Waste Management Practices for Domestic Waste in China and the UK Essay

Waste Management Practices for Domestic Waste in China and the UK - Essay Example Waste management is a complicated discipline, especially in highly populated countries such as China and the UK, where having a system that controls waste reduction is almost impossible. Some people throw a lot of waste, some recycle, but at the end of the day, the waste has to be discarded. However, waste management is not limited to public education, recycling, and environmental education, and waste reduction, garbage collection, composting landfill maintenance, government regulation, data analysis and public relations. In largely populated countries, staff is required to learn new strategies for advancing and adapting techniques of waste diversion, collection and disposal and complying with administration regulations. In major countries such as the UK and China, there are programs responsible for ensuring that all waste material is well regulated and does not affect the environment. There are several measures that the two countries use to ensure that domestic waste management is u nder control, and in some of these measures, there are some similarities and differences in the steps taken. Comparison China and UK have similar issues regarding sold waste management; for example, there is lack of consistent and reliable waste cost management, and quantity data make arranging for waste management policies difficult. This is because the two countries are densely populated especially in major cities (Shaw & Hawkins 2004, p. 97). The waste quantities in the two countries are also raising at an alarming rate with dramatic change in composition and negligible waste reduction efforts. Waste management affects every person who lives in the city, and the higher the population, the more solid waste will be expected in the same city and, if not well controlled, environmental pollution will be massive and out of control. The UK and China lack consistent decision-making processes especially for strategic policy and planning toward technology selection for waste management, co st recovery, classified segment involvement, contribution to the planning process and insufficient public access to information on how to recycle or reduce waste products (Ellis 1999, p. 115) . China and UK are both trying to come up with solutions of managing solid waste in their major cities and they are coming up with reviews and reports that work to improve the performance. They have come up with landfills that are classified depending on the kind of waste. For example, waste is classified as either degradable or non-degradable (Ellis 1999, p. 86). Both countries are trying to come up with successful waste management schemes and have willing participants to care for the environment. For example, in UK, there is the W12A landfill site opened in 1977, which is a well managed and designed waste management dumping area. It was expected to serve the city for at least 15 years with approval from the UK government body for waste dumping (C. Judd & S. Judd 2011, p. 202). However, operat ions in both countries do not convene design standards, especially in pollution management; where waste collection procedures are frequently not rationalized. Allocation of finances for waste management in the two countries has been difficult because there are inadequate tipping fees and user charges. Protecting the air has been an important aspect in China and the UK with both countries collecting and destroying landfill gas to decrease greenhouse gas discharge and potential stenches (Neubert & Dyck 2008, p. 112). After decomposing, garbage produces unpleasant smells and gases, one of them being methane, which increase global warming more than carbon dioxide does. In the two countries, gases are