Sustainable Waste Management and Recycling
Chapter from the book:
Atak,
O.
&
Demircan,
Ş.
&
Dalgın,
T.
(eds.)
2024.
Academic Overview: Tourism Sector.
Synopsis
It is obvious that people have many problems with time management with today's technology. One of these problems and discomforts is our lack of knowledge about the disposal of the waste we create. Although humans protect the environment and living space they live in, they are unfortunately still not able to manage the problem of how to recycle the waste they use and produce due to use. The literature review shows that this sustainable waste management and recycling issues are still not very well understood conceptually. In this section of the book, in order to increase this awareness to some extent, sustainable waste management and how we can protect our environment in order to live in a more livable and healthy environment are emphasized. In this context, in this section of the book, the concept of solid waste, waste management and solid waste management, sustainable waste management and recycling issues are primarily covered.
A sustainable waste management system includes feedback loops, focuses on processes, incorporates adaptability and removes waste from disposal. The transition to a sustainable waste management system requires the determination and implementation of leverage points that affect change. Waste is a result of inadequate thinking. Traditionally, waste is treated as unrelated to production and is managed only when the pressure to address the problem is greater than the convenience of disposal. The catalyst for managing the problem occurs when the effects of waste disposal (polluted air, water or full landfills) affect people (Seadon, 2010: 1645). In the literature, solid waste management is defined as “practices that address the process from the collection stage to the final disposal stage by consciously applying certain methods to the disposal of substances that are discarded on the grounds that they are no longer useful to society, without harming society and the environment” (Palabıyık, 2001) (Akdoğan and Güleç, 2007). One of the basic principles underlying sustainable waste management is to ensure that waste is handled as much as possible within the waste hierarchy. Since all waste disposal options have some impact on the environment, the only way to prevent the impact is to not produce waste in the first place, and therefore waste prevention is at the top of the hierarchy. Then comes the reuse of materials and then recovery techniques (recycling, composting and waste-to-energy production) (Mehta, Paliwal, Tege & Sankhla, 2018: 102).