I recently posted this question on LinkedIn: "Why do companies claim zero waste when they continue to send their hazardous waste to a landfill, causing incalculable future liabilities to their companies and their stakeholders?"
The consensus was that zero waste claimed by companies is hype or rhetoric used to make the companies look greener, and some responses said that there is no such thing as zero waste.
Most were in agreement that all people should constantly and vigorously strive to reuse, reduce and recycle (three R's) or make the generator of the waste responsible for its waste. These aforementioned approaches to dealing with waste must become a way of life for all. There is also a consensus: If it can't be recycled, don't make it.
Good point! Why a good point? Because it is estimated that $11.4 billion of recyclable materials are landfilled each year.
The truth is not everyone has a car, not everyone has a TV, and not everyone has a computer, but everyone creates waste.
Landfills were named landfills, because they were usually holes in the ground that could be filled, but now they should be renamed mountain top-offs and noxious gas stations.
Towns, cities and states around the country are moving toward mandatory recycling or no garbage pickup. Some already have.
The purpose of striving toward the three R's and zero waste is a matter of our sustainability, our children's future and our Earth's survival.
We should continually strive for business recycling and personal recycling. We must keep a diligent and constant awareness every time we plan to discard something – anything -- asking ourselves: "Do I want land to be used for garbage or do I want land to be used for farming?"
The most daunting and hardest waste to address is hazardous, toxic and regulated waste disposal. How do we accomplish zero hazardous, toxic and regulated waste?
If we are running out of space for everyday garbage, what are we doing about hazardous, toxic and regulated waste landfilling? Asbestos, which is imbedded in 5,000 matrices, permeates our environment and when removed is extremely space consuming when landfilled. It provides perpetual liability to its owner. One cannot build over the asbestos cell in a landfill in fear of disturbing the asbestos and contaminating the neighborhood.
Because these hazardous, toxic and regulated wastes are mostly in industry, it is up to the leaders of industry to seek out and invest in research to create new technologies to solve the hazardous waste problem or use existing technologies to rid their facility and our environment of these hazardous wastes.
Industry is in business to create jobs and turn a profit. Industry is also in business for the long haul, and the long haul must be profitable, but cannot be profitable if it not sustainable.
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Tony Nocito, managing director of ABCOV Conversion Systems LLC has developed, commercialized and markets the ABCOV asbestos destruction process. He brings 25 years asbestos abatement experience and 26 years construction/demolition industry experience.
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