Household waste management

By Super Admin

Monday, June 27, 2011, 11:11

The house in which you and your family live needs to be clean and tidy as well as hygienic too for a good health of your family. The Household Waste management promotes the safe use, storage and disposal of hazardous materials by educating consumers to identify and avoid potentially hazardous products buy only what is needed, use it up completely or share leftovers with someone who can use it recycle those materials that can be recycled, and dispose of leftover or unwanted products through hazardous waste collection facilities.

Studies indicate that on an average, each person in urban areas produces half a kilogram of garbage each day. Ten percent of Indians live in urban areas. This calculates to more than 20 million tonnes of garbage each year in cities alone! This garbage takes up precious land and is a major source of disease. Just a few kilos of putrid garbage can cause a dangerous disease epidemic. If we continue to accumulate garbage at the current rate, our children and grandchildren will have no hope for a quality life.

It is important to reduce the amount of waste we produce. This can be done in many ways including those listed below. It is better to reduce the amount of waste we produce so we send less to landfill. Shop smart, consider the packaging that foods are contained in. Buy loose fruit and vegetables for example. Consider buying in bulk to minimise packaging waste. Do not buy disposable items such as razors and pens.

There are numerous ways that we can re-use products that we buy. A number of these are listed below, but there will be many more that you may come up with yourself.

Use re-usable Nappies. Buy re-useable carry bags from supermarkets. Use re-chargeable batteries. Buy re-useable items such as jam jars. Donate old clothes and shoes. Re-use the back of paper for scrap paper and use ice cream tubs as storage containers or lunch boxes

Many materials are collected across Leicestershire, which are taken to be recycled. There are bringing sites located across Leicestershire as well as the fourteen Recycling and Household Waste Sites. In addition there are kerbside collections in each of the seven districts collecting a variety of materials.

The materials collected are listed below (this may vary depending on the site)

Paper
Card
Glass Bottles and Jars
Plastic bottles
Scrap Metal
Green Waste
Textiles
Engine Oil
Car Batteries
Fridges
White Goods
Wood
Mobile Phones
Batteries

There are other technologies that offer an alternative to landfill and enable energy recovery from waste.

Incineration

Once we have reduced, re-used and recycled, the remaining waste can be incinerated at 'Energy from Waste' plants. Waste is stored at the plants until it is needed to fuel the boilers to create energy. The most widely used process is the 'mass burn'.

The mass burn involves rubbish being burnt on a moving great. Air is normally injected both above and below the grate to make sure that the rubbish is burnt properly. The inside of the boiler's combustion chamber is filled with metal pipes, which are filled with water. The water in the pipes is heated and turn into steam when the waste is burnt. It is this steam that turns the blades of the turbine, which is like a giant propeller. The rapid rotation of the turbine is used to turn an electromagnet that produces the electricity. Around 10% of this electricity is used to run the plant and the rest is sold outside.

Once the steam has turned the turbines it is cooled and turned back into water. This water is then used to start the whole process again. Once the process is complete there is only ash left in the combustion chamber. The ash is passed along a conveyor belt, which passes by a magnet where any magnetic metals are removed. The remaining ash is then sent to landill and in some instances used for road construction.

When waste is burnt it reduces the mass of waste going to landfill as well as reducing the amount of fossil fuel used to create electricity.