Environmental Research and Studies Center- Babylon University
Waste treatment policies for different types of waste 2019
By: Dr. Hind Mufeed Ewadh
1. Disposal of waste covered with a hazardous materials policy:
• Waste gathering in special containers and put it inside special bags and marked with special symbols and announce the content.
• Isolation of injurious medical waste to avoid any harm to workers with medical and hazardous waste.
• Isolation of biological wastes in particular and treatment and emphasis on workers to wear health gloves to avoid any infection of biological waste.
• Medical waste must be disposed by incineration to avoid the spread of environmental damage.
• Do not store biological, radioactive and hazardous wastes in closed places inside educational or health institutions.
• Increasing environmental awareness within all institutions and spreading the policy of separating waste from the source to reduce the cost and time of waste treatment at the medical site.
2. Waste disposal policy to landfill and increasing recycling process:
• Raise environmental awareness within institutions, homes and schools regarding the education of the simpler people of society regarding the separation of household waste according to its types to promote the idea of recycling.
• Encourage the development of waste containers divided into several sections in several places, preferably training students as the pillar of the cultured society.
• Paving roads to make it easier for trash cars collecting waste to reach containers and reduce fuel consumption and efforts of the workers.
• Separation of organic waste to use it as fertilizer and utilization of natural gas produced in the production of electric or gas energy.
• Turning landfills into sanitary landfill sites to take advantage of the gas and utilize the site as a construction site after its end design life.
• Establishing a financial reward for government institutions that produce waste in the least quantity and consider it as a motivation for the rest of the institutions to reduce waste production to achieve a clean environment.
3. Establish a policy of using a minimum plastic:
• Use paper bags to replace plastic bags to reduce the plastic consumption.
• Put a tax on the use of plastic bags in shops to force the individual to pay a sum of money when using more than one plastic bag, as well as establish the policy of using bags made of reusable cloth or fabric, which can be used more than once and put at the points of sale to encourage the individual to use it.
• Use of plastic containers and bags made of biodegradable materials that degrade very quickly and without causing any harm to the environment.
• The responsibility of the policymaking and legal authority to enact laws limiting the use of plastic bags and even impose a penalty and a fine when importing plastic bags, like other countries that aspire to a clean environment.
• Continue to spread environmental awareness through workshops and exhibitions and any activity that can be used to spread the idea of reducing and reducing the use of plastic.