EHSC 424: SUSTAINABILITY IN HOME SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

EDUCATION

LECTURE 3

Sustainable household waste management

Households are important actors in the minimization of waste that is currently hauled
off and disposed of at landfill sites. Waste management, concentrates on the removal
of rubbish from a private dwelling or business premises.
Households today embrace the three ‘R’ s of reuse, recycling and reduce with the
newest component concentrating on reducing the amount of waste operations
produced in the first place.
Such waste may be classified as:
■ Persistent or non-biodegradable which remains dangerous for a long time e.g. plastic
bottles and tin cans.
■ Bio-accumulative, which accumulates as it makes its way up the food chain e.g. some
chemical pesticides and herbicides.
■ Ecotoxic, which causes damage to the environment e.g. improperly treated used
engine oil.
■ Carcinogenic, which causes cancer e.g. asbestos.
Every kilo of waste equates to inefficiently used resources, in addition, the disposal of
waste has to be paid for so it can be disposed of.
Even though standards are improving, waste management facilities are still
significant polluters. Aside from the problem of illegal dumping, badly managed
landfill sites are a source of pollution; non-biodegradable rubbish for future
generations; releases the greenhouse gas methane into our atmosphere and damages
the landscape.
Incinerated rubbish can contribute to air pollution if incorrectly handled, likewise
recycling and composting vegetable material can also pollute if badly run.

Within the household, food and beverage remains accounts for a substantial amount
of waste. This waste can be defined as:

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Pre- and post-consumer food waste, packaging and operating supplies.
• Pre-consumer waste is defined as entailing all the trimmings, spoiled food and
other products from kitchens that end up as garbage before the finished menu
item makes it to the consumer.
• Post-consumer waste, is any rubbish left once the customer has consumed the
meal.
• Packaging waste, especially in the form of plastic that cannot biodegrade
naturally, is anything used to hold food coming into the kitchen and going out.
• Operating waste supplies encompasses every other piece of material used that
becomes wasted in a household operation, such as cooking oil and light bulbs.

In order to include all other forms of household waste that may not necessarily come
from food waste, household waste may be classified into:
- biodegradable/organic (vegetable and animal matter),
- non-biodegradable (inorganic matter) and
- E-waste (electronic waste) coming from computers, mobile phones, fax
machines, copiers, etc. E-waste is a new and worrying waste and although it is
fairly harmless while in use, these devices contain an assortment of heavy
metals such as lead, mercury and arsenic that are difficult to separate and
dispose.

Waste Reduction Tactics

• Households should procure products that promote waste prevention. Some
suppliers may be able to change products and packaging to reduce the waste
the household manages. For example, ask food service vendors if they can
deliver items in reusable containers.
• Consider buying or leasing used or remanufactured furniture, fixtures and
equipment. Typical remanufacturing operations performed by suppliers for
replacement of wornout parts, refinishing of metal or wooden surfaces,
repairing of scratches, dents and holes, and reupholstering cushions and

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 extending the life of furniture, fixtures and equipment through
remanufacturing reduces the rate at which they are discarded.
• Purchasing in bulk,
• Using recycled products
• Buying from suppliers that have a proper environmental policy in place,
• Moreover, buying products with a longer lifetime will also lead to decreased
waste.
• Encouraging suppliers to reduce their packaging,
• Reusing packaging or change to reusable packaging where possible

Strategic approach to waste management

This involves 3 main strategies of reducing, reusing and recycling.
1. Reducing
Reducing can be achieved by:
- reducing the number of times linen is replaced
- reducing regular household laundry work
- reducing the amount of leftover foods by serving just enough to eat or cooking
just enough.
2. Reusing
Reusing materials is a better choice than recycling, incineration or use of landfills.
Reusing differs from recycling in that recycling breaks down an item into its basic
parts and makes a new product out of it, but reusing an item keeps the material in its
original form and uses the item over and over again for the same or different purposes.
Examples of items that can be reused include old textile fabrics, containers, bottles,
glasses, food items for use as animal feeds etc.
3. Recycling
A recycled product describes a product that is made entirely or partly from secondary
material recovered from consumer waste. Some products are reduced to their raw
state and manufactured into something resembling their original state. Unfortunately,
many products recycled in this manner come back as lesser quality products. This
process is known as downcycling and happens to paper, plastic etc.

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However, recycling has some advantages; it saves tons of greenhouse gas emissions
per day, it conserves natural resources, it saves energy and reduces greenhouse gases
and pollution that result when scrap materials are substituted for primary raw
materials, reduces the cutting down of trees and drilling of oil e.t.c.

Household water conservation

A third of the world’s population contends/struggles with severe water shortage and
many western countries are struggling against depleting water sources and increasing
water needs for which modern lifestyles are partly to blame.
Households in general present a number of challenges for the management of water
supplies. Compared to freshwater from rivers and groundwater, desalination requires
large amounts of energy, usually in the form of fossil fuels, as well as specialized
expensive infrastructure.
Water conservation is perhaps not the first issue that crosses a house manager’s mind.
Water restrictions would result in unhappy guest stays and so maintaining adequate
water comfort must be central to all water management strategies.
Purchasing water and the disposal of dirty water are becoming increasingly expensive
activities. Issues of water scarcity push up prices, and as household savings become
relatively small, the smart house manager’s attention is becoming focused on water
conservation.

As with energy, the approach towards decreasing water consumption is to regularly

enlighten family members on how they can contribute with simple measures toward
decreased water consumption. Their attention needs to be focused on water
consumption and repairing small leaks that produce immediate gains. While more
than half of water consumption in households takes place in showers, sinks and
toilets, kitchen operations, laundry and public areas represent the remainder of total
water consumption.
Hence, water conservation in households can be achieved as in the management of
waste by reducing, reusing and recycling. All water management systems should not
affect family members satisfaction.

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Household water conservation techniques
• The first step in water management is an efficiently designed and maintained
plumbing system. A gravity fed cold water system delivering low-pressure water uses
less water than a system with high pressure. Reducing the water pressure from 100 to
50 pounds per square inch (psi) can reduce water use by approximately one third.
• Flow-controllers or low-flow fixtures can be installed in plumbing where water
pressure is less important as in food preparation areas and public toilets. This
technology can also be used in showerheads and for baths.
• Showers in public areas like pools should be equipped with push buttons that limit
the water flow to a certain duration.
• The latest generation of sink taps are equipped with infrared sensors that
automatically turn off when a person walks away or when the allotted quantity per
wash has been delivered.
• Conventional flush toilets are responsible for up to 40% of domestic water use. Putting
a displacement device or a tank restrictor in the cistern will reduce the cistern capacity
but a more efficient solution is to fit a low flush toilet that uses less than 4 litres of
water per flush.
• Use the front-loading machines for laundry work that consume less water and less
detergent than top loading models.
• Use the same sheets and towels for more than one day.
• Keeping the water sources cool will slow evaporation since warm water evaporates
more quickly than cooler water.
• Using covers over warm or hot water also reduces evaporation and have the added
advantage of reducing heat loss during cooler climates.

• Watering of plants should take place either early in the morning or late in the day to
reduce the possibility of evaporation in hot weather.