Materials Management: Sustainability Strategies
Sustainable materials management is an approach that emphasizes environmentally sustainable practices throughout the life cycle (purchase, use, and disposal) of goods and capital assets. The goals are to maximize the use of renewable sources in manufacturing processes, to extend the usable life of products through reuse and repurposing, and to minimize or eliminate disposal methods that pollute.
INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT
Integrated waste management is a systematic approach that uses multiple methods to control and dispose of waste. It emphasizes — in prioritized order — source reduction, reuse, and recycling efforts. The goal is to divert as much solid waste from landfills as possible, and to minimize other methods such as incineration, that harm the environment.
Reduce: Reducing the amounts of goods that are used is the single most effective way of managing waste. Commodities that are never manufactured do not result in waste products.
Reuse: Local governments should implement procurement programs that purchase durable, non-toxic, energy-efficient products made from recycled content and that can be easily deconstructed and recycled again. Departments most likely to have such procurement programs include fleet management, building maintenance, facilities, and public works.
Recycle: Create recycling initiatives that divert all reusable materials into a form that is most efficient for its next use. Recycling programs include composting of organic waste in addition to the remanufacturing of durable goods.
Benefits of integrated waste management include:
- Greater service coordination of procurement and waste management among local government departments and agencies can lead to more efficient service delivery and cost savings.
- MSW is a "clean" waste stream that requires less processing
- Revenue for local governments from the sale of recyclable materials in the commodities market.
- Strengthening and expansion of both local and national economies.
- Conservation of energy and natural resources, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction in landfills and incineration disposal.
- Growing the market for more environmentally responsible products.
The full benefits of integrated waste management are realized when there are interrelated programs working as a unified system.
COMPREHENSIVE WASTE STREAM ANALYSIS
Waste characterization / waste stream analyses are methods used to determine the types of materials being discarded in a waste stream and in what proportion. A comprehensive waste stream analysis answers four central questions about Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) programs:
- What is in your community’s waste stream?
- What are the sources of each waste type?
- How much total waste is being generated?
- Where is diverted waste sent?
With this information, officials are equipped to implement material management policies effectively, monitor compliance, and measure results. The cost to perform a municipal waste stream analysis depends largely on the length and scope of the study. If a city cannot afford an extensive research process, they can perform a simple characterization and diversion study. However, care should be taken to ensure representative waste samples. Each city should determine its budget and recruit potential partners in academia and industry to help with design and funding.
Completing a waste stream analysis should be the first step in a well-formulated municipal solid waste strategy. It reveals the elements of the solid waste stream that can be successfully diverted from landfills, and which may lend themselves to innovative programs that can reduce a city’s operating costs while benefiting the environment.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY POLICIES
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies are based on the idea that "the polluter pays.” EPR policies are designed to share the cost of a product’s environmentally sustainable disposal with manufacturers and/or consumers. This can be achieved by integrating environmental costs into the final product price, or holding manufacturers liable for end-of-life costs associated with reuse, recycling and disposal.
Local and state governments collectively purchase more than one trillion dollars worth of products annually. Governments can therefore exert tremendous influence over the types of materials used to make products and how they are managed at the end of their life-cycle.
The benefits of EPR programs include:
- Shares environmental and economic cost with manufacturers and end-users, thus reducing the cost of operating and maintaining municipal landfills.
- Promotes manufacturing innovation in design and packaging to facilitate landfill diversion through reuse and recycling.
Waste disposal sites for solid waste from human activities.Have a useful life of 2 years or more and are replaced infrequently or may require capital program expenditures. Examples include furniture, office equipment, appliances, external power adapters, televisions, and audiovisual equipment.A mixture of decayed plants and other organic material that is used to enrich soil with nutrients.The collection, reprocessing, marketing, and use of materials that were diverted or recovered from the solid waste stream.The overall flow of waste from consumers to a landfill, incinerator, or other disposal site.Greenhouse gases are a part of the Earth's atmosphere and are both naturally occurring and the result of human chemical processes. The most common greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluourocarbons. These gases trap heat and thus contribute to the warming of the planet. See also CFCS and GREENHOUSE EFFECT.The ability or potential of a physical body to do work. The most common forms of energy are heat, light, mechanical (moving parts), and electrical.
