substances, including:
- Chemical oxygen demand (COD)
- Total organic carbon (TOC)
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- Other substances
Methods like landfilling, recycling, incineration, and waste-to-energy plants are used to manage industrial waste effectively.
The waste hierarchy is instrumental in managing industrial waste. It ranks waste management options based on their environmental impact, prioritising prevention and using disposal methods like landfills as a last resort.
Strategies for Food Waste
Food waste in commercial settings can be caused by several factors, such as:
- Overordering
- Overproduction
- Human error
- Lack of time to manage waste
There are waste legislation regulations in place that dictate how businesses handle and dispose of leftover food or food waste.
It’s a requirement in the UK for companies to separate food waste for collection and recycle it through composting or anaerobic digestion.
Packaging Waste Solutions
Packaging waste, especially plastic packaging, poses a significant environmental challenge. It leads to air pollution, loss of valuable materials through incineration and landfilling, and disruption of ecosystems.
Businesses can effectively manage packaging waste by:
- Adopting eco-friendly packaging
- Reducing the use of packaging materials
- Training staff
- Implementing a recycling system
- Collaborating with suppliers
Materials like compostable packaging, recycled packaging, corrugated packaging, cellulose packaging, glass, metal, paper, cardboard, plastic, wood, and metal can be efficiently reused or recycled.
Handling Non-Recyclable Waste
To minimise non-recyclable waste, businesses can:
- Deploy prevention strategies
- Clean, repair, and refurbish items to prolong their lifespan
- Conduct waste audits
- Lessen single-use plastics
- Implement recycling and waste management systems
- Educate employees
- Encourage reuse
- Compost organic waste
- Partner with sustainable suppliers
When reduction or reuse is not possible for non-recyclable waste, it usually ends up in landfills as the final disposal method in waste management facilities.
Summary
The waste hierarchy is a powerful tool that can guide us towards sustainable waste management. By prioritising waste prevention, reuse, recycling, and recovery, we can reduce our reliance on landfill and incineration.
Businesses can benefit from implementing this hierarchy, saving money, complying with legislation, and reducing their environmental impact. Adapting the waste management hierarchy to different waste streams ensures its effectiveness.
At Waste Mission, our drive for a greener future fuels our vision to empower businesses to adopt sustainable recycling solutions. We demystify the complex landscape of waste management and champion a circular economy – a mindset where waste is not an obstacle but an opportunity.
If you would like to rethink your waste management practices, speak to a member of our team today.
