Digging the topic - part 1

MSW: metal silicon and water or Municipal Solid Waste?

In the welcoming post, I tried to explain a few general concepts about what "recycling process" means, defining also "reuse" and "reduce" as two highly related and essential actions. Focusing on the waste, I basically pointed out that most of the rubbish that we produce has a second life.

At this stage of my blog, I would like to go more in depth about few more waste topics in order to have a more precise idea of the issue in terms of typology, quantity and treatment. Therefore, I divided the discussion in three parts. In "Digging the topic - part 1" I will address the waste classification, in "Digging the topic - part 2" I will briefly deal with the waste production while in "Digging the topic - part 3" I will analyse how the waste is treated once collected.

Listing the categories of waste is an essential starting point because it helps to create an overview of all the items that we constantly throw away. According to the UK Government website, the waste classification includes:
1. Construction and demolition waste (tiles, ceramics, bituminous mixtures, etc.);
2. Packaging waste and recycling;
3. Electronic and electrical equipment (batteries, televisions, laptops, tablets, furniture, WEEE, etc.);
4. Vehicle and oily wastes (consists of all the items related to ELV, “End of Live Vehicles”);
5. Healthcare waste (pharmacies, hospitals and clinic related waste);
A similar classification of waste is presented in the "Review of Environmental and Health: Effects of Waste Management" report (released by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affair - Defra) and it includes also agricultural waste as well as mine and quarry waste. Instead, the European Commission, suggests more distinct waste categories, including specific items such as POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutant), PVC or Sewage Sludge. Moreover, it splits the electronic devices in several different subcategories: batteries, WEEE (waste electrical electronic equipment), television, furniture and so on.
Nonetheless, the most evident and common element of all these classifications is represented by the Municipal Solide Waste (MSW), a term that includes sub-groups of waste like packaging or recyclables. It basically refers to all the waste coming from our houses, offices, schools and commercial activities (figure 1): plastic, paper, glass, textiles, shoes, food waste, cans etcetera. I will be using the acronym MSW quite often because most of the topics, processes and implication that I wish to talk about fall within this group. Moreover, the MSW is by far the type of waste that most commonly involves the humankind.

Figure 1: waste classification according to the "Review of Environmental and Health: Effects of Waste Management" report (Defra - 2004), modified. Main attention for the MSW, no quantity information are mentioned. (click to enlarge).

 

Last but not least, there is a different approach of waste classification which divides waste in two big categories: hazardous and non hazardous, depending if contains materials defined as "harmful to humans or the environment" (e.g. asbestos, solvents, chemicals, pesticides, etc.) or not. If we have, for instance, a plastic bottle contaminated with asbestos, it will be firstly considered as a hazardous waste rather then a simple MSW. However, this kind of waste classification needs a more careful consideration and I will discuss it properly in a future post.

Summarizing "Digging the topic - part 1", I described what kind of waste we produce by presenting the classification taken from the UK government (using both the website and Defra reports) and the typology offered by the European Commission. Among the main categories, I gave more attention to the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) as it is a kind of waste that we most produce everyday: cardboard, paper, packaging, plastic, cans, etc.

I am going to post "Digging the topic - part 2" in the next days where I will give some data about how much waste we produce.

See you soon on RE-cycling!