Waste management is a part of life for businesses and households all over Sydney. There’s always waste to deal with, and how we choose do that is incredibly important. Sustainable waste management is our goal at Sydney City Rubbish. More and more businesses around Sydney and Australia share this goal, and aim to create a greener waste management industry.
But what exactly is sustainable waste management?
What is waste management?
First of all, it’s essential to define waste management itself. This is the act of managing (aiming to reduce) the production, storing, and disposing of rubbish materials. In essence, it’s everything to do with junk and waste. Whether it’s household rubbish, office junk, construction waste or something else, dealing with all of these materials falls under waste management.
Reducing waste
Reducing waste is the first step in waste management. Unfortunately, it’s often a forgotten step, so the first step really becomes storing waste. However, making a conscious effort to measure and reduce waste is important for sustainable waste management. In essence, it negates your impact on the environment.
Storing waste properly
Waste storage is important in homes and businesses. There needs to be adequate storage (bins), and the right storage for the right waste. Storage options should keep waste away from people, and secure. This prevents bacteria from spreading from bins into the home or office. It also keeps rodents and bugs away from the waste.
Removing waste efficiently
Once waste has been stored, it does need to be removed from your premises. Homes and businesses do receive a weekly rubbish removal service from the local council. However, oftentimes, this isn’t enough. Offices, retail businesses, and even construction sites end up with large amounts of waste that require professional service. This is where expert Sydney rubbish removal comes into play.
Disposing of waste
Once the waste has been removed, it needs to be disposed of. For households, that means the council taking your general waste and recyclables to their facilities. Much of the time, that means most of your waste ends up in a landfill. They may also take green waste. However, if there is more junk, disposing of your waste will need to be done by a professional rubbish removal company in Sydney, like Sydney City Rubbish.
What makes waste management sustainable?
Now that we’ve covered waste management, we can take a closer look at what makes sustainable waste management.
Sustainability itself refers to the ‘avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance’. Therefore, sustainable waste management means reducing our waste to ensure that we avoid depleting natural resources while negating our impact on the environment, through proper waste disposal.
Here are some of the elements that create a more sustainable waste management process.
Meaningful reduction of waste
Reducing your waste is the best thing you can do for the environment. It can even have a positive financial impact on your business or your household! Reducing waste is best done by reducing your use of certain items. That means not over-cooking, not buying unnecessary items that will only end up in landfills in the near future, and choosing items that will last longer, rather than those which are single-use or poor quality.
Donating used items
Donating used items is a fantastic way to give secondhand furniture, clothing, or other pieces a new lease on life. You can do this by taking items to a charity store, placing the items in allocated bins, or working with a waste management company. At Sydney City Rubbish, we run a Facebook group for people in Sydney, who wish to give away items for free. This helps to close the waste loop, ensuring that brand-new items do not need to be manufactured.
Go paperless
If you manage an office-based business, there’s a good chance you still use paper. In fact, businesses in Sydney still create tons of paper waste every single year. The good news is that there are so many programs and applications on offer, that it’s almost certain you can still do your work while using far less paper. In the end, the environment will thank you.
Refrain from using soft and single-use plastics
Soft plastics and single-use plastics have caused horrific pollution all over the world. While we are better off than some nations, Australia still struggles with plastic pollution every day… and it’s only getting worse. Once you are aware of what single-use plastics you use, you can much more easily reduce this use, creating a more sustainable waste management system in your home or your business.
Why is sustainability important?
Sustainability is incredibly important for reducing pollution, reducing the amount of virgin resources used, and eliminating waste from our cities, oceans, and all other lands. There is already far too much pollution on our planet, and we must do everything to firstly stop more waste, and also reduce the amount of existing waste.
A sustainable approach also means we won’t need to tap into the Earth’s resources to create more items through the manufacturing process. If we can recycle a huge degree of waste and use it again when producing new items and products, we’re ‘closing the loop’. That means we’re protecting the environment, reducing carbon emissions, and producing less waste.
Some important statistics and facts about sustainable waste management
Facts and statistics are a great way to get a better understanding of sustainability and waste management. Here are some important facts to take into account when thinking about sustainability and waste management.
– In 2016/17 Australia produced 67 million tonnes of waste.
– 6.7 tonnes of that waste was organic waste.
– 8 million pieces of plastic enter the oceans, every single day.
– Around the world, 79% of plastic waste is sent to landfills. That means that only 21% of all plastic waste is recycled or repurposed.
– Sydney has a strategic action plan in place for 2017 to 2030. The plan encompasses many aspects of the city, including sustainable waste management goals. The plan aims to reduce waste produced per person by 15%.
– Around the world, 300 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced every single year.
– 100,000 animals die every year from ingesting plastic.
These facts are quite shocking, yet show exactly why sustainable waste management is crucial. The good news is that there are steps that you can take at home or at work to ensure you’re dealing with your waste in the most sustainable manner possible.
How to get better at sustainable waste management
Creating a more sustainable rubbish system won’t happen overnight… but you can make it happen quickly. There are a number of actions you can take that will have an almost immediate effect on your waste management system.
Understanding your waste
The first step to creating a more eco-friendly system is to understand your waste. You will need to know what kind of waste your business or your home is producing, and roughly how much. When you know your waste, you’ll have a much better idea of how to create a more sustainable system around this waste.
Planning is key
Once you know your waste, you can begin planning how to best handle waste management. That may involve providing more bins, encouraging your family or your employees to reduce their waste, or hiring a Sydney rubbish removal company to remove and handle larger waste items like furniture and appliances.
Know the impact of your waste
Knowing more about the impact of your waste can help encourage action. For example, if your office struggles with paper waste, educating your staff about the impacts of paper waste can help keep them motivated, and create more effective action. Simply let them know that every year, between 4 billion and 8 billion trees are cut down for paper.
Work with rubbish removal pros
If you’re struggling to deal with large volumes of waste, it’s time to call in the pros. At Sydney City Rubbish, we work with a wide range of businesses to achieve exceptional results. We always prioritise sustainability in all of our rubbish removal projects. That means repurposing, reusing, donating and recycling. This approach minimises the amount of waste that ends up in landfill… a welcome result.
Expert Sydney rubbish removal today
If you’re looking for expert Sydney rubbish removal services today, we’re ready to help. We deal with all kinds of rubbish in Sydney, and we do so with a green solution in mind. If you’re looking for help with your sustainable waste management plan, get in touch with us today.
