Business Waste Management In The Uk

By Author: Manisha Kumar
Total Articles: 3764
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Business waste is the waste that is produced by industries, offices and small scale units. These days industries are producing and overwhelming the environment with various types of waste. This category includes chemical waste, electronic waste, nuclear waste, municipal waste, medical waste and gaseous waste. If not dealt with properly, it can be hazardous to health. The area of business waste management deals with managing this waste in an effective manner. Earlier the most commonly followed business waste management strategies were landfills and incinerators. But lately these business waste management activities are being questioned, due to the emissions generated. There is not much land available for landfills. Moreover since the waste was compressed and filled in the holes in land, toxic gases were emitted which produce methane. By incinerating the waste, the business waste management authorities attracted many controversies. The waste is burnt in incinerators thereby producing hazardous gases and ash. This was not only polluting the environment but polluting the ground water too. In modern business waste management practices ...
... emphasis is given on recycling the waste that is produced.

According to a UNEP report in 2005, 20-50 million tons of electronic waste is generated annually world wide and the United Kingdom's total share stands at 27,168 Terajoules.

According to the permitted waste management business facilities in the UK in 2005, total waste handled was over 166 million tonnes, total treated or disposed of waste was 119 million tonnes and 49 million tonnes waste was in deposits or at transfer sites.

One of the greatest challenges of the waste management business is handling the waste generated by technology. To deal with an electronic product which is at the end of its lifecycle, is a matter of concern. The manufacturers are constantly finding new ways of recycling or disposing the obsolete electronic items. People in the waste management business are convincing the manufacturers to reuse and recycle their own products before these products end up in landfills or in dumping sites.

Significant amount of electronic waste from Europe/US is also destined to countries like India and China, where they are scrapped. Companies which are into waste management business in India import the electronic waste. They dismantle it to sort out the workable components from redundant electronic devices and also for the metal recovery, which has resale value. The remaining waste goes into the landfill sites.

In the United Kingdom about 4 million tonnes of metal recovery is achieved and 10 million tonnes of metal recycling is done each year.

Small to medium sized industries are the backbone of any economy but they produce maximum waste or the so called "small business waste". This is because they generate a huge amount of specific waste in many different industries. The small business waste or the heterogeneous waste material coming from small health care facilities and hospitals can have dangerous biological and harmful effects if not treated properly.

People coming in contact with this type of waste may become victims of diseases like Gastro-enteritis, respiratory problems, skin infections, plague, typhus, laptospirosis, and trichinosis and salmonella type of infections. According to the new guidelines of the government it is the duty and responsibility of the generator and occupier to ensure safe management, handling and disposal of biomedical waste. In 2006, approximately 2 million tonnes of this category of small business waste or biomedical waste was treated at various treatment plants around the UK.

In 2006, 748 landfill sites had taken the responsibility of business waste disposal but only 332 of them accepted any waste during that period of time.

In 2006, waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) directive was passed which made manufactures responsible for their business waste disposal. They were supposed to take back, recycle their used products in order to deflect them from landfills, illegal dumps and unsafe disassembly practices. A study in 2006 revealed that this directive has brought 60 percent less hazardous waste than in 2004. This trend in business waste disposal is surely encouraging and is an example to the rest of the world.