Waste management

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**1. Waste Management Principles and Strategies:**
– Waste hierarchy categorizes strategies as Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
– Aims to extract maximum benefits from products and minimize end waste.
– Sequential stages include re-use, recycling, material recovery, waste-to-energy, and disposal.
– Life-cycle stages provide opportunities for policy intervention.
– Effective waste management practices include the 7R practice: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Repurpose, Recycle, Recover.

**2. Waste Management Lifecycle and Product Design:**
– Life-cycle of a product progresses through stages of the waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle.
– Each stage offers intervention opportunities to minimize waste.
– Rethinking product necessity and redesigning for waste reduction are key interventions.
– Design, manufacture, distribution, and primary use are key stages in product life-cycle management.

**3. Municipal Solid Waste Management:**
– Involves waste from household, industrial, and commercial activities.
– Municipal solid waste expected to reach 3.4 Gt by 2050.
– Effective waste management is costly, comprising 20%-50% of municipal budgets.
– Integrated, efficient, and sustainable systems are essential for waste management.

**4. Waste Management Practices and Policies:**
– Resource efficiency aims to minimize waste and optimize resource utilization.
– The polluter-pays principle shifts responsibility to those causing pollution.
– History of waste management shows evolution from pre-modern to modern era practices.
– Waste handling, transport, and segregation methods vary globally.

**5. Waste Disposal Methods and Hazards:**
– Hazards of waste management include health risks and environmental strain.
– Financial models for waste management vary between domestic and commercial waste disposal.
– Disposal methods include landfill sites, incineration, and waste segregation.
– Incineration helps reduce waste volume and generate energy but requires proper methods to minimize harmful emissions.

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