Waste management jobs should be seen as part of a bigger structure – a whole initiative dedicated to recycling and reusing. It is then part of the responsibility of waste management companies and councils, to get people educated about the things they use and throw away.
The two “R”s – reuse or recycle – are the most important words in the waste management lexicon. Because as any waste manager already knows, the best kind of waste is the kind that turns out not to be waste at all, but something you can put to another use.
The waste manager’s aim is to reduce the physical amount of refuse ending up in landfill. While the ultimate goal of all waste management jobs, in a perfect world, would be to knock that number all the way down to 0, you have to be realistic. So instead the bulk of the work is split between education and the provision of recycling services.
Naturally recycling services themselves cost money. So you have to lead with your most optimistic foot and start by trying to get people to do their own reusing, and transporting the rest of their refuse to recycling places.
A massive amount of household waste, if it can’t directly be reused, can be recycled. Most plastics, some glass and a good deal of metal is easily recycled. Wood can be pulped down for paper or reconstituted as MDF. Paper and card may also be recycled.
Waste management jobs involve a high level of stress, most of it brought on by the fact that we’re only just learning to deal with problems we should have been sorting out generations ago. In general terms the aim of the game is to meet Government targets, which specify an upper ceiling for different kinds of waste in a specific location or within a specific industry.
Sometimes these targets are more realistic than others. Which is where the skill and the strength of the good waste manager makes itself felt. Waste management jobs are better run when the manager in question is able to juggle the possible and the practical with the impractical – in other words to develop robust procedures that stick to the spirit of the legislation if not always to its actual figures.
The good thing about reusable waste, in industry terms, is that much of it can be reused as energy. With the right waste management jobs in place, a company can dramatically increase its own energy efficiency by burning waste and harness the heat and gas to provide pressure, warmth and straight power.
The more a business is able to manage its own waste in this way, the more money it can save through Government grants and tax breaks. So the waste manager is also required to develop workable plans for streamlining the cost of waste regulation, by taking advantage of the available incentives.
With skill, experience and industry connection, it is possible for the holders of waste management jobs to make a significant difference to the energy use of a company.
About Author: Olivia is a freelance copywriter and environmentalist. He’s currently working with Ends Job Search promoting a variety of jobs including waste management jobs and specialist jobs in the conservation sector.