What is Waste Management and its Process?

To put it simply, waste management can be defined as the collection, transportation, and disposal of garbage, sewage, and any other types of waste.  The overall process of waste management is to “treat” solid and liquid waste.  This treatment allows for a variety of solutions for recycling items that shouldn’t be considered trash.

A Group Effort

Waste management and everything it entails requires a lot of hands and a team effort.  The field could benefit from virtual team building.  The reason for that is that waste management is vital to all households and businesses.  Family members and companies should join together to ensure that waste management processes are followed.  Virtual team building, in both households and companies, could help form a plan to make sure this happens.

The Overall Idea of Waste Management

The overall idea or goal of waste management is to reuse our garbage to have more valuable resources and help our environmental climate.  As of today, there are 8 different methods of waste management.  These methods are:

  • Source Reduction and Reuse: The reuse of products and the change of design, manufacture, purchase, or use of materials that reduces the amount or toxicity before it becomes solid waste.
  • Animal Feeding: With proper safe handling, animals can be fed used food.  This process reduces the amount of wasted food.  However, there are guidelines to follow when using this method.
  • Recycling: Recycling is the process of converting waste into new materials and objects.  However, certain rules must be followed to make this a reality.  These three basic rules are:
  1.  Recycle bottles, cans, paper, and cardboard.
  2. Keep food and liquid out of the recycling bin.
  3. Do not throw in loose plastic bags and no bagged recyclables.
  • Composting: The natural process of recycling organic matter such as vegetation and food scraps into fertilizer that can potentially enrich soil and plants.
  • Fermentation: The chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, and other microorganisms.  This process is used to convert carbohydrates into alcohol or acid.
  • Landfills: A landfill is a plot of land that is used to dump waste.  This method is not environmentally friendly and is usually frowned upon.
  • Incineration:  Incineration is the destruction of waste by burning, unfortunately, this method causes harmful pollution.
  • Land Application: Land application is considered to be a low-fund and operational method of waste management.  This method includes irrigation, surface pounding, and groundwater recharge by injection wells and sub-surface percolation. 

Most of these techniques can be used right at home or in your place of business, which is why virtual team building would benefit them so much.

Waste management is something that should be taken seriously since it would greatly improve our overall environment.  Virtual team building could greatly impact waste management by bringing everyone involved together to come up with a game plan.  This could be a revolutionary way for businesses to handle the waste management situation.