Sustainable Resource Planning - The Importance of Waste Management Facts and Figures

Minding waste management facts and figures of youron a localized basis and from a general, environmental
own company can help encourage change in theperspective.
society on a larger scale.Global warming will result from methane that's just
Organizations and companies would have to be veryallowed to leak to the air from a landfill. With the
specific in understanding waste management factscurrent number of 500 landfill-gas-to-energy projects
and figures for them to be sure that they are ablein the U.S., it is already possible for such to produce
to adopt a plan that is sustainable. Very often, anenough power using renewable energy that could
organization's management will only determine thatlight up 1.6 million homes.
recycling is a societal requirement and will not realizeIf a company makes an effort to gather waste
that with proper waste management, significantmanagement facts and to determine the correct size
savings can be accomplished.and scale of the problem, it will find that a systematic
Waste management facts generally show us that aswaste management program could save, by some
a society we are grossly inefficient. With the currentestimates as much as 1% of annual turnover. In
waste disposal practices, about 95% of the totaladdition, these are generally bottom-line savings and
volume of wastes go to the landfill, thereby beinglong-term, not short-term.
ineffective.Remember that customers and other stakeholders
A typical landfill is a grossly inefficient way of dealingare increasingly critical and insist upon measures of
with our mountains of waste. In some cases, we justsustainability prior to allocating the business to an
bury some of our solid wastes which areorganization. It follows that a company that is willing
non-biodegradable. In addition to the fact that theto go out of its way to show that it is sustainable,
landfill is an eyesore, it is responsible for theby publishing its waste management facts, can
generation of liquid leachate, methane and carbonexpect an exponential increase in reputation.
dioxide and our landfills are very contributor to ourWaste management could extend all throughout an
greenhouse gas problems.organization's lifecycle, which could even include the
In some cases, certain jurisdictions gather energysupply chain. Every company should take a leaf out
from waste, where waste is burned in a furnace toof Wal-Mart's book and insist that its suppliers
generate steam, or electricity. While this may seembecome equally as sustainable as the purchasing
to be an efficient way of dealing with certaincompany.
categories of waste, pollutants are a byproduct, both