Plastic Waste Management: Analysis and Proposals for Improvement

(PLASTIC WASTE MANAGEMENT)
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Introduction

Project Brief
The main aim of this particular project have been defined as analysis of the environmental
impact of a construction company in waste management field as well as developing proposals for
the improvement of system of plastic waste management. The study has therefore concentrated
only on the plastic waste in order to make the results of the study concrete and achievable as
much as possible. In order to ensure that water system within the constructed houses are
conveyed with a lot of ease, plastic materials have assisted in making of PVC plastic materials.
In order to ensure that the company’s target of Green Program is achieved including waste
reduction, reduction of waste is achieved through increase of recycling rates1.
Problem Identification
A construction Company X was started in the year 2009. The main activity of the company is
production of the Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) Pipes used in building and construction sector. The
process of assembly is carried out from the delivered part component to the actual facility by
motor transport. The operating regime of the company is as follows:
 Total annual number of working days is equivalent to 250
 Three shifts as operating regime
 Shift operation as 8hrs
 Hours for working are equivalent to 40hrs/week.
1 Al-Salem, S.M., Evangelisti, S. and Lettieri, P., 2014. Life cycle assessment of
alternative technologies for municipal solid waste and plastic solid waste
management in the Greater London area.
Chemical Engineering Journal,
244,
pp.391-402.

This particular company is certified as per the International Standards (ISO 14001) as well as
9001.This has been through introduction of environmental management system as well as total
quality management.. However the company does not have its own facilities for waste disposal
or storage2. A stuff restaurant which has an external catering is found on the Company X’s
territory. The waste management of the restaurant is thus carried out by tye catering company.
Also in the company is a medical Centre. This medical Centre is operated by an external service
provider. This center too is responsible for its own waste. It is only company X which produces
wastes from the PVC and do not have proper ways of managing the same.
Research Methods
The data was collected from the preview of previous work of the research on related fields.
According to the literature sources, several methods have been used in management of waste as
far as construction industry is concerned.
Benchmarking from European
Management of waste is controlled strictly both on the level of European Union as well as their
member states. The concept of the plastic waste management in the EU is performed majorly on
the basis of EU regulations, directives, decisions and instructions which are meant to create a
binding legal framework. The main objective has been reduction of the volume of waste through
prevention of their formation in the production process, waste use in the production process and
finally separation of certain fraction of the stream of waste and uses it subsequently as
2 Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A.,
Narayan, R. and Law, K.L., 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the
ocean.
Science,
347(6223), pp.768-771.

recoverable materials thereby minimizing disposed waste to the landfills. In broader
classification, waste management takes the form of several principles including:
 The self-sufficiency principle.
 Principle of utilizing hierarchical order as far as waste management is concerned.
 The principle of the implementation of BAT which involves waste disposal and recycling
of wastes.
 The principle of anticipation of environmental risk prevention.
Potential Solutions
As per the primary research conducted on similar companies of construction which uses PVC
pipes, the successful working methods have included avoidance of waste, waste reuse, waste
recycle, recovery and finally disposal. The statistics of the process as per the year distribution is
as indicated in the table below3.
The overall rates of recycling PVC pipes s plastic wastes have been 9%. The corresponding
recovery rate represents 20.1% of the entire plastic waste management in the flow category4.
3 Janajreh, I., Alshrah, M. and Zamzam, S., 2015. Mechanical recycling of PVC plastic
waste streams from cable industry: A case study.
Sustainable Cities and Society,
18,
pp.13-20.
4 Laurent, A., Bakas, I., Clavreul, J., Bernstad, A., Niero, M., Gentil, E., Hauschild, M.Z.
and Christensen, T.H., 2014. Review of LCA studies of solid waste management