Hazardous Waste generation and physical characteristics
The hazardous wastes are the wastes which have potential to harm humans or the environment. The hazardous waste is known as prescribed industrial waste (PIW). The hazardous waste is generated by industries, healthcare to small businesses, households, and farms. The hazardous waste is generated in the large quantity which can be reduced by waste prevention programmes. The hazardous waste management is the process through which hazardous wastes are treated and disposed of. The waste management is a process through which hazardous waste can be reformed in such a way that it can be used as a valuable resource. This report addresses the hazardous waste management in Victoria by highlighting the physical characteristics of hazardous waste generation. The report also identifies the current solid waste management system, institutional and financial aspects, estimation of future waste quantities and difficulties, challenges, issues, and gaps.
Victoria is a state in south eastern Australia. Victoria is the second most populous state in the country. It is surrounded by Port Phillip Bay which comprises a metropolitan area of the state capital and largest city, Melbourne. Victoria’s coastline borders on the Bass Strait separate it from Tasmania and the Southern Ocean. Melbourne has a population around 4.67 million. Victoria has an area of 227,416 km2 which accounts for 3% of Australia’s land mass and makes it the smallest mainland state. The economy of Victoria is highly diversified.
The beauty of Victoria’s regions can be discovered from towering rainforests, ski resorts, golden bays, green hills, and sandy deserts. Tourism is the prime industry of Victoria. It has so many astonishing places to explore. Most of the population of Victoria resides surrounding the Port Phillip Bay. About 36% of Victoria is covered with forest. The highest peaks are Mt Bogong and Mt Feathertop. The temperature varies widely in the state but mostly falls within the warm. The temperature in the south-east corner is characterized by warm and dry summers (Manahan, 2017).
The hazardous waste varies from the non-hazardous waste. The hazardous waste is treated through additional steps. The general hazardous wastes in the market are explained with the help of a Sankey diagram.
The thick flow lines indicate the relative significance of each flow and their interconnectivity from waste generation to final fate. It comprises intermediate steps such as storage and treatment to reduce the hazard. The pathways are fixed for some precise wastes such as high-hazard wastes in NSW in Victoria. These wastes cannot be placed in the landfills until the hazard has not been reduced via treatment. The examples of the wastes for which various paths available include:
Existing hazardous waste management system
Mineral oils: The Australian government’s product stewardship for oil (PSO) program helps to refine waste vehicle oils to reuse and attracts rebate for the refiner to encourage oil recycling. The larger volume of recycled oil still signifies the need to go under more rudimentary oil treatment facilities.
Wastes resulting from used cooking oils: This waste is also known as grease trap waste. This waste can be treated, reused or composted. But the poor mixing practices such as mineral oils could not make possible only lower value which is energy recovery (Inglezakis & Moustakas, 2015).
Solvents: It is possible to recycle waste solvents through distillation if kept separated. But when the waste is inappropriately combined with other solvents then it leaves only energy recovery and other practices of stabilization available.
Asbestos: The waste asbestos comprises the materials which can be safely managed in the landfills. However, the asbestos materials pollute excavated soils. For instance, the soil infected with low levels of petroleum can be treated more intractably at low cost.
Flame retardant chemicals in plastics: The plastic products contain high brominated flame retardants (BFR) and are recycling is regarded as high hierarchy choice (Lucier & Gareau, 2016). If the plastics containing BFRs are mixed with non BFRs then it can be recycled for the manufacturing of new products.
The hazardous waste management is well-known as prescribed industrial waste (PIW) in the environmental protection laws of Victoria. The hazardous products of everyday goods and service are manufacturing of motor vehicles, dry-cleaning services, paint and plastics, fast food outlets and hospitals. The regulation and management of hazardous wastes are provided through the environmental protection (industrial waste resource) regulations 2009, legislation and parliamentary documents. The guidance for the regulatory framework is provided in the industrial waste resource guidelines (Song, Li & Zeng, 2015).
The environmental protection regulations 2009 control and regulate hazardous waste as it can cause probable risks to the human health and environment. The changes in industry practices, the increasing availability of treatment and recycling infrastructure has created a requisite to support resource efficiency and to redirect changes in the regulations (Nair & Abraham, 2018). It recognizes all the industrial wastes to improve the rate of reuse and recycling of industrial waste resources in a justifiable way.
As per the hazard categorization framework, PIW intended that landfill must be assigned one of 3 hazard categories A, B or C. The wastes of category A are banned from landfill and entail special treatment before disposal. The category B and category C wastes are recognized as the best practice landfills and are approved from environment protection act (Golev, et. al. 2016). The aim of this framework is to improve treatment standards and attain greater waste separation to identify further avoidance and recycling opportunities. There are various landfill levies for category B and C.
Institutional and financial aspects
The current strategy for the hazardous waste management in Victoria includes waste minimization, a framework to grave control and waste treatment plans. The participation of the public at all the levels is encouraged (Yilmaz, Kara & Yetis, 2017). The guideline has been developed to associate waste publications under the environmental protection regulation in 2009. The national environment protection measure (NEPM) is an agreement to control the waste between states and territories. The various pathways involved in the hazardous waste generation include transfer, storage, and treatment. There is also a HazWaste fund framework for the hazardous waste management. The aim of this fund is to accelerate reductions in the quantity of hazardous waste generated in Victoria (Lepawsky, 2015). This fund is available for at least 4 years. A performance audit is also conducted to ensure continuous improvement.
The hazardous waste is the results of industrial and mining operations. The waste is generated by them. It is a diverse and geographically distributed group. The hazardous waste is managed by the companies that can manage certain hazardous waste. The waste can also be managed through the intermediate activities such as transfer, storage or treatment. The fate infrastructure includes recycling, energy recovery, long-term storage, and disposal (Nost, et. al. 2017). As the state grows, the waste management plays important role in sustaining. The wastage generated from only Melbourne was over 30,000 tonnes in 2015 with a recycling rate of 23%. The municipal waste management and resource recovery strategy 2012-2020 assures high-quality waste management services and contributes to the health and wellbeing of the community and economic growth. Victoria has made continuous efforts to reduce waste from landfill (Zaman, 2014). The recovery rate of 55% in 2005-06 has increased to 67% in 2015-16. Victoria has also 30-year planning framework for the waste and resource recovery system. It is supported by 3 strategies Victorian organics resource recovery strategy, market development strategy for recovered resources and waste education strategy. The e-waste is also imitated by the Victorian government which covers a range of items used and discarded from the daily lives (Kumar, Holuszko & Espinosa, 2017). It comprises TV, computers, kitchen appliances, and mobile sets.
The Victorian government has implemented programs in order to avoid generating waste and building recognition that waste can be a valuable resource. The waste is growing in Victoria even though the less wastage is produced per person than ten years ago. Victoria produced 12.8 million tonnes of wastes in 2015-16. As per the government agency, the waste is projected to generate more than 20 million tonnes by 2043 (The age, 2018). The amount of waste is going to increase in the future along with the increasing population. According to Sustainability Victoria, it is going to cost between $3.6 billion to $5 billion in the next thirty years to accomplish the tackle the increase in waste and improve recycling regime so that less garbage goes to the landfill. In Victoria’s waste management, one third which is thrown out becomes landfill (Gallen, et. al. 2017). Although there is no precise prediction of the waste proportion which can be regarded as hazardous or regulated. It is anticipated that the volume of waste will grow nearly by 4%.
The landfills are often recycled by the Victorian government particularly in the business and industries segment. It is considered to be an unverifiable problem. Victoria faces various challenges in addressing waste management. The activities conducted on the daily basis puts pressure on the environment. Victoria has witnessed the fast increase in the waste generation. The waste amounted to 2.1 million tonnes in 2013-14. It has increased over the decades. The waste reduction is a challenge along with the resource recovery in the state. The major challenge confronted by the Victorian government is the lack of understanding in managing waste (Wilson, 2017). There is a large amount of waste which need to be managed, it creates difficulty in maintaining services and infrastructure. There is inadequate space for the landfills and creates problems in the cities like Melbourne.
It has been observed that there is a rapid increase in the waste generation. It is due to the increased disposable income, lavish lifestyle, unjustifiable consumption and more. The increasing number of the population also leads to the increased waste. The investments made by the government also could not attain sustainable performance (De Feo & De Gisi, 2014).
Victoria is dedicated to face challenges of waste creation and aims to reduce waste of 300 kgs by 2021. The government has associated 13000 green jobs. It can be successful in closing the gap along with the correct amount of investment (Zaman, 2015).
Conclusion
From the above report, it can be concluded that hazardous waste is generated in the huge quantity in Victoria. The hazardous waste affects both human health and the environment. The government at Victoria is responsible to manage hazardous wastes. The environmental protection laws of Victoria prescribe the hazardous waste management as prescribed industrial waste (PIW). The regulation and management of hazardous wastes are provided through the environmental protection (industrial waste resource) regulations 2009. The waste is either recycled or landfilled. The government provides funds for the management of hazardous waste in Victoria. The judicial framework of state suggests that hazardous waste management is the responsibility of every person. The prediction of future waste quantities anticipates that there will be an increase in waste generation due to the increasing number of population and their increased disposable income. It causes challenges in the effective hazardous waste management.
References
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Inglezakis, V. J., & Moustakas, K. (2015). Household hazardous waste management: A review. Journal of environmental management, 150, 310-321.
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Manahan, S. E. (2017). Industrial ecology: environmental chemistry and hazardous waste. Routledge.
Nair, S., & Abraham, J. (2018). Hazardous Waste Management with Special Reference to Biological Treatment. Handbook of Environmental Materials Management, 1-27.
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The age, 2018. What a waste: Victoria’s rubbish pile projected to hit 20 million tonnes a year. Retreived on 4 September, 2018 from www.corrierecomunicazioni.it/digital-economy/glocus-ernstyoung-niente-agenda-digitale-senza-una-governance-centrale/
Wilson, D. (2017). Hazardous waste site soil remediation: theory and application of innovative technologies. Routledge.
Yilmaz, O., Kara, B. Y., & Yetis, U. (2017). Hazardous waste management system design under population and environmental impact considerations. Journal of environmental management, 203, 720-731.
Zaman, A. U. (2014). Measuring waste management performance using the ‘Zero Waste Index’: the case of Adelaide, Australia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 66, 407-419.
Zaman, A. U. (2015). A comprehensive review of the development of zero waste management: lessons learned and guidelines. Journal of Cleaner Production, 91, 12-25.
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