The Need for Waste Minimisation

2.
The Need for Waste Minimisation

Short answer: There is always a need for a waste minimization programme. Any Waste Management programme will be more feasible in the long-term, if it includes effective waste minimization, and hence any PPP around waste management should include waste minimization in its strategic objectives and outcomes. In addition, specific PPPs can be set up for carrying out specific Waste Minimisation programmes.

Waste that is prevented from being generated in the first place is waste that does not need to be either collected and transported, nor recovered for recycling, treated or landfilled at any cost. Making no waste or as little as possible by clever planning of possible internal service delivery or PPP contract conditions needs to receive the main attention before any further planning is done e.g. to maximize the recovery rate for recyclables, embark in composting of waste, etc.

The City of Cape Town for example currently faces the following scenario:
In 2005 waste volumes landfilled in Cape Town were exceeding 2.1 million tons. The current annual growth of population is around 2 % but waste volumes currently grow at an annual rate of 7%. Volumes from recycled waste (mostly from post-industrial sources with hardly any notable contribution from post consumer waste sources) summed up to a mere 288 000 tons (just 13% of the volumes landfilled. As a result landfill site air space will run out much quicker than the Council anticipated just 5 years ago. As the permission for the development of a new regional landfill site is pending recent estimates are that Cape Town’s remaining landfills might be full in about 6-7 years whereas a few years ago numbers of 15 years remaining airspace were communicated. Initial attempts to address this rapidly growing waste problem exclusively with the conventional “end of pipe” approach of increasing the reuse and recycling rates of post-consumer and post-industrial waste- did NOT solve the problem at all. This is because the core of the problem is not being addressed, which is that too much waste is generated in the first place due to inefficient production and overconsumption.

Sanitary News
http://sanitasinews.blogspot.com
Sumber: Waste Minimisation Section 2.2