Benchmarking Solid Waste Management Approaches
I have prepared this project back in Turkey in 2009 as part of a PhD class in Industrial Design, at Istanbul Technical University. The poster below has been presented as a printed media at Design PhD Conference, Sustainability, Innovation and Design in 2009 at Lancaster University.
Objective:
To provide an understanding of developed countries’ waste management systems from the point of stakeholders and municipality and comparing to Kadıkoy’s waste management flowchart.
To Generate of a map by marking the differences and differentiating the points between “state-of-art” and Kadıkoy Waste Management system with the help of researching the problems beneath.
To find a solution to one of the problems in Kadıkoy waste management system and to design a product that’s going to encourage people living in Kadıkoy to recycle.
Approach:
After comparing models of Municipal Waste Management systems in my poster presentation and coming up with clear problems of the system, I designed this recycle1000 trash bin, which features a raised four-hole lid and an overall design that can increase recycling and reduce the chances of contamination. The recycle1000 is also designed to prevent the contents from being stolen by the numerous street scavengers in Istanbul, who often steal the garbage illegally and sell the metals or other recyclable materials to factories. Along with the recycle1000 I proposed a more practical solution for dealing with the problem of street scavengers, which is that the government could hire some of the scavengers as waste management employees, as this would mutually benefit both the scavengers and the municipal waste management company.
We all know that we generate waste and when we think about it we feel that something could and ought to be done to reduce or recycle what we discard. We are approaching to 21st century and we strongly need to do something to reduce the levels of waste being produced and massively increase the recycling and reuse of our municipal waste. Waste collection for recycling includes paper, cardboard, textiles, plastic, metals, and glass.
According to Richard Waite waste management comprises three elements: recycling, waste collection and waste disposal. Recycling means that items normally disposed of in landfill sites (large holes in the ground) or burnt can be reprocessed and remade into many useful products. Every item we recycle makes a difference in the consuming world.
In UK, waste management is under the responsibility of local authorities, such authorities being district or borough councils, county councils and metropolitan authorities. Collecting waste for recycling or composting is done in two main ways in London- by collection from households or by using “bring” facilities where residents take their recyclables to collection centers. Recycling as a proportion of waste management is increasing slowly from five percent of municipal waste in 1996/97 to eight per cent in 2001/02. Tonnages are increasing and more recycling is collected each year, but so is more waste. The majority of London’s waste is sent to landfill and 19 per cent of municipal waste is handled by two incineration plants; one at Edmonton and other at Lewisham. (Rethinking Rubbish in London The Mayor’s Municipal Waste Management Strategy, September 2003)
In Turkey, Kadıkoy Municipality is working very disciplined and caring to environmental issues and especially solid waste management system and unlike other municipalities in Istanbul, sorting waste center exists. According to the Kadıkoy Municipality Solid Waste Management Plan for 2008, since 2000 packaging waste is collected separately in Kadıkoy. Approximately 17.300 tones of paper and 1.318 tones of plastic and 496 tones of metal waste are collected. 10 tone of paper waste is added to paper clay and 20 trees are prevented from being cut so it makes 346.000 trees are saved since 2000.
