CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Waste production has been an inevitable problem in the history of mankind. As human populations continue to grow, so does the production of waste. Waste production increases faster than the rate of urbanization. Every year, 1.3 billion tons of solid waste is produced globally (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). Waste production is predicted to increase to 2.2 billion tons by 2025 and more than double in low-income countries in the next 20 years (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). In the United States alone, about 250 million tons of trash is produced every year (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010).
Waste production increases with a rise in a country’s standard of living. As the economic wealth of a country increases, the country’s consumption also increases, which results in the potential increase in the amount of waste produced (Achankeng, 2003). For example, a research conducted in India showed an increase of 49% in the country’s population resulted in an increase of 67% waste production (UNEP, 2001). There are substantial variations in the amount of waste generated between and within countries. More waste is produced in North America, particularly in the United States than in any other region (Figure 1). Waste generation is lower in rural areas than urban areas (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012). This may be due to lower densities of people living in rural areas. More than half of the world’s population today live in cities, where waste generation is high.
Figure 1. Waste generation by region showing most of the waste production in the developed countries.
By 2050, the population of people living in the cities will be as large as the entire human population in 2000. This population will eventually produce a large amount of waste. (Hoornweg & Bhada-Tata, 2012).
Waste Management Practices and Health Implications
The increase in the amount of waste produced will result in the need for a proper waste management technique. In the past, there were no standard waste management practices until the occurrence of some serious pollution incidents due to of improper waste management. As a result governments had to enforce regulatory frameworks that deal with the management of waste. The main waste disposal technique for some countries are landfilling and incineration (Giusti, 2009).
Figure 2. Waste management hierarchy of practices that involve complete waste disposal and diversion to other means. Credit: WHO
Landfilling involves the burying of waste in landfills, while incineration deals with burning of waste materials. Other waste management practices are composting of waste, reusing and recycling (Figure 2). As of 2014, about 136 million tons of the total 258 million tons of waste produced in the United States are landfilled. Some 89 million tons are recycled and composted while the remaining 33 million tons are incinerated (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2014).
With the advent of science and technology, management of waste became more organized and focused (Giusti, 2009). Nevertheless, poor waste management led to serious environmental and health issues. Specifically, mismanagement of waste leads to water, air and land contamination, which eventually affect public health (Giusti, 2009). Environmental problems include water and air pollution. Water is
contaminated by leachate, which comes as a result of water percolation through the waste deposit. Air is contaminated through burning of waste particles. Also, solid waste particles that are not properly disposed of serve as breeding sites for insects, promoting air and water-borne diseases (Alam, Chowdhury, Hasan, Karanjit, & Shrestha, 2008).
Diseases such as cholera are contracted as a result of contamination of water by some pathogens (Giusti, 2009). Pathogens are disease-causing agents. Health issues are connected to the practices of handling and disposal of waste. This involves recycling activities and exposure to emissions caused by incineration and the odor from landfills. Exposure to emissions from incinerators is mostly due to inhalation and in case of water, it occurs as a result of consumption of water that is contaminated by leachate (Giusti, 2009). In developing countries, waste is mostly dumped in lowland areas, and there are no imposed regulations for waste disposal. Solid waste may not be separated from infectious and toxic wastes that are harmful to waste scavengers and the environment (Alam et al., 2008).
Specifically, landfills affect human health by causing congenital malformations. Incineration on the other hand increases the risk of developing a group of blood cancer that evolved from lymphocytes known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and sarcomas. It also leads to poor air quality and can cause acid rainfall. Composting of waste as a waste management practice exposed workers to respiratory diseases (Giusti, 2009). None of these methods, though, helped reduce the amount of waste humans keep producing. This led people to think about how to manage waste and if
there was any other way to treat or use waste. This is how the recycling and reuse of waste started (Skinner, 1993).
There are several factors that affect waste management practice. According to (Guerrero, Maas, & Hogland, 2013), there are several factors that affect waste production, separation and management in developing countries. Some of these factors include; lack of knowledge on technologies to use for waste management, lack of equipment, and absence of decision makers. Also, public awareness influences individual behavior towards waste management practices. Knowing the consequences of waste mismanagement to the environment and individual health influence people’s practice of proper waste management (Guerrero et al., 2013). The more environmentally aware an individual is, the more likely he is to properly dispose of household waste, separate toxic from solid waste, avoid littering, and pay for waste management services (Imam, Mohammed, Wilson, & Cheeseman, 2008). Educating people about the importance and significance of waste management increases their level of participation in waste management programs (Nnorom, Ohakwe, & Osibanjo, 2009).
Generally, the condition of waste management practice in developing countries is very critical because it is not considered a priority. Water quality, lack of food, poor education, widespread of diseases are major problems in developing countries that make waste management not a major priority (Giusti, 2009). In contrast, several U.S. cities have already banned the use of packaging materials, particularly plastic bags, as have some countries in Africa, such as Kenya recently in 2017, Morocco in 2016, and Rwanda in 2008. Kenya has severe penalties for violators (BBC, 2017). This is
done in order to reduce the amount of waste generated. Plastic bags are believed to contribute heavily to waste production (Skinner, 1993).
The problem with some of the waste management techniques is not just limited to public health consequences but other financial constraints. Landfilling as a technique needs to be operated on a large scale. This requires financial input mostly from the government. Also, the cost of completely cleaning up a dumpsite is a burden on a nation’s economy. Even though cleaning of dumpsite provides business opportunities between countries, there is a need to identify the environmental consequences and costs of waste management system. The more productive technique to consider for waste management is recycling (Skinner, 1993). It is more reliable than the aforementioned techniques because it involves converting what is considered useless into useful and valuable items (Cooper, 2008).
Recycling
Recycling is the environmental reprocessing of disposed waste. Recycling is more than just a way to transform waste to raw materials, but also a way of reusing old materials into new forms through maintenance and repair. Recycling is not just limited to plastic bags and plastic containers. Paper, metals and glass can also be recycled. Recycling is done as a means of reusing items through extending their lives in another useful form. It is considered an easy way to maintain already existing things (Werrett, 2013). Globally, recycling is not done on a large scale. From the 250 million tons of trash that is produced in the United States, only 65 million tons is recycled (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2010).
In developed countries, recycling involves industrialized activities and is considered as part of the daily life of each citizen. Thus, in these types of countries, research on recycling considers technical applications of models and tools. Socio-economic factors that affect recycling in the developed world include education, income, consumption patterns, gender, and age (Troschinetz & Mihelcic, 2009).
In contrast, developing countries have only few researches that focus on recycling. Most of these few researches were done in China and Mexico. These researches considered belief as one of the factors that influence recycling and other environmental behaviors. This entails the belief and understanding of reasons to recycle. Both Mexico and China are on the transition state to become developed countries. Other factors that influences recycling in developing countries are government policy, a country’s finance, knowledge of solid waste management and land availability (Troschinetz & Mihelcic, 2009). In a similar study that was conducted in 2012 on 22 developing countries from 4 different continents, findings showed that citizens that get information on the benefits of recycling are more likely to recycle waste materials (Guerrero et al., 2013).
Recycling has an advantage to the environment over other waste management techniques. Proponents of recycling opined that using products that are made from recycled materials has a benefit of reducing environmental pollution caused by litter. Another advantage is that recycling preserves biodiversity; by recycling and not using landfills, the land can be used for more productive means rather than just filling it with waste (Black, 1995) .
Consumer preferences toward green products
Today, most people are concerned about what they use in the environment because they care about the quality of life of future generation (Khan & Mohsin, 2017). This is unlike the way the ancestors have lived (Khan & Mohsin, 2017). For consumers who are concerned with the negative impacts of products on the environment, they consider it a good idea to use “green” or environmentally friendly, products (Bhatia & Jain, 2013). Green products are those that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Most examples of green products are domestic materials that were made from discarded papers or plastics, recyclable packaging materials, cleansers made from biodegradable materials, pollution-free agents and energy-efficient light bulbs (Mainieri, Barnett, Valdero, Unipan, & Oskamp, 1997).
The major concern with the environmental consequences of not using green products is mostly due to climatic factors, environmental degradation, which give rise to global warming and the stratospheric ozone layer depletion. This eventually results to increasing air, land, and water pollution and subsequently the destruction of natural habitats (Khan & Mohsin, 2017). Therefore, using green products has an advantage of making the environment less polluted (Bhatia & Jain, 2013).
Since consumers are becoming more concerned about the consequences of what they consume and use to their health and the environment as well, they are beginning to change their attitudes and behavior towards their food and things they use (Biswas & Roy, 2015; Laroche, Bergeron, & Barbaro-Forleo, 2001). These concerns have increased the demand for products made by environmentally conscious firms. The goal of all sustainable production is to meet the needs of today without affecting the
environment’s ability to meet the needs for future generations (Forbes, Cohen, Cullen, Wratten, & Fountain, 2009). Companies are considering sustainable production as a competitive advantage (Bhaskaran, Polonsky, Cary, & Fernandez, 2006; Forbes et al., 2009; Mollá-Bauzá, Martinez-Carrasco, Martínez-Poveda, & Pérez, 2005).
In a study in New Zealand, environmentally sustainable wine was preferred by 75% of the respondents, whereas 5% of respondents had no preference for sustainably produced wine. According to the results, factors that influence consumer preferences to buying sustainable wine include proper labeling indicating that the wine is produced using environmentally sustainable techniques. Another significant factor are the environmental and health consequences of using the wine. Therefore, production of environmentally sustainable wines may yield a significant benefit in the market (Forbes et al., 2009).
