Environmental sustainability is a top priority for the administrators at Northern Beaches. It is such that clear goals to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfills have been formulated. This is to extend the use of these waste management facilities, as well as reduce the environmental hazards associated with having them congested.
For instance, one of the two functional landfills in the council is quickly reaching its capacity. As things stand, the Belrose landfill will be fully stretched to its limit by next year (2024). Other than this, the location of both landfills complicates things. This is given how these facilities are located close to coastal areas. You can read this study for more information on this.
The obvious commitment of the council’s administrators is therefore understandable. To this end, they have set a vision 2040 environmental sustainability goal.
This article offers effective waste management strategies to make the vision a huge possibility. Given how important it is that these goals are accomplished on or before this time, these strategies should not be taken lightly. Rather, they should influence decisions going forward.
Strategies for Landfill Decongestion
For the record, landfill congestion affects everyone. As a result, everyone needs to be committed to the actualization of environmentally sustainable goals. Some of the strategies to help ensure this include the following:
Public Awareness
As mentioned earlier, everyone has to come on board for this vision to be actualized. However, it would not be possible if people knew very little or nothing about the goal and the need to see it actualized.
It therefore becomes the responsibility of major stakeholders to create the much-needed public awareness. Various education programs should be organized to this effect. The right channels also have to be used for this purpose.
For example, virtually everyone is on social media platforms. As a result, such platforms should be utilized for this purpose.
Furthermore, the task of educating the general public should not be left to a few parties. All the major stakeholders need to get involved as earlier mentioned.
For example, rubbish removal companies need to play their part in educating new, old, and prospective clients on the need to avoid environmentally damaging waste disposal methods. This is rather than leaving the task to pertinent government institutions alone.
Regulatory Framework
Rules and regulations underlining how waste management should play out in the council should be drafted and implemented. In all fairness, the council has done quite a lot in this regard. However, the question is whether these guidelines are sufficient to see the actualization of landfill decongestion vision by 2040.
Against this backdrop, there is a dire need to revisit the framework and ensure that the needed changes are effected.One major area of focus should be implementing punitive measures for violators, which is essential when dealing with severe situations that demand significant actions.
Waste Segregation
Perhaps the term “waste” used to describe these items is deceptive. The reason for this take is because of the huge reuse value of many of the items that are termed as waste. For example, a lot of white goods contain items and elements that include:
- Aluminum Parts
- Copper Tubing
- Plastic Parts
- Glass
- Insulation Materials
- Fasteners
- Hardware Items
- Electronic Components
- Cables and Wiring
- Stainless Steel
- Gaskets & Seals
- Motors
- Blades & Fans
- Rubber Components
- Heat Exchangers
- Racks & Shelving
For the record, these are only a few of the items that can be recovered from disposable white goods. Furthermore, other waste items besides white goods have so much reusable value.
In light of this, waste items need to be properly segregated to determine which goes into the recycling plant, as opposed to the ones meant for the landfill. This is why waste management practices hinged on waste segregation should be prioritized by everyone at large.
As a result, people need to make a habit of engaging professional rubbish removal companies. You can see https://www.ridlyrubbishremoval.com.au for more information on this. Pertinent government institutions also need to encourage people to engage the services of these service providers in the waste management business.
For the record, government-sponsored waste collection initiatives exist in the Northern Beaches Council. However, they are often burdened with the enormous task of servicing the needs of this huge council.
This leads to issues including slow and inconsistent collection times, leaving out a lot of waste, and more. This is more reason for people to engage professional rubbish removal companies that service the needs of people in Northern Beaches.
Local Community Collaboration
There are various parts of Northern Beaches. The implication is that many of these parts have peculiar waste management needs. As a result, effective rubbish removal in these areas would require understanding the peculiar waste management needs.
To this end, local community collaboration for the sake of understanding these peculiar waste management needs is important. This is also why locally-based rubbish removal companies should be engaged as they are in a position to understand the specific needs of their local community.
For the record, there are other reasons why locally-based rubbish removal companies should be engaged. The logistic advantage is another reason as it ensures fast execution of rubbish removal tasks, minimal carbon footprint, and cheaper services.
Infrastructure Investment
Effective rubbish removal for a decongested landfill requires certain infrastructures on various ends. Some of these infrastructures include the following:
Recycling facilities
Recycling is crucial in the decongestion of landfills. This is given how a lot of rubbish that would usually end up there will be processed for reuse in these facilities. As a result, these facilities must be made available.
Furthermore, these facilities should be capable of processing large quantities of waste and should be state-of-the-art. This requires investment from various stakeholders, including private and public players.
Compressing Facilities
There would still be a need for landfills as things are. The goal is not to eliminate the use of these facilities but to minimize their usage. Specifically, the goal is to have no more than 15 percent of waste items headed for landfills.
However, even items meant for disposal in landfills should not be transported there straightaway. They are first supposed to be compressed. This ensures that waste items in landfills do not take up as much space as they would if they were not compressed. This is important, especially given the volume of many rubbish items that end up in these facilities.
Both private and public stakeholders in the waste management business are expected to invest in such facilities. For example, the right rubbish removal company should have such to ensure waste items transported to landfills do not take up so much space.
Rubbish Collection Trucks
The right rubbish removal company would also invest in state-of-the-art rubbish removal trucks. These are the kinds of trucks that make rubbish collection a lot easier and quicker.
For the record, being well-equipped is important for these service providers. For this reason, it should be a major priority when choosing them.
Emergency Planning
Northern Beaches has a spectacular landscape and even amazing sights and sounds. However, it is not without its challenges including susceptibility to some natural disasters. For the record, flood, erosion, and fire are high on the list of natural disasters that this council is susceptible to.
While the hope is that these incidents do not occur, it is better to be prepared for them. This is to avoid being unprepared when these incidents occur.
To this end, effective waste management strategies would include having emergency plans for such times. This is crucial given how waste management usually becomes a huge challenge after these incidents.
Engaging Technology
Technological advancements are driving much-needed and improved changes across various industries and sectors. Waste management is no exception as several innovations contribute to effective waste management.
Examples include the use of tracking systems and smart bins. These innovations should be leveraged for effective waste management. This also calls for investment from stakeholders in the best interest of everyone. This is given how such investments would play a huge part in decongesting landfills and offering more.
Conclusion
Landfills in Northern Beaches need to be used as minimally as possible. This ensures that they service the council for a longer period, contribute to resource conservation, and significantly reduce adverse environmental impact.
Against this backdrop, the strategies for effective rubbish removal discussed in this article need to be taken seriously. The truth is that this calls for being very proactive with these strategies.
