Reducing and managing waste

Reducing and managing waste

Different Categories of waste:

·        Biodegradable

·        Recyclable

·        Organic

·        Inorganic

·        Toxic

 Biodegradable:

·        Waste that can readily decompose and return to the soil as uncontamiable

·        It is usually originates from plant and animal sources and can be broken down by other living organisms

·        Biodegradable waste, also referred to as bio waste, should be diverted before reaching landfill sites because in landfills sites it produces and releases methane gas into the environment that contributes to the greenhouse gas emissions. Bios waste can instead be effectively composted and as a result helps to prevent the carbon depletion of soil.

Recyclable waste:

·        Can be reused and fashioned into something else

·        Includes glass, rubber, paper, metals, electronic scraps, plastics scraps and computer components such as monitors, flash drive, hard drive, and cables.

·        Recycling is crucial part of the environmentally friendly waste disposal because it decreases demand for new material from our natural resources and decreases landfill needs

Organic waste:

·        Organic waste derived from living organisms as well as all carbon containing waste

·        Includes agricultural food industry residues. Such as food scrapes, leaves, grass, yard debris, biosolids from waste water treatment, plants, pulp, non-recyclable paper such as card board, slaughter house remains, wood and saw dust.

·        Disposed of by composting or dehydrated and granulated and spread on the lands as fertilizer, the granulation process enables the nutrients from organic waste to be released slowly into soil. Organic waste can also be converted to biomass fuel.

Inorganic waste:

·        Not derived from living organisms includes sand, glass, dust, synthetics, metals, and cement

·        Some types can be recycled such as glass and metal

·        Disposable diapers are an example of inorganic waste that takes hundreds of years to break down. They contain dioxins and other environmental contaminants and take up landfill space.

·        The human waste on the diapers is to be dumped in the toilet prior to disposal, otherwise methane gas forms in landfills

Toxic waste:

·        Harmful to humans, can cause death

·        Most difficult waste to dispose of in an environmentally friendly and safe way

·        Limiting the production of toxic substances, deep burying, burning and bioremediation can all reduce toxic waste exposed to the environment BUT both burying and burning are not exactly eco-friendly solutions

·        Burying often hides the problem leaving it for the future generations to deal with it.

·        Burning often releases toxic compounds into the atmosphere, and transfer the problem to a greater area by the spread of pollution or acid rain.

·        Bioremediation uses microbes to help eliminate toxic comperes in the environment.

·        Toxic waste examples include hospital waste or chemical waste

Argricultural Regulations

Agricultural Practices and Regulations

The pest management regulation agency (PMRA) is a branch of health Canada whose mission is to “protects human health and the environment by minimizing the risks associated with pest control while enabling access to pest management tools”.

o   Pesticides are, by their very nature, toxic, however are carefully regulated in Canada

o   The Pest Control Product Act (PCA) mandates that the PMRA prevents unacceptable risks to people and the environment from the use of pest control products

o   The pest management Regulatory Agency works in partnership with Agriculture and Agriculture food Canada to move toward sustainable pest management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM)

o   IPM is an effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of “common-sense-practice”

o   IPM use current, comprehensive information combined with pest control methods, manage pest damage by environmental means. 9lest hazard to people, property, and environment

o   By using integrated pest management, pest for specific crops are identified and strategies are researched to manage those pests   

Maximum Residue Limits for Pesticides

o   The PMRA set residue chemistry guidelines based on research of the effects of the chemicals on the consumer of the products

o   The guidelines state specific Max Residue Limit (MRL) for each chemical used on the agriculture. Certain percentage of the chemical residue from the pesticides is permitted to show up in the food derived from their crops.

o   Value of the MRL varies depending on the toxicity on the chemical used

Pesticide Risks

o   The difficulty with setting effective mas residue limits is that the effects of toxicity of the chemical in humans over time are hard to calculate

o   Animal studies are used to estimate the effects of large does exposures but rarely estimate the accumulated effect of all the chemical substances we are exposed to daily

o   Chemicals also do not affect each person equally. Different people may exhibit sensitivities or tolerance for certain chemicals. Also age and a person’s health play a huge role in how a chemical can affect one.