Good day all Steemians
Today's article is about how to mitigate the problems improper waste management pose for developing countries.
When you walk down the roads in most developing countries, heaps of dumps, sewage in gutters are common eyesights. These have adverse effects on the health of individuals, and the aesthetics value of the environment.
Before we begin, we should know the definition of waste and waste management.
According to oxford dictionaries
Waste is any material, substance, or by-product discarded as no longer useful or required after the completion of a process. Source
It is any material that is discarded after fulfilling its purpose. Your faeces is the result of the food you ate, your urine is the result of the water you took etc.
Waste management is a way of managing wastes. It includes activities that mitigate waste, starting from waste collection to the last, which is waste disposal.
Most developing countries lack the required technologies to curb waste problems. There are however some steps that must be followed to solve the problems posed by improper waste management in developing countries.
They include:
- Reduce
- Re-use
- Recycle
REDUCE
Prevention they say is better than cure. Individuals should try and reduce the amount of wastes generated. This involve cutting down on lavish lifestyle. To achieve this we should:
- Buy only what we need.
- Use reusable bags.
- Only cook what we can consume.
- Buy materials that last and can be used for a longer period of time.
following these rules would certainly reduce the amount of waste generated and go a long way in improving waste management in developed countries.
REUSE
This concept involves finding another purpose for the wastes you have discarded. We don’t practice reuse in developing cocountries. This explains why we find mountains, heaps of dumps eveverywhere; and when rain falls, there are a lot of used plastic bottles floating everywhere. This are items that can be reused.
- Our plastic bottles can be used to store other things,
- Our papers can be used to mold other things via paper marche,
- Our unused nylons can be converted to nursery beds to plant your your crops,
- Cardboard wastes can be converted to pet house, trash bins and so on.
We can’t just discard wastes after fulfilling their purpose. It is left for us to find another purpose for that waste which we discarded. This is a very important step to reduce the wastes generated by households.
RECYCLE
This is the last step in curbing waste management problems in developing countries. To recycle is to create a new useful material out of waste products. Here waste products we have discarded would be converted into useful products. Materials/substances that can be recycled include but not limited to Plastics, Water, Glass, Tyres, Paper, and Metal.
- Plastic wastes can be recycled and molded into same or different type of design which can be used for different purpose.
- The sewage water discarded can be treated, and recycled into water fit for consumption, and irrigation.
- Paper wastes can be recycled into new papers and tissue papers that can be used for educational purposes or other means.
It is our belief that after reading this article, we will change our stance on wastes and its management.
Don’t throw that bottle, paper, metal away yet, find another purpose for it, or you take it to the nearest recycle centre.*
