Waste Management in the Food and Beverage Industry: An Essay

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MANAGEMENT ESSAY
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Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
DISCUSSION................................................................................................................................... 3
DEFINITION................................................................................................................................ 3
CAUSE AND EFFECTS..................................................................................................................3
EVOLUTION AND KEY EVENTS....................................................................................................4
DIMENSIONS OF THE ISSUES......................................................................................................5
INTERACTION OF THE BUSINESS................................................................................................6
IMPACT ON THE BUSINESSES.....................................................................................................7
RESPONSE OF THE BUSINESSES.................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 7
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Waste disposable has a negative impact on the environment and also causes severe problems.
Treatment of waste causes several problems as it produces toxic substances i.e. dioxins which
are produced when it is burnt. These gases pollute the air and contribute to the acid rain. If this
waste is thrown it will pollute the resources (Zygourakis et al., 2017). Minimizing the waste
material means less impact on the environment, less wastage of resources and it will help in
saving the energy and money. If the wastes are properly handled, then it will bring solutions to
various problems such as it minimizes the emission of greenhouse gases which is generated
from burning the waste (UN News, 2012).
DISCUSSION
DEFINITION
Waste/e-waste disposal is defined as eliminating or destroying damaged, unwanted domestic,
industrial or agricultural substances or products. Disposal includes burial at landfills or sea,
burning, and recycling of the products. The “waste” term includes both sewage i.e. wastewater
and solid waste such as garbage. Industrial waste is different from domestic waste and
industrial waste can be defined as waste which is generated from the business activities where
some of these waste are controllable and some of these waste are hazardous to the
environment (De and Debnath, 2016). The main difference between the two is that businesses
are not allowed to dispose of the waste at municipal general wastes treatment facilities and
they have to take a license from industrial waste disposal companies.
CAUSE AND EFFECTS
Following are the industries which generate hazardous waste like chemical manufacturers,
construction industries, metal manufacturing, printing, and paper industries, leading
manufacturing industries, petroleum refining industry, automobile industry and many more.
The waste is generated from producing these goods and services and these wastes pollute
water, soil, air, land, and all other natural resources (Calabrò and Grosso, 2018).
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The industrial waste pollution has a direct impact on the health, marine and coastal
environment, climate, air pollution as well as soil contamination. Improper waste disposal
causes several diseases such as heart problems, lungs disease, the problem in breathing as well
as skin irritation. Further, it increases greenhouse gases which affect weather conditions and if
the dangerous wastes are dumped underwater it pollutes water which is a source of drinking
water for different communities (LI et al., 2016).
EVOLUTION AND KEY EVENTS
With the increase in the concept of industrialization, the population in the cities has become
crowded and also waste. At that time there were no waste disposal rules which results in
choked of streets and pipelines. The municipal authority gets the idea to eliminate the rubbish
in the 18th century by Corbyn Morris. He thinks that the health of the population is very
important and it requires the support of the public to clean the city (Waste removal, 2016).
Key events
In the August 2019, the Council of Australian Governments (COGA), announces to build the
Australian’s journey towards building sustainable local remanufacturing industry, support the
economy and creating jobs for the Australian people and at the same time it ensures to protect
the health of environment and people should be protected (Waste Management & Resource
Recovery Association Australia, 2019).
In addition to this, WMRR along with Bioenergy Australia disclosed in their first series of energy
from Waste (EfW) fact sheet, that the main motive of the organization is to assist the
community, politicians and the media and many more, all these parties are working on the
difficult waste management area. Further, Mr. Miles Mason who is the chairman of the WMRR
NSW Energy from Waste Working Group disclose the fact sheet which highlights that resource
recovery and waste management has become very interesting from the perspective of the
general public (Waste Management & Resource Recovery Association Australia, 2019).
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DIMENSIONS OF THE ISSUES
According to the Learner, 2019, the solid waste generated from the U.S. is more than 230
million tons of waste in one year and by taking an average of 4.6 pounds per day per person.
However, out of this, one-quarter of this waste is recycled and the rest is buried in the landfills.
The U.S. government takes the initiative towards recycling or reusing 70 percent of the waste
such as glass, paper, metal and many more. This will help in reducing the demand for these
materials and also it eradicates the problems related to economic, environmental and health
problems of the biodiversity.
As per the data collected from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2015,
the U.S. government not only focuses on reducing the waste but it is also focusing of
Sustainable Waste Management (SWM) which means that to recycle and reuse the waste or
materials across their whole life cycle. The following chart shows the management of waste in
the U.S.:
Figure 1: Waste management, 2015
[Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2015]
Waste generation
The overall waste generated from municipal solid waste was more than 262.4 million tons in
the year 2014 which is approximately 3.5 million more than from the year 2014. The waste in
the U.S. is continuously increasing which can be shown through the following chart and table:
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Figure 2: Waste Generation, 2015
[Source: United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 2015]
INTERACTION OF THE BUSINESS
The industry which has the major contribution to the waste is food and beverage industry of
the U.S. And in order to solve this issue many of the organization follows the approach of
Sustainable Food Management which refers to the approach which helps in minimizing the
wasted food and its impact on the society which starts from natural resources, consumption,
manufacturing, sales and many more which end with the final decision of disposal (EPA, 2015).
According to USDA ERS, the food and beverages industry is divided at three levels which
majorly contribute to waste generation.
Primary level: this includes food processing starts from farm to retail
Retail level: this includes grocery stores, supermarkets, and different retail outlets but this does
not include any restaurants and foodservice outlets.
Consumer-level: this includes the places where the consumer consumes the food either at
home or away from the home such as café, restaurants and many more (EPA, 2015).
Main reasons why the food and beverage industry contribute to waste
There are several reasons which increase the food waste such as location, nature, and type of
food items, large distance from food recycling services and so on. The main reason which acts
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as barriers towards recycling the waste is that several manufacturers of food find that the
barriers towards food recycling are heavy transportation costs; waste recycling facilities are
very less, the strict obligation of handling waste food as well as rules and regulations to reuse
particular type of waste. In addition to this, due to diversity in the organization, it becomes
difficult for companies to track waste food. Even the small organizations do not bother to
calculate the amount of waste and to hire the employee for managing the food effectively.
IMPACT ON THE BUSINESSES
Due to the increasing concern of managing the waste in the food and beverage industry, the
government of all countries develops several laws and regulations. In the current situation,
approximately one-third of the food which is prepared for the people is wasted. Wastage of
food means a waste of all resources which results in an economic loss. Therefore, now it
becomes compulsory for the organizations that they must develop strategies and plans to
reduce the waste and implement the rules and regulations of the government (Lewis, 2017).
The strategies used by restaurants, café, and similar places are composting, recycling, etc.
RESPONSE OF THE BUSINESSES
Several restaurants and café such as Radisson Hotel & Suites, Pan Pacific, Axil Coffee Roasters
and many more develop the strategies to reduce the pre-consumer and post-consumer waste.
Some of the strategies for managing pre-consumer waste are regular monitoring of inventory,
proper organizing the stock, food scraps should be used as animal food. The strategies to
reduce post-consumer waste are deep research on the popularity of food, left food should be
parceled so that they can take their food with them, the food should be available at different
portion sizes, etc. (Letcher and Vallero, 2019).
CONCLUSION
In this essay, the sustainable issue which has a major impact on the environment and the health
of the people is waste management. From the above discussion, it can be said that the concern
of waste management is continuously rising and the reason for increasing this issue is the
improper treatment of waste by the manufacturing industry. But the U.S. government and
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other institutions are taking the necessary steps towards protecting the environment and the
health of the people, natural resources, biodiversity and so on. According to WMRR, the
organization is taking the initiative to generate energy from waste management. In this event,
local industrial experts share their views and opinions regarding generating Energy from Waste
(EfW). This essay mainly focuses on the waste generated from the food and beverage industry
and their impact on the businesses and the practices adopted by the organizations to respond
to waste management.
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REFERENCES
 Calabrò, P. S., & Grosso, M. (2018). Bioplastics and waste management. Waste
Management, 78, 800-801.
 De, S., & Debnath, B. (2016). Prevalence of health hazards associated with solid waste
disposal-a case study of Kolkata, India. Procedia Environmental Sciences, 35, 201-208.
 EPA, (2015). Industrial Food Processing Waste Analyses online available at
https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2016-01/documents/msw_task9_industrial
foodprocessingwasteanalyses_508_fnl_2.pdf (last accessed on 13th August 2019).
 EPA, (2015). Sustainable Management of Food Basics online available at
https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/sustainable-management-food-
basics (last accessed on 13th August 2019).
 Learner, (2019). Solid Waste is online available at
https://www.learner.org/exhibits/garbage/solidwaste.html (last accessed on 13th
August 2019).
 Letcher, T.M. & Vallero, D.A. eds., (2019). Waste: A handbook for management.
Academic Press.
 Lewis, H. (2017). Product Stewardship in Action: The Business Case for Life-cycle
Thinking. Routledge.
 LI, W. C., Tse, H. F., & FOK, L. (2016). Plastic waste in the marine environment: A review
of sources, occurrence and effects. Science of the Total Environment, 566, 333-349.
 The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), (2015). Facts and Figures
about Materials, Waste, and Recycling online available at https://www.epa.gov/facts-
and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-
materials (last accessed on 13th August 2019).
 UN News, (2012). Links between waste management and environmental sustainability
spotlighted at UN-backed conference online available at
https://news.un.org/en/story/2012/11/424932-links-between-waste-management-and-
environmental-sustainability-spotlighted-un (last accessed on 13th August 2019).
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 Waste Management & Resource Recovery Association Australia, (2019). COAG
outcomes a positive step for the economy, environment, and community online
available at
https://www.wmrr.asn.au/Public/Press_Releases/COAG_outcomes_a_positive_step_for
_the_economy__environment__and_community.aspx?WebsiteKey=d44c36e5-02f4-
476f-8799-20f68dc866af (last accessed on 13th August 2019).
 Waste Management & Resource Recovery Association Australia, (2019). WMRR and
Bioenergy Australia embark on energy from waste education journey online available at
https://www.wmrr.asn.au/Public/Press_Releases/WMRR_and_Bioenergy_Australia_em
bark_on_energy_from_waste_education_journey.aspx?WebsiteKey=d44c36e5-02f4-
476f-8799-20f68dc866af (last accessed on 13th August 2019).
 Waste removal, (2016). A BRIEF HISTORY OF WASTE MANAGEMENT online available at
https://247wasteremoval.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-waste-management/ (last
accessed on 13th August 2019).
 Zygourakis, C. C., Yoon, S., Valencia, V., Boscardin, C., Moriates, C., Gonzales, R., &
Lawton, M. T. (2017). Operating room waste: disposable supply utilization in
neurosurgical procedures. Journal of neurosurgery, 126(2), 620-625.
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