Moves for Effective Waste Management

The South Australian EPA is looking at standards for capturing energy from waste or Refuse Derived Fuel.  The standard has been through an extensive consultation phase.  They want to be sure that this is effectively managed.

They are also looking at waste recovery or in their words Waste to Resource issues.

This has got to be addressed.  We generate enormous tonnages of waste  and the main word is actually WASTE.  What we are tossing is made from the resources that we are so busy digging up and chopping down at an ever increasing rate.  This is all part of both environmental management and good energy management.

One really interesting article I read was about the number of mattresses we toss out each year. On the Sunshine Coast in Queensland 18,000 mattresses go to landfill each year.  These are mainly organic material that will emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

There are some opportunities for recycling mattresses.  Some can be reconditioned and carefully cleaned for distribution to charity organisations and a number of resources can be recovered for re-use in industry such as wood and coconut fibres, latex, wadding and foam, metal springs and some fabrics.

These are all examples of the things we need to take into account when we buy, use and dispose of all the STUFF we consume if we are to achieve environmental sustainability.

This is what needs to be addressed when we reduce our carbon footprint both at home and at work  and also when we do it properly in our businesses with environmental management systems.

Jean Cannon

Jean is an award winning consultant and trainer helping people and businesses around the world who want greater efficiency and reduced stress!

If you sometimes need to deal with staff errors and what is even worse, covered up errors that come back to bite, you are riding a time bomb and Jean will help you defuse it. Plus get you real recognition from markets and regulators.

The good news is that this is now available as online training so you only need to commit to one hour per week and no travel. You can even Do-It-Yourself! .

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 11:13 pm and is filed under Waste management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.