...Law/Leg 100 February 27, 2012 Waste Management, Inc., headquartered in Houston, is the “nation's largest garbage hauler and landfill operator” (abclocal.go.com). Wikipedia.org sites the company’s vast network to include “367 collection operations, 355 transfer stations, 273 active landfill disposal sites, 16 waste-to-energy plants, 134 recycling plants, 111 beneficial-use landfill gas projects and six independent power production plants.” Founded in 1894, Waste Management (WM) “offers environmental services to nearly 20 million residential, industrial, municipal and commercial customers in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico.” “Together with its competitor Republic Services, Inc., the two handle more than half of all garbage collection in the United States” (wikipedia.org). In 2007, Waste Management announced its initiative to spend “hundreds of millions of dollars over the next dozen years to make its operations more environmentally friendly. The company plans to increase its energy production from waste, buy more fuel-efficient vehicles and more than double the amount of recyclable material it processes, among other initiatives” (abclocal.go.com). Waste Management’s CEO David Steiner explained to The Associated Press that “the "green" strategy will also boost Waste Management's bottom line. The company reported $13.4 billion in revenue in 2006” (abclocal.go.com). WM.com (Waste Management’s own website) proclaims that the company “uses waste to create enough energy to power...
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...A.2 Case Waste Management Synopsis In February 1998 Waste Management announced that it was restating its financial statements for 1993 through 1996. In its restatement, Waste Management said that it had materially overstated its reported pretax earnings by $1.43 billion. After the announcement, the company’s stock dropped by more than 33 percent, and shareholders lost over $6 billion. The SEC brought charges against the company’s founder, Dean Buntrock, and five other former top officers. The charges alleged that management had made repeated changes to depreciation-related estimates to reduce expenses and had employed several improper accounting practices related to capitalization policies, also designed to reduce expenses.1 In its final judgment, the SEC permanently barred Buntrock and three other executives from acting as officers or directors of public companies and required payment from them of $30.8 million in penalties.2 History In 1956 Dean Buntrock took over Ace Scavenger, a garbage collector owned by his father-in-law, who had recently died. After merging Ace with a number of other waste companies, Buntrock founded Waste Management in 1968.3 Under Buntrock’s reign as its CEO, the company went public in 1971 and then expanded during the 1970s and 1980s through several acquisitions of local waste hauling companies and landfill operators. At one point the company was performing close to 200 acquisitions a year.4 From 1971 to 1991 the company enjoyed 36 percent...
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...the manner in which you dispose waste? For individuals, Hong Kong people have many wasteful habits. Plastic bags, expanded-polystyrene lunchboxes and over-packaged products are commonly used. A recycling programme that provides recycling bins has also been running in schools since 2000 to enhance students' understanding of the importance of conserving resources and separating waste. The increase in the volume of recyclables collected over the years proves the success of the programme in turning students' awareness into action. Overall speaking, Hong Kong has an imminent waste problem. At present, we rely solely on our landfills to dispose of our waste. 40% of our waste are for recycling. We must address the waste problem in a holistic manner. This Policy Framework sets out a comprehensive strategy consisting of a series of tried and proven policy tools and measures to tackle our waste problem head on and achieve the following targets: |Target 1: |To reduce the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in Hong Kong by 1% per annum up to the year 2014. | |Target 2: |To increase the overall recovery rate of MSW to 45% by 2009 and 50% by 2014. | |Target 3: |To reduce the total MSW disposed of in landfills to less than 25% by 2014. | Tackling the Problem at Source Waste avoidance and minimization are...
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...Waste Management is the largest waste handling company in the world, with 20 million customers and 273 municipal landfills. However, Waste Management faces serious changes in its environment even as it dominates its industry. Both customers and corporations are reducing the amount of waste they generate and increasing the amount of goods they recycle. These trends challenge Waste Management, since the high cost of collecting and sorting recyclable materials means that Waste Management loses money when it recycles items. External environments are the events and forces outside a company that have the potential to influence or affect it. Organizations are influenced by two kinds of external environments: the general environment, which consists of technological, sociocultural, economic, and political events and trends, and the specific environment, which consists of customers, competitors, suppliers, industry regulators, and advocacy groups. The sociocultural component of the general environment refers to the general behavior, demographic characteristics, attitudes, and beliefs of people in a particular society. Sociocultural changes and trends influence organizations in two ways. First, changes in demographic characteristics, such as the number of people with particular skills or the growth/decline in particular population segments (age, marital status, gender, and ethnicity) affect how companies staff their businesses. Second, sociocultural changes in behavior, attitudes,...
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...Rationale of the Project Improper waste disposal has been a very big issue to most places around the world. Through this, it can create environmental problems such as soil contamination and pollution. Hazardous chemicals that get into the soil can harm plants when they take up the contamination through their roots. If humans eat plants and animals that have been in contact with such polluted soils, there can be a negative effect impact on their health. Now with the pollution, bad waste management practices can result to land and air pollution and can cause respiratory problems and other adverse health effects as contaminants are absorbed from the lungs into other parts of the body. On the root of it all, improper waste management can also cause health problems. Humans are not the only one affected by improper waste disposal but animals too. Garbage dumping and discharging raw or untreated sewage can threaten marine life and animals who come in contact with the water. Waste products such as plastics and metals present an immediate danger to animals, in particular, marine life. They might mistake these waste products for food and may choke or get poisoned by it. Through this, the area can suffocate and contaminate sea bottom habitats such as coral and fish reducing their numbers. The purpose and objective of the study is to help spread the awareness of the effects of improper waste disposal and teach them different methods of solid waste management. After this, it is expected to...
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...Waste Waste can be loosely defined as any material that is considered to be of no further use to the owner and is, hence, discarded. However, most discarded waste can be reused or recycled, one of the principles of most waste management philosophies. What may be of no further use to one person and regarded as waste to be dumped, may be of use to the next person, and is the basis of the rag picking trade, the sifting through of refuse at landfills for recovery and resale, a very fundamental historical waste management practice still functioning in many countries, often conducted on a highly organised commercial basis. Waste is generated universally and is a direct consequence of all human activities. Wastes are generally classified into solid, liquid and gaseous. Gaseous waste is normally vented to the atmosphere, either with or without treatment depending on composition and the specific regulations of the country involved. Liquid wastes are commonly discharged into sewers or rivers, which in many countries is subject to legislation governing treatment before discharge. In many parts of the world such legislation either does not exist or is not sufficiently implemented, and liquid wastes are discharged into water bodies or allowed to infiltrate into the ground. Indiscriminant disposal of liquid wastes pose a major pollution threat to both surface and groundwater. Solid wastes are mainly disposed of to landfill, because landfill is the simplest, cheapest and...
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...The clear out and in particular waste management of the event. Waste management and the clear up stage is an important factor to any event. It requires just as much planning and consideration as any other stage in delivering the event. It is important as it makes the site cleaner for the customers, which also makes it safer for customers. With the majority of festivals nowadays trying to be seen as green festivals, using proper waste management will increase the recycling levels and boost the festivals reputation for being green. Glastonbury already does by being one of the leading festivals in the UK. Waste management doesn’t only take place after the event, it begins before the event has started and takes place throughout the whole event until it finishes. This is done by dispersing different types of bins all over the campsites and site of the festival, recycling bins for bottles, cans, general waste etc. These bins are clearly sign posted with bright identifiable colours on them. “The environmental purchasing hierarchy: “rethink, eliminate, eliminate, reduce, re-use, recycle, dispose” is an approach to minimizing natural resource impact which is similar to waste management hierarchy” (REFERENCE PG 86) Having staff that collect rubbish during the day and at night once each night is finished will keep the site looking better than if it was left until right at the very end. Litter is going to be found on the floor no matter how well the event is organised....
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...ISWA – The International Solid Waste Association Introduction and Perspectives on Integrated Waste Management, Recycling and Recovery of Energy from Waste Dr. Helmut Stadler Vice-President of ISWA International stadler.helmut@utanet.at www.iswa.org Table of Content l l l Introduction of ISWA International and ISWA Austria Problems and Challenges Perspectives on Solutions Sources: Franz Neubacher, David Newman, and others ISWA‘s Mission ISWA – the International Solid Waste Association – is a global, independent and non-profit making association, working in the public interest to fulfil its declared mission: “To Promote and Develop Sustainable and Professional Waste Management Worldwide“ ISWA achieves its mission through: Promoting resource efficiency through sustainable production and consumption Support to developing and emerging economies Advancement of waste management through education and training Promoting appropriate and best available technologies and practices Professionalism through its program on professional qualifications. More than 1,400 Members in More than 90 Countries WWW.ISWA.ORG ISWA Membership Benefits ISWA members have access to a variety of benefits as for instance access to: • Waste Management & Research • Waste Management World • ISWA Newsletter • ISWA Working Groups • ISWA's Job Exchange Platform • Large International Network • Discount on Registration Fees • Member Discount Program ISWA Membership Categories •...
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...Introduction Solid waste management is a polite term for garbage management. As long as humans have been living in settled communities, solid waste, or garbage, has been an issue, and modern societies generate far more solid waste than early humans ever did. Daily life in industrialized nations can generate several pounds of solid waste per consumer, not only directly in the home, but indirectly in factories that manufacture goods purchased by consumers. Solid waste management is a system for handling all of this garbage; municipal waste collection is solid waste management, as are recycling programs, dumps, and incinerators. To the great benefit of archeology, early solid waste management consisted of digging pits and throwing garbage into them. This created a record of the kinds of lives that people lived, showing things like what people ate, the materials used to make eating utensils, and other interesting glimpses into historic daily life. When human cities began to be more concentrated, however, solid waste management became a serious issue. Houses that did not have room to bury their garbage would throw it into the streets, making a stroll to the corner store an unpleasant prospect. In response, many cities started to set up municipal garbage collection, in the form of rag and bone men who would buy useful garbage from people and recycle it, or waste collection teams which would dispose of unusable garbage. Waste Management Waste management is the collection, transport...
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... |through creative ways managing their garbage mostly through recycling and re-use of their | | |personal resources. | | | | | |MMCOMRE Term/SY: 2nd Term, 2013 | *To be evaluated by the MMCOMRE/MMRECON teacher. I. Background Defintion Here is a brief definition basically of what garbage disposal is on a wider point: “Waste management is the...
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...DEVELOPING INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN TRAINING MANUAL Volume 4: ISWM Plan U N I T E D N AT I O N S E N V I R O N M E N T P R O G R A M M E Copyright © United Nations Environment Programme, 2009 This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit purposes without special permission from the copyright holder, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. UNEP would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. No use of this publication may be made for resale or for any other commercial purpose whatsoever without prior permission in writing from the United Nations Environment Programme. Disclaimer The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations Environment Programme concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Moreover, the views expressed do not necessarily represent the decision or the stated policy of the United Nations Environment Programme, nor does citing of trade names or commercial processes constitute endorsement. Developing Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan Training Manual Volume 4 ISWM Plan Compiled by United Nations Environmental Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics International Environmental...
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...Construction Waste Management: An effective plan for recycling 11/11/2012 Abstract: The construction of both single and multiple family home in the United States on average generates more than two tons of waste. Studies have shown that more than 90% of the waste generated is recyclable. In recent years federal green building programs have been established to award points and give tax credits for those who recycle construction debris. With the current state of today’s housing market, builders can improve their profit margin by reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills. Unfortunately, many builders are puzzled at how to take advantage recycling. In this paper I will focus on cost effective and environmentally friendly methods to dispose of construction waste for those in the home building industry. The program will outline how those in the home building industry implement techniques for managing construction waste on their projects. Introduction When speaking of sustainability those in the construction industry should understand and acknowledge that a critical part includes effective waste management. Napier (2012) suggests the following: “Responsible management of waste is an essential aspect of sustainable building. In this context, managing waste means eliminating waste where possible; minimizing waste where feasible; and reusing materials that might otherwise become waste. Solid waste management practices have identified the reduction, recycling...
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...interrelationships which exist among these, or any of them e.g. waste. Two kinds of definitions are operative for waste. One is conceptual and the other descriptive (Savasi, 1977) and defines waste by listing the kinds of materials comprising it. In the conceptual sense, wastes are defined as useless, unwanted or discarded materials. However, to a modern environmentalist, waste are just materials which are discarded because, they ‘seem’ to have no further economic use ignoring the irrelevant issue of usefulness, value or desirability of the waste. In the descriptive definition, waste consists of discarded materials resulting from domestic, community activities, industrial, commercial and agricultural operations. 1.1 TYPES OF WASTE Agricultural waste, Biomedical waste, Business waste, Chemical waste, Consumable waste, Domestic waste, Industrial waste, Inorganic waste, Medical waste, Organic waste, Recyclable waste Toxic waste, etc. Population explosion, uncontrolled urbanization and rapid industrialization have caused high waste generation quantities and rates in a country, (NEST 1991) waste generation increases not only because people multiply and hence the space available to each person becomes smaller, but also because the demand per person are continually increasing, so that each person throws away more waste year by year. If the world’s population were evenly distributed over the earth surface, most of these wastes could probably remain unnoticed and perhaps harmless...
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...__________________________________________________________________ Waste management corporations has been successful in the pass, however now faces a high level of uncertainty in regards to future profits due to the social-culture environment of the company consumers. Waste management is currently facing a critical moment for both their internal and external environment, and their next business decision could either result in the company failing to remain a major competitor in their industry or using the shareholder’s shift as an opportunity to restore their company operations. First and foremost, besides their current issue, Waste management corporations have excelled in a few key areas of their business. They have done a great job in finding a niche in the market that they can capitalize on, waste disposal. They have also succeeded in capitalizing their brand and service enough to garner a strong global presence. Waste management has also acquired a massive amount of land, which, if used well can be a big advantage for the company. Upon from excelling in those key areas, the missed one component which is that they failed to identify the shift in the socio-cultural environment with their consumers. They could have noticed these trends if they performed an trend analysis eon their costumers Consumers are one of their main stakeholders because their opinions have a big impact on the well being of the company. Waste Management has been dominating their market for so long that management missed critical timing of trends...
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...Good management of waste has been crucial to Singapore, given its small land area and high density of built up living quarters. It is important that Singapore remains on the forefront of this industry to ensure that it can efficiently handle the increasing amount of solid waste, a staggering 30% rise in the last five years. The article mentions that Singapore is lagging behind in productivity. The high rise, high desnity house maybe a reason for this inefficiency. Take one key initiative of the National Recycling Program where there a door to door collection of recyclables once every fortnight. Given that Singapore’s dense housing system, this is labour intensive operations, which may result in a lower productivity. However, the article did not mention the forward thinking steps that have been taken to combat this problem. In order to reduce manpower to collate recyclables, 16 housing projects have undergone installation of separate recycling chutes. These chutes facilitate residents to directly dispose of recyclable waste, allowing workers to collect these the recyclables more efficiently compared to the prior method. Furthermore, these built in chutes at their doorsteps allows for greater ease for to the residents in their recycling efforts. These will target one of the key problems mentioned in the article, a lack of public participation resulting in plastic and food being incinerated. In pilot project conducted over a year, the housing estate with the new chutes recycled...
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