Question

You are the city manager of a medium sized city in a rural area, around a population of 20,000. Your city applied for and received a grant from an organization that will allow you to develop a system of systems approach to the regional solid waste issues. What would be your approach? Look at how you could improve recycling, gain energy from the collected resources, reduce the amount of material sequestered into a landfill, and what would you do with items such as tires and e-waste. Your goal is to be creative yet efficient and maybe even break even on costs.

Answer 1

Solid waste management approach :

The three Rs - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. There are many easy and practical ways that YOU can reduce the amount of solid waste you produce, and keep Tobago clean and beautiful. Here are a few ideas.

REDUCE

• Take your own bag or basket to the grocery and market.
• Do not accept bags for your purchases in stores unless you really need them (e.g. you do not need to place a bag of bread in another bag).
• Choose products wrapped in the least unnecessary packaging.
• Buy everything you can in bulk (large economy sizes) rather than small packages that use much more wasteful packaging.
• Try using concentrated products (e.g. soap) which need less packaging.
• Buy vegetables loose rather than in plastic bags.
• Compost vegetable scraps and garden waste. This can account for up to three-quarters of the waste you produce.
• Don't waste food and store leftovers in a reusable container.
• Give your food scraps to animals.
• Maintain and repair items (e.g. clothes, appliances) so they last longer.
• Sell or donate things you don't want instead of throwing them out (e.g. clothes, books can be sold at garage sales or handed down to younger ones).
• Borrow, rent or share things you don't use often (e.g. tools).
• Use cloth napkins, sponges and dishcloths instead of paper towels and napkins.
• Do not take more than you need to use. For example, don't take packets of ketchup, napkins, or utensils from restaurants unless you need them.
• Use low-energy fluorescent bulbs that last longer than the regular incandescent bulbs.
• If you mow your lawn or trim plants, let the trimmings remain on the soil to decompose and release important nutrients for the plants to use or use them in a compost bin.

REUSE

• Use both sides of paper. Keep a collection of scrap paper to reuse.
• Wash plastic containers and jars and reuse.
• Buy things in plastic or glass containers that can be reused.
• Reuse boxes.
• Use reusable containers for food instead of disposable boxes, plastic wrap, foil, or sandwich bags.
• Reuse plastic bags.
• Ask restaurants to use reusable food containers that can be washed (or at least paper which is less damaging to the environment).
• Reuse envelopes.

RECYCLE

• Join the paper-recycling programme of the Environment Division of the Tobago House of Assembly and the Solid Waste Management Company Limited. Call 660-7636 for more information.
• Make your own recycled paper.

Use of e waste :

Don’t trash them. First, we should never throw e-waste in the trash! Even the small stuff like phones or batteries shouldn’t go in the trash. There are some toxic (dangerous) chemicals in these products that don’t belong in the trash. It’s bad for our environment, plus it means throwing away valuable metals that can be recycled.

Pass them on for reuse.  Sometimes you have something that still works, but you don’t use it any more. But somebody else might use it. The best thing to do is to give it to someone else who can keep using it (only if your parents say it’s ok.) If you don’t find a family member or friend who wants it, you can often donate it to a charity in your community.

Recycle them.  If you can’t find someone who wants to use your old gadget, then you can recycle it. You probably already recycle newspapers or bottles or cans from your house. Electronics can be recycled, too.

Thank you. Hope you understand. If you have any doubts comment me. Upvote me..