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Burning Issue : Waste Management

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Burning Issue: Waste Management According to the Conference Board of Canada, Canada is the world’s predominant per capita municipal waste producer. Canadians have produced more than 1000 kg of waste annually since 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2008: 7). The larger part of this waste is landfilled. With many landfills getting closer and closer to their maximum capacity, the environmental issues they cause and the continuous pressure they put on biodiversity, the need for quick action in this matter has never been more urgent. Waste products are treated in different ways and each of them has its own controversies. The key to solving this issue is indeed to prevent so much sewage from being produced in the first place. This essay attempts to…show more content…
One of the main issues regarding landfills is the fact that despite the awareness provided, compost waste is still being disposed along with other material in large amounts. Moreover, precipitation fallen on landfills causes a liquid containing unwanted material called leachate to form. (Assamoi, Lawryshyn, 2011) Furthermore, incineration is also a common method, which involves burning of waste material in specialized machinery and producing electricity in the process (Assamoi, Lawryshyn, 2011). Incineration causes a number of different problems such as releasing dangerous emissions of metals and other noncombustible matter into the atmosphere. A number of these emissions have local effects only, but many of them affect the environment on a much bigger scale. (National Research Council (US) Committee on Health Effects of Waste Incineration, 2000). In a research done by Wing et al. (1992), shows lower lung function rates in children living in areas close to incineration sites. In general, there is a link between both incinerators and landfills with reproductive issues and cancer. (Porta et al., 2009) In addition, there are of course political factors involved as well. In general, the Canadian waste disposal seems to be rather routinized for administrative sectors and is not addressed to as a political issue. (Latour, 2007:
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