Environmental Management for Sustainable Development: Waste Reduction

This report addresses the critical issue of waste management and its impact on sustainable development. It begins by highlighting the escalating problem of waste generation, particularly in low and middle-income countries, and emphasizes the need for effective waste management practices like recycling, composting, and incineration. The report focuses on waste reduction through recycling, driven by increased consumerism and the resulting surge in solid waste. It discusses the concept of zero-emission societies and strategies for transitioning from high-waste to sustainable models. The report presents findings from a study comparing waste recycling performance across different materials, such as metals, glass, and paper, along with the influence of food waste mass on recycling efficiency. It suggests policy instruments, like taxes on waste generation and the installation of composting plants, to reduce waste and improve recycling performance. Furthermore, the report explores the recycling of power batteries from electric vehicles, using the MULTIMOORA method for decision-making. It also examines waste management in industrial settings, focusing on the recycling of steelmaking wastes in the refractory industry, with successful implementation and financial returns. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of environmental education to promote green consumption and sustainable waste management practices.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
Environmental Management for Sustainable Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Introduction- With the high increase in population, there in an unprecedented increase in
the generation of wastes and this rate is growing increasing rapidly. The generation of waste is
high especially in the middle income, low income countries. For the purpose of global
sustainable development, the effective management of waste and the toxic wastes is a major
challenge. There are a wide range of methods that are available for the treatment and disposal of
waste. This includes recycling, composting, incineration, landfill. Recycling of waste is a process
through which a used product changed into a useful product. Recycling is a great balancing act
of controlling the land pollution, water and air (Yang et al., 2018). This study will emphasize on
the waste reduction through recycling of waste. Thesis statement- With the increase in
population, the demand for the materialistic things has also increased. This high demand has led
to the increase in generation of solid waste which requires special management procedures.
Management of traditional municipal solid waste assumed the fact that a government has
a requisite amount of resources, policies to control the pollution from the wastes. By the 1990s
there came a concept of zero emission societies which is promoted by several researchers. It was
put forward by some authors that emphasized on proposing a low-waste model of society which
is based on the laws of dynamics and they suggested that the best way to deal with the problems
of pollution is to shift from the maximum waste society to a sustainable waste society. A study
was conducted by Chen (2018), which compared the performances of the different waste
recyclers fractions in Taiwan. The performance of waste recycler can be defined as the ratio of
the waste recycled to that of waste generated. The result from the study has highlighted that the
recycling performance of the metallic wastes is the highest, this is followed by the glass waste
and paper waste. It was also found that performance of recycling for the food waste increases
with the increase in the mass of the waste food. Whereas, the performance of the recyclers

2ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
increases with the increases with the increase in the food waste after an optimum level is
reached. The authors also highlighted that the large amount of the food waste in generated by the
restaurants, retailers, wholesalers and other productive institutions. This study also suggested two
instruments for the effective reduction of the generation of the food waste and at the same time
increase the performance of the recyclers at the source. The two instruments include the
provision of tax on the amount of the wastes generated at the production level. Secondly, there
must be a provision for the production facilities to install the affiliated composting or digested
plants for recycling the food substances. For the purpose of reducing the wastes generated from
the consumption of food, general people must be provided with the environmental education so
that they can engage with the green consumption.
Electric vehicles contain the power batteries and thus to increase the efficiency of the
there is a need to reduce the cost of recycle. It is necessary to include a proper recycling strategy
that will use the optimally recycle the power batteries of the electric vehicles. A study conducted
by Ding & Zhong (2018), emphasized on the implementation of method called MULTIMOORA
which abbreviates as Multi-Objective Optimization by Ratio Analysis plus full Multiplicative
form. This method combines two-dimensional uncertain linguistic variables and a regret theory.
This method was used to solve the decision-making issues related to battery recycling. Based on
the regret theory, a perceived decision utility matrix was constructed along with application of
the objective entropy weighing method. In the final step, the MULTIMOORA method is used to
rank the power battery recycling modes. Each and every industrial activity that processes and
produces materials generates wastes or residues. These residues do not actually have a proper
destination of disposal and do not have the potential to reuse. A study conducted by Vidal de
Almeida et al. (2016), has emphasized that steel making equipment factories in Brazil produces

3ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
an average of 11000 tons of wastes per year. It was highlighted that majority of the waste was
disposed in the landfilling sites and it had no application. Thus, this kind of action typically
excludes the vital source of raw material from the productive cycle. This study has investigated
the points where the wastes are generated and it aimed to use the residues or the wastes in the
refractory industry, which is also termed as reverse logistics. The implementation plan was found
to be successful with an annual return of US 1 million dollar.

4ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Reference
Chen, Y. T. (2018). An Analysis of Recycling Performance for Achieving a Zero-Emission
Society. Polish Journal of Environmental Studies, 27(6).
Ding, X., & Zhong, J. (2018). Power Battery Recycling Mode Selection Using an Extended
MULTIMOORA Method. Scientific Programming, 2018.
Vidal de Almeida, B., Marinho de Faria, R., Tarcizo de Oliveira Vieira, A., Nascimento Silva,
S., & Vernilli, F. (2016). Recycling of steelworks refractories: processing and properties.
Ironmaking & Steelmaking, 43(10), 775-779.
Yang, H., Ma, M., Thompson, J. R., & Flower, R. J. (2018). Waste management, informal
recycling, environmental pollution and public health. J Epidemiol Community Health,
72(3), 237-243.