SOLID WASTE

MANAGEMENT
• An urgent need exists to reduce the amount of municipal solid
waste (MSW) which is by definition wastes such as durable
goods, non – durable goods, containers and packaging, food
scraps, yard trimmings, and miscellaneous inorganic wastes
produced at residences, commercial, institutional, and
industrial establish­ments.
• Some examples of waste from these categories include
appliances, automo­bile tires, newspapers, clothing, boxes,
disposable tableware, and office and classroom paper, wood
pallets, and food wastes.
• In foodservice operations a number of factors affect the
amount of waste gener­ated. They are: the type of foodservice
system; the style of service; the type of serviceware used; the
market forms of foods purchased; the menu; and the use and
effectiveness of forecasting.
• An integrated solid Waste management system should be
employed by all foodservice operations.
• By definition, an integrated solid waste management sys­tem is the
"complementary use of a variety of waste management practices to
safely and effectively handle the municipal solid waste stream with
the least ad­verse impact on human health and the environment”.
• The goals of such a system are to reduce air and groundwater
pollution, to reduce the volume of waste and to extract energy and
materials safely prior to final disposal.
The hierarchy of integrated solid waste management is:
• Source reduction including reuse of materials
• Recycling of materials including composting
• Waste combustion with energy recovery
• Use of landfills
 Source reduction
• Source reduction is "the design and manufacture of products and packaging with
minimum toxic content, minimum volume of material, and/or a longer useful life"
(U.S. EPA, 1989).
• Includes the elimination of single-use containers and double packaging, the phas­
ing out of metal containers, the banning of packaging that is not recyclable, sanitiz­
ing glass and plastic containers for storage purposes, and donating leftover food to
programs for the homeless.
• The closing of landfills and geometric increases in waste disposal costs have led
to the need to reduce trash volume.
Some commonly used waste management tools are:
• Cardboard crushers
• Garbage disposals in all sinks to keep trimmings out of the trash
• Pulper extractor systems, which shred and sanitize garbage
• Trash “crushers” including can compactors and glass “smashers”
• Polystyrene “melters”
 Recycling
Recycling is critical for the following reasons:
• Conserves scarce natural resources for future generations
• Reduces the quantity of waste materials sent to landfills because
landfill space in many locales will be exhausted shortly if present
trends continue
• Reduces energy costs in manufacturing because using recycled
materials often requires less energy and releases less air pollution
than does the use of the raw material
• materials
• Reduces waste that is dumped in oceans, streams, forests, and deserts
• Prevents the contamination of groundwater sources caused by putting
hazardous materials clown drains
• Many companies have appointed recycling coordinators and
formed recycling committees and teams.
• Their responsibilities include implementing the recycling
program, training staff and customers, encouraging
involvement, communicating regarding issues and concerns,
and overseeing the program on a daily basis.
• Every foodservice setting produces some steel waste. All steel
products can, and should be, recycled because the steel in­
dustry needs old steel to produce new steel. Approximately 66
percent of steel is now recycled in the United States.
Recycling foodservice steel waste provides the steel industry
with a much needed resource, reduces material sent to a
Landfill, helps save energy, and conserves precious domestic
natural resources.
• Polystyrene, commonly called foam or Styrofoam, was the
target of environmental activities in past years because it was
manufactured from chlorofluorocarbons which reduce the
earth’s protective ozone layer.
• The National Polystyrene Recycling Company’s (NPRC)
facilities accept used and baled polystyrene.
• The bales are broken apart and loaded onto a conveyor leading
to a grinder. The little pieces of polystyrene are washed and
ground. After drying the polystyrene is sent to an extruder
where it is melted, extruded into strands, and cut into pellets.
• NPRC sells the post consumer polystyrene pellets to
manufacturers who produce items such as school and office
supplies, construction materials, protective foam packaging,
video and audio products, egg cartons and sandwich
clamshells.
• Paper, plastic and other dry fibrous materials are turned
into building material for low-cost housing.
• The multipurpose product is cost effective and
construction time is minimal compared with other
building alternatives. A reusable, recyclable entrée dish
made out of resin has recently been developed for united
airlines. The dish can be used up to 20 times before being
reground into resin flakes to become part of new dishes.
• The purchase of products made from recycled material
whenever feasible should be practiced in order for
recycling to be an effective method of waste management.
• Some governmental agencies require that a certain
percentage of all paper products purchased be made from
recycled materials.
 Composting
• Composting conserves resources by keeping valuable organic material
from being landfilled; returning valuable nutrients to the soil; and saving
fossil fuels that are otherwise used to transport organic waste to the
landfill.
• Composting reduces pollution because organics in landfills break clown
anaero­biailly, producing methane gas - a substance 20 times more powerful
than carbon dioxide as a contributor to climate change.
• Compost is a pollution-free soil enhancer compared to chemical fertilizers
whose residues leach nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium into sewer
systems.
• Composting reduces landfill costs by reducing costs for waste collection
and dis­posal because of the reduced waste volume.
• Composting improves soil texture, air circulation, and water retention by
break­ing down heavy soils. It feeds the soil, providing the organic matter
and nutrients necessary for plant growth and survival and improves yields.
 Animal Feed
• Much work has been done to research the feeding of food
by- products and food wastes to cattle and sheep.
• The advantages of this idea are that the wastes are diverted
from landfills, nutrient density of animal diets cup he
increased, ration costs can be reduced, and profits for
farmers may be increased.
• The challenges of such a program are that the by-products
or wastes must be carefully matched to the animals'
requirements, transportation and processing must prevent
spoilage without adding to costs, and moisture content
must he reduced.
 Fat to Fuel
• U.S. military engineers are testing a plan to recycle used
restaurant oil into biodiesel, a cleaner burning fuel.
• Several U.S. cities currently use biodiesel to fuel city- buses
and car
• The four branches of the military use over 400 million gallons
of diesel a year.
• Slightly more than one gallon of used cooking oil earl he con­
verted to one gallon of biodiesel in a relatively simple
operation.
• The oil is warmed in a stainless steel reactor and then treated
with methanol and lye. Glycerin pro­duced h\ - the process is
poured off and the remainder is ready-to-use biodiesel.
Incineration and Landfilling
• The final alternatives in the integrated waste
management system are incineration, which reduces
the volume of solid waste and can produce energy,
and landfilling, which is the least desirable option.
 Facility Waste Assessments
• A waste assessment is a systematic way to identify
waste reduction oppor­tunities in a specific operation.
• The method used may be as simple as a quick walk-
through of a facility or as detailed as a complete
review of all purchasing, ma­terials use, and disposal
practices.
• A waste assessment serves three main purposes:
(1) it establishes a better understanding of current
purchasing, waste generation, and waste disposal
practices;
(2) It identifies potential waste reduction options for
evaluation; and
(3) It establishes a baseline from which to measure the
success of the waste reduction program.
• At present no standardized methods exist to conduct waste
assessments.
• Two methods are discussed here.
• Waste stream analysis involves (1) collecting all waste from
the opening to the closing of the operation, (2) sorting by type
of waste (paper, plastic, paper napkins, aluminum, non-
aluminum metal, paperboard, plastic containers, produc­tion
food wash, service food waste), and (3) weighing each
category of waste products.
• The waste stream analysis has been found to give the most
accurate and precise information but is time-consuming and
costly to perform.
• A waste audit is used to determine the amounts and types of
waste pro­duced by a specific location in a foodservice
establishment. Rather than taking a complete inventory of
waste generated in clay, random samples are obtained over at
least a one-week time span.
• The waste audit method, although not as precise and accurate,
has been found to be a cost-effective and ef­ficient alternative.