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6 J. Mgmt. & Sustainability 88 (2016)
The Concept of Waste and Waste Management

handle is hein.journals/jms6 and id is 597 raw text is: Journal of Management and Sustainability; Vol. 6, No. 4; 2016 ISSN 1925-4725 E-ISSN 1925-4733 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education The Concept of Waste and Waste Management Ebikapade Amasuomo1 & Jim Baird1 School of Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK Correspondence: Ebikapade Amasuomo, School of Engineering and Built Environment, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK. E-mail: ebiyoko ttyahoo.co.uk Received: October 12, 2016 Accepted: November 7, 2016 Online Published: November 25, 2016 doi: 10.5539/jms.v6n4p88 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/jms.v6n4p88 Abstract Several studies and researches have been conducted on the sources and characteristics of wastes as well as the possible adverse effect of inappropriate handling and best international practices. One thing that is still not clear however is what exactly constitutes a waste? How much do we know about what should be classed as waste? What are the historical contexts of waste managements? The present paper seeks to examine these vital questions with a view to providing answers from previous studies. The paper employed a desktop approach to provide answers to the research objectives. Specifically, the paper uses a descriptive approach to gather information from peer reviewed publications such as, journal articles, environmental organizations reports and books. It was found that, waste is to a large extent subjective in meaning as a substance can only be regarded as a waste when the owner labels it as such. This is particularly true because one individual may regard a substance as a waste, while another may view the same substance as a resource. Nevertheless, it was argued that there is a need to clearly define what constitute wastes as this form the basis for regulation. Keywords: environment, waste, wastes classification 1. The Concept of Waste Most human activities generates waste (Brunner and Rechberger, 2014). Despite that, the production of wastes remain a major source of concern as it has always been since pre historic period (Chandler et al, 1997). In recent times, the rate and quantity of waste generation have been on the increase. As the volume of wastes increases, so also does the variety of the waste increases (Vergara and Tchobanoglous, 2012). Unlike the pre historic period where wastes were merely a source of nuisance that needed to be disposed of. Proper management was not a major issue as the population was small and a vast amount of land was available to the population at that time. In those days, the environment easily absorbed the volume of waste produced without any form of degradation (Tchobanoglous et al, 1993). A substantial increase in volume of wastes generation began in the sixteenth century when people began to move from rural areas to cities as a result of industrial revolution (Wilson, 2007). This migration of people to cities led to population explosion that in turn led to a surge in the volume and variety in composition of wastes generated in cities. It was then that materials such as metals and glass began to appear in large quantities in municipal waste stream (Williams, 2005). The large population of people in cities and communities gave rise to indiscriminate littering and open dumps. These dumps in turn formed breeding grounds for rats and other vermin, posing significant risks to public health. The unhealthy waste management practices resulted in several outbreaks of epidemics with high death tolls (Tchobanoglous et al, 1993). Consequently, in the nineteenth century public officials began to dispose waste in a controlled manner in other to safe guard public health (Tchobanoglous et al, 1993). Most developed countries passed through a period when they were developing environmentally. Today, however, most of these countries have effectively addressed much of the health and environmental pollution issues associated with wastes generation. In contrast, the increasing rate of urbanisation and developments in emerging countries is now leading to a repeat of the same historical problems that developed countries have had to address in the past (Wilson, 2007). An important question in modem day wastes management is - what exactly is a waste? Waste is the useless by product of human activities which physically contains the same substance that are available in the useful product (White et al, 1995). Wastes have also been defined as any product or material which is useless to the producer (Basu, 2009). Dijkema et al, (2000) pointed out that, wastes are materials that people would want to dispose of

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