Waste Management: Reducing Plastic Bottles and Landfill Waste

This article discusses the plastic bottle problem and the impact of landfill waste. It provides practical tips on reducing plastic bottle usage and offers insights into regulatory, economic, and behavioral mechanisms for effective waste management. Subject: Waste Management, Course Code: N/A, Course Name: N/A, College/University: N/A, Document Type: Article, Assignment Type: N/A

Waste management

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The word is suffering from the plastic problem, out of which plastic bottles have a
great role. The terrifying images of the pacific garbage patch and overflowing landfills shows
the present condition. The plastic bottles are used every day and we can get rid of them by
throwing them in the garbage. The plastic bottles should be reduced as amount of trash going
into the landfills. The most prevalent method to reduce landfills is reducing, reuse and
recycles. The landfill waste creates a great problem as it has economic impact. Add on, slow
decomposition rate takes thousands of years and numerous acres of land has already been
virtually rendered useless which cannot be utilized for setting up residential and industries.
The plastic bottles can be stopped by going into the landfill by taking the following steps:
 Purchase drinks in the glass bottles instead of plastic: At the time of traveling, the
drinks should be avoided which come in the plastic bottles. The shops also sell
beverages in the glass bottles so these should be preferred by the customers. Other
than the glass bottles, aluminum cans are next best option (Haupt, Kägi, & Hellweg,
2018). As aluminum cans can also be recycled.
 Travel with the refillable water bottle: It is a simple win. Carrying own water bottle is
a great way to condense daily water bottle purchases. Add on, a lot of money can be
saved to the sustainable travel points.
 Pack a water filter: The individuals can pack a water filter for every travel adventure.
It is quite helpful in reducing the purchase of plastic bottles. There are several
awesome travel water filters in the market which work great. The bottles can be used
which are enabled with the built-in-filter. It is also the best purification system. A
little effort of using water filters goes a long way (Dahlbo, et al. 2018).

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 Avoid using shampoo bottles: The array of conditioner, shampoo and bath gel can be
found in the hotels. It seems a nice gesture by the hotel but singles use bottles form
the most common plastic wastes found in the ocean. The use of such bottles should be
avoided. These are not worth cracking even to open.
 Make use of the bars instead of the bottles: The alternative to the liquid soaps,
shampoos, and conditioners contained in the form of bar than in the form of plastic
bottles. Add on, the use of the bars is great as these do not leak in the bag.
It is required to make changes in the economically, regulatory and behavioral in order to
avoid wastes going into the landfills. The changes can be made in the designing of plastic
bottles than conventional packaging. The packaging should be inspired by nature and
recyclable material should be reused and replace the multi-layered packaging which is
unrecyclable (Mian, et al. 2017). The reuse of the bottle packaging is possible only if it is in
the form of glass bottles.
Regulatory Mechanisms
 The changes can be made in the taxes and instruments supporting plastic bottles.
 The charges can also be levied on the manufacturers offering their products in the
plastic bottles (Chow, et al. 2017).
 The funds and subsidies to the producers who are interested in making changes in
their production process should be offered funds and subsidies like producer willing
to change the packaging from plastic to glass.
 A bold policy framework should be adopted by the government to introduce an
innovative way of packaging so that the use of plastic bottles can be ignored.
 The government policy should be introduced to reduce the level of the wastage going
to landfill and motivate people to recycle more (Sharma & Bansal, 2016).
 The rules should be passed to make sure the proper segregation of wastage at source
and the wastage should go in diverse streams of recycling and resource recovery.
 The government should go for the technological advancement for the dispensation,
treatment, and disposal of solid waste (Zeng, Duan, Wang & Li 2017).
Economic/regulatory mechanisms

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 The businesses are required to enhance resource efficiency and make changes in the
packaging so as to reduce impacts on the environment.
 The organizations can reduce the wastage through the industry-led product
stewardship schemes. This scheme encourages products which are less harmful to the
environment when they become waste.
 The businesses should be inspired to adopt and hold programs and join networks
which aim to lessen the environmental impacts at the time of improving productivity.
 A system-level change should be created with the right policy incentives and offering
chances of producing the plastic systems which works.
 The use of the glass bottles should be promoted and these bottles should be carried
and used further. Glass is the best and healthy substitute for plastic bottles.
 A life cycle approach should be followed to enhance longevity, reusability and waste
prevention, after use and waste prevention. This approach averts the release of the
microplastics into the environment by redesigning products.
 Implement policy and regulatory measures like comprehensive producer
responsibility, direct surcharge, and the ban on plastic bottles.
Behavioral change mechanisms
 The individuals can assist in minimizing waste by making changes in their behaviors
at workplace and home. The individuals can support the businesses which aim to
lessen the environmental impacts by determinations like product stewardship.
 The individuals can even join the community with the having aim of recycling
services, resource recovery and education programs concerning waste minimization.
 The businesses should collaborate with the customers in order to increase the
awareness of the insight of shift made from the non-essential plastic bottles to the
recycling (Rhyner, et al. 2017).
 The high-quality recycling should be promoted and usage of the plastic resource as a
waste.
 The individuals can use sustainable alternative feedstock which is renewable and bio-
degradable.
 The individuals should create awareness to promote activities which encourage
changes (Thi, Kumar, & Lin, 2015). Supportive policies should be established.
 The consumers should makeshift in their behavior and encourage everyone to join the
glass packaging revolution. The technology advancement should be promoted through

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innovations. Add on integrated waste management practices should be followed to
improve waste management.

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References
Chow, C. F., So, W. M. W., Cheung, T. Y., & Yeung, S. K. D. (2017). Plastic waste problem
and education for plastic waste management. In Emerging Practices in Scholarship of
Learning and Teaching in a Digital Era (pp. 125-140). Springer, Singapore.
Dahlbo, H., Poliakova, V., Mylläri, V., Sahimaa, O., & Anderson, R. (2018). Recycling
potential of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in Finland. Waste
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Haupt, M., Kägi, T., & Hellweg, S. (2018). Modular life cycle assessment of municipal solid
waste management. Waste management, 79, 815-827.
Mian, M. M., Zeng, X., Nasry, A. A. N. B., & Al-Hamadani, S. M. (2017). Municipal solid
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Rhyner, C. R., Schwartz, L. J., Wenger, R. B., & Kohrell, M. G. (2017). Waste management
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Sharma, R., & Bansal, P. P. (2016). Use of different forms of waste plastic in concrete–a
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Thi, N. B. D., Kumar, G., & Lin, C. Y. (2015). An overview of food waste management in
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Zeng, X., Duan, H., Wang, F., & Li, J. (2017). Examining environmental management of e-
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