Courtesy : Architects, engineers and environmental consultants Case Study
Life-cycle of a product
Main article: Product lifecycle
The life-cycle begins with the design, then proceeds through manufacture, distribution, and primary use and then follows through the waste hierarchy’s stages of reduce, reuse and recycle. Each stage in the life-cycle offers opportunities for policy intervention: to rethink the need for the product, to redesign to minimize waste potential, and to extend its use. Product life-cycle analysis is a way to optimize the use of the world’s limited resources by avoiding the unnecessary generation of waste.
Resource efficienc
Main article: resource efficiency
Resource efficiency reflects the understanding that global economic growth and development can not be sustained at current production and consumption patterns. Globally, humanity extracts more resources to produce goods than the planet can replenish. Resource efficiency is the reduction of the environmental impact from the production and consumption of these goods, from final raw material extraction to the last use and disposal. # ISO certification in India
Polluter-pays principle
The polluter-pays principle mandates that the polluting party pays for the impact on the environment. With respect to waste management, this generally refers to the requirement for a waste generator to pay for appropriate disposal of the unrecoverable material.# ISO certification in India
History
Main article: History of waste management
Throughout most of history, the amount of waste generated by humans was insignificant due to low levels of population density and exploitation of natural resources. Common waste produced during pre-modern times was mainly ashes and human biodegradable waste, and these were released back into the ground locally, with minimum environmental impact. Tools made out of wood or metal were generally reused or passed down through the generations.# ISO certification in India
However, some civilizations have been more profligate in their waste output than others. In particular, the Maya of Central America had a fixed monthly ritual, in which the people of the village would gather together and burn their rubbish in large dumps.# ISO certification in India
Modern era
Sir Edwin Chadwick’s 1842 report The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population was influential in securing the passage of the first legislation aimed at waste clearance and disposal.# ISO certification in India
Following the onset of industrialization and the sustained urban growth of large population centers in England, the buildup of waste in the cities caused a rapid deterioration in levels of sanitation and the general quality of urban life. The streets became choked with filth due to the lack of waste clearance regulations. Calls for the establishment of a municipal authority with waste removal powers occurred as early as 1751, when Corbyn Morris in London proposed that “… as the preservation of the health of the people is of great importance, it is proposed that the cleaning of this city, should be put under one uniform public management, and all the filth be…conveyed by the Thames to proper distance in the country”.# ISO certification in India
However, it was not until the mid-19th century, spurred by increasingly devastating cholera outbreaks and the emergence of a public health debate that the first legislation on the issue emerged. Highly influential in this new focus was the report The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population in 1842 of the social reformer, Edwin Chadwick, in which he argued for the importance of adequate waste removal and management facilities to improve the health and wellbeing of the city’s population.
In the UK, the Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act of 1846 began what was to be a steadily evolving process of the provision of regulated waste management in London. The Metropolitan Board of Works was the first citywide authority that centralized sanitation regulation for the rapidly expanding city, and the Public Health Act 1875 made it compulsory for every household to deposit their weekly waste in “moveable receptacles” for disposal—the first concept for a dustbin. In the Ashanti Empire by the 19th century, there existed a Public Works Department that was responsible for sanitation in Kumasi and its suburbs. They kept the streets clean daily and commanded civilians to keep their compounds clean and weeded.# ISO certification in India