Current Challenges in Waste Disposal
The research sets to analyze the current rate of modernization of the disposal of waste in Australia. There are a number of issues associated with the waste disposal system in Australia that are needed to be addressed. The research report will be discussing the modernized method of waste disposal in Australia, including the techniques of enhanced recycling and automated disposal of the waste. Analysis of the modernized techniques of waste disposal is important as the generation of waste is increasing at an exponential rate (Polprasert, 2017). The wastes that are not recycled or reused are generally disposed in the landfills. The growth of landfills can impact the quality of air and water. Methane that is produced by decomposition of the organic waste products contributes to global warming and therefore, identification of appropriate waste disposal technique is necessary. The government of Australia are taking several measures in ensuring safe disposal of the wastes and reduction in the pollution.
The project is justified as it will be evaluating the issue of disposal of waste in Australia and will be analyzing the actions that are taken by the government of Australia and waste disposal and in controlling the pollution. In this context, the issues related to waste disposal and the mitigation technique of the issues are discussed. The research will be conducted according to the research plan that is proposed.
The aims of this research project is to investigation of the process of disposing the waste and minimizing the pollution that are caused due to waste disposal in landfills.
The research questions that this research project will be evaluating are as follows-
- What are the actions taken by the Australian Government in controlling pollutions by disposal of waste?
- What are the issues and how the issues can be mitigated?
According to Li & Yang (2014), the construction industry in Australia presents a significant environmental impact mainly because of the generation of the large amount of wastes due to demolition activities. The construction industry of Australia accounts for 31% of the total wastes generation in comparison to all other Australian industries. Therefore, it is quite significant to identify the various processes that is related to the management of the waste. Researches prove that around 250 million tons of wastes are generated each year out of which, only 34% of the wastes are reused. Data proves that Australia is among those countries that generates highest amount of waste products. Since the amount of waste recycling is quite less, the increase in the generation of waste result in densely packed landfills that contributes to the increase in environmental pollution (Zaman, 2015). Data proves that an Australian produces more waste than an individual in comparison to certain other countries in the world. A family in Australia on an average produces 400 kilogram of wastes materials annually.
Solutions to the Challenges
The problem is quite significant mainly because waste materials take a lot of time to disintegrate. A glass bottle in a landfill nearly takes a million year to disintegrate. However, the glass wastes can be recycled quite easily (Calvo, Varela-Candamio & Novo-Corti, 2014). Therefore, it is vital to identify various waste recycling methods for managing the increase in waste generation in Australia. Furthermore, the researches prove that recycling of aluminium wastes saves a lot of energy. There are certain waste products that are not decomposed naturally. Example of such waste is plastic. Each year, about 4 billion plastic bags are used by the Australians.
Zaman (2014), discusses a technique of waste management, which is known as “Zero Waste Index”. Zero waste strategy is adopted by counties such as Adeliade. Different waste management strategies are needed to be implemented in order to reducing the dumping of waste in landfills (Lenzen & Reynolds, 2014). Increase of waste in landfills increases the environment pollution and therefore modernization of disposal of waste in Australia is needed.
The National waste policy provides an appropriate framework for waste and resource management in Australia. The Australian government ensures that the local government take the responsibility of management of wastes within the local areas (Thi et al., 2015). Therefore, the local government of Australia is involved a significant role in ascertaining appropriate waste collection, management of the landfills and enforcing awareness programs regarding recycling of wastes in Australia (Department of the Environment and Energy, 2019). Certain policies and programs are implemented by Australian government, which includes National waste policy of less waste and more resources. However, there are certain challenges associated with the management or recycling of the huge amount of wastes that are generated in Australia.
There are certain challenges that are faced in management of wastes in Australia. This is particularly because majority of the landfills in Australia lack appropriate onsite management, which in turn contributes to the additional threats in the environment (Marzouk & Azab, 2014). Long-term accumulation of the waste products in landfills pollute the ground water and other environmental habitats that make the process of waste management quite difficult (Salman et al., 2014). Accumulation of wastes in the landfills has certain other negative aspects as well, which include generation of potentially unsafe gases such as methane.
The national waste Policy therefore aims in avoiding the generation of waste product and reducing the waste by its proper treatment, disposal and recovery (Dajadian & Koch, 2014). The key challenges associated with the disposal of the waste in Australia are as follows-
Project Methodology
Solid waste and limited landfills: Disposal of the solid waste is associated with landfills. Dumping of wastes in landfills is one of the traditional methods of waste management. However, finding new dumping sites becomes a huge problem for Australia (Ahmad, Ahamad & Yusoff, 2014). For example, in Sydney, finding a landfill is so difficult that it is being suggested that the wastes can be dumped in other sites such as in an abandoned mine near Goulburn.
Liquid Wastes and Water Pollution: The sewage effluent constitute a large portion of liquid waste in Australia. Apart from that, the liquid wastes are produced from industrial processes that includes toxic chemicals. Most of the liquid wastes in Australia is disposed in the coastal region out of which only 1 percent is recycled (Booker, Quigley & Rowe, 2014). The contamination can increase the concerns related to availability of drinking water. Furthermore, the amount of the plastic wastes present in oceans is a threat in marine wildlife.
Gaseous waste and air Pollution: An increase in the levels of consumption of energy along with the generation of hazardous gases in in landfills. Reduction in the amount of gaseous wastes is necessary to reduce air pollution.
These are the major challenges associated with waste management in Australia. There are certain other issues associated with the management of wastes, which are needed to be discussed. Waste recycling can help in reduction of the wastes; however, there seems to have no mainstream acceptance of the recycling process or procedure that can help in easier disposal of the waste products (Song, Li & Zeng, 2015). Appropriate recycling method is necessary to be identified mainly because of the lack of usable landfills in Australia.
One of the appropriate methods of dealing the waste is to convert the waste to energy. Various waste management policies are proposed in order to ensure appropriate disposal of waste in Australia. The identified challenges are therefore needed to be addressed.
Solutions to the identified issues related to waste disposal are needed to be identified. The solutions to the improvement of waste disposal process in Australia are analysed in the following paragraphs-
Improvement in the recycling process of waste management in organizations is necessary for better wastes disposal. The recycling process related to single stream, in which people are allowed to move their trash in a trash bin has considerably reduced the count of the truck. Apart from that automated waste collection and protection has considerably helped in waste management.
Route optimization becomes necessary for reducing the hazardous emission associated with generation of wastes (Moh & Manaf, 2014). Automated trucks are installed for saving time and efforts in waste disposal in the existing routes. Automated trucks are associated with ecofriendly pick up which can easily simplify the waste management process.
While dealing with the waste management problems, modernized garbage dump has been developed. Highly engineered landfills can help in addressing the problems associated with the problem in reduction of landfill site in Australia (Ghiani et al., 2014). The modern and engineered landfills can help in ensuring complete protection of the human health surrounding the environment. Recycling of the disposed waste in Australia is a necessity as it improves the safety and wellbeing of the individuals.
Identification of project methodology is vital for conducting the research in an appropriate manner as it deals with the tools and techniques related to a research. The project methodology further locates the tools and techniques that are associated with the research study. This particular research is based on analyzing the various factors that are associated with the waste disposal in Australia. The research mainly aims in investigating the process of disposing the wastes in Australia, which in turn helps in minimization of the wastes. This section of the research project identifies the tools techniques and processes associated with the research.
A positivism research philosophy is applied in this research. Positivism philosophy helps in gaining the information related to the project based on logic and evaluation (Palinkas et al., 2015). An inductive research approach is chosen that helped the researcher in analyzing the secondary sources to collect data related to the research. Apart from that, a descriptive research design is used, that helped the researcher in defining the concepts is a detailed manner.
The researcher has collected secondary data from the publicly available resources in order to analyze the undertakings of Australian government in reduction of the wastes. The data collected from the secondary sources are analyzed according to the qualitative analysis method (Silverman, 2016). The qualitative data analysis method is associated with the analysis of non-numeric information that includes interview transcripts, notes, videos and audio recordings. The secondary data is collected from the sources that are publicly available (Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2014). The data includes the details of the issues faced in waste management and the actions taken by the government of Australia in accurate disposal of the waste. The qualitative data analysis therefore deals with the process of deriving an explanation to a specific phenomenon.
The focus of the data analysis chapter is to analyze the collected data in order to find answers to the research problem that has been identified at the initiation of the research. For understanding the technique of waste disposal in Australia and the related initiatives taken by the Australian government, the researcher has collected data from the previously published literature and books to find answer to the identified research questions (El Hanandeh, 2015). The literature review section of the research paper helped in identification of basic concept related to management of waste and the initiatives taken by the government of Australia in order to manage the wastes that are generated on a large scale. The data analysis chapter is expected to evaluate the identified research questions and find answers to them.
The research of analyzing the waste disposal in Australia is based on qualitative analysis of the identified data. Certain themes associated with the identified research problems have been set that can help in finding answers to the identified research questions. The collected data from the secondary sources will be analyzed on basis of the identified themes.
Australia generates a huge amount of waste each year, out of which, only 50% are recycled. The accumulation of the huge amount of wastes becomes a significant problem on environmental perspective (Booker et al. 2014). The purpose of waste disposal in Australia is related to the aim of reducing pollution in the country that are mainly generated from the waste products. The waste generated as a result of domestic and household waste are needed to be exposed and recycled (Reynolds et al., 2014). The commercial and the industrial wastes from the businesses and industrial wastes are needed to be treated in order to ensure efficient waste disposal (Owa, 2014). A per the government initiative, a key framework of waste management has been established in Australia. According to the waste management framework, preferences has been set in order to avoid creation of the wastes as one of the most desired outcome. The waste hierarchy in Australia is represented in the picture below
Waste avoidance reduces the amount of wastes that are generated by the household and the government. If the waste reduction is not possible recycling of the waste is recommended.
The waste disposal in Australia mainly occurs in nation’s landfills. However, the lack of landfills needs accurate waste disposal in Australia (Laurent et al., 2014). Furthermore, with the increase in the dump in the landfills and decomposition of the waste results in generation of the methane gas which is harmful for the environment. Therefore, disposal of the waste in Australia becomes essential.
Therefore, the important reason for management of the waste is protecting the environment to ensure health and safety of the populations of Australia (Triassi et al., 2015). There are certain types of wastes that can be hazardous for the environment. Appropriate sorting of the wastes is necessary to reduce the negative impact of wastes in Australia.
Appropriate waste disposal is a part of waste management as well. The wastes are needed to be managed as Australia generates a huge amount of waste each year (Marzouk & Azab, 2014). Therefore, it is quite vital to develop appropriate framework for the management of huge amount of solid and liquid waste. Management of liquid waste becomes a necessity mainly because it can possibly contaminate the waterways, which can be harmful for human. Therefore, it is quite essential to ensure that the waste management process in Australia is updated by the Australian government as per the needs of the country.
The government of Australia face certain challenges in management of the wastes in Australia. These challenges are identified in the literature review section of the report. One of the most significant challenges associated with the management of waste and its disposal in Australia is linked with the lack of usable landfills (Roberts, 2015). This in turn increases the need of identification of the appropriate waste management framework that can possibly help in analyzing and mitigating the issues associated with the disposal of wastes in Australia.
The literature review section identifies the main initiatives that are taken by Australian government for ensuring appropriate disposal of the wastes. The government of Australia has undertaken various initiatives to ensure that the wastes are disposed in an effective manner. Furthermore, for dealing with the problem of limited landfills, the Australian government has proposed an increase in the amount of wastes that are recycled each year. Recycling of the waste is one of the most effective techniques associated with the management and disposal of wastes in Australia. With the increase in recycle and reuse of the waste product along with the reduction in the generation of waste, it is possible for the Australian government to reduce the environmental effect as a result of the wastes.
It is quite important to locate the issues related to waste disposal in Australia in order to propose the mitigation approach of the issues. The main issues are identified in the literature review section of the research report. Lack of landfill in one of the major issues while exponential increase in generation of waste is another issue. As a negative effect of increase in the generation of wastes in Australia, certain environmental and health hazards can be identified. It therefore becomes integral for the government of Australia to identify proper risk mitigation approach in order to ensure that all the identified issues are addressed.
As a mitigation approach, appropriate framework for waste management is needed to be proposed. Along with that, it is necessary to educate the citizens about reduction of waste generation in Australia. It is essential for the citizens of Australia to reduce the generation of wastes which are non-biodegradable. Apart from that, an increase in rate of recycling of the waste products is necessary in order to address the issue of presence of limited landfills.
5. Conclusion
The research report discusses the current rate of modernization associated with the waste disposal in Australia. The research has been conducted by making use of secondary data. A qualitative data analysis method is used for analyzing the collected data sets.
The research was able to address the aims and the research questions that were identified for the research. The aim of the project was to investigate the process of waste disposing to minimize the pollution. The research study concludes with the fact that an increase of the process of recycling can help in minimizing the pollution.
The literature review section and the data analysis section addresses the two research questions associated with this research and seeks to find their answers.
The research limitations are as follows-
- Use of only secondary data sources
- No statistical Data Analysis
- Conduction of the research in a limited timeframe
The recommendations for the identified research questions are as follows-
Primary Data: For better analysis of the actions taken by the Government of Australia, use of primary data sources is recommended.
Waste Treatment As a mitigation approach against the increase in waste generation in Australia, appropriate waste treatment is recommended as it can help in efficient reduction of the environmental pollution as well.
References
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