76 Organic waste recycling: technology and management
statements. A CP project team has to be set up to initiate, co-ordinate and
supervise the CP activities.
Employee involvement: Management should set the stage, but whether or not
good CP opportunities are found is largely dependent on the collaboration of
employees. Employees, in particular those involved in the daily operations and
maintenance on the shop-floor usually have good understanding of why wastes and
emissions are generated, and are often able to come up with solutions.
Cost awareness: Proper cost information can convince management, as well as
employees, that producing cleaner can save or make money. Unfortunately, many
companies, in particular small and medium sized enterprises, do not know how
much money is wasted. Typically, only costs charged by external waste contractors
are taken into consideration. Actual waste costs can be significantly more.
2.6.2 Assessment
During the assessment phase the material balance is studied, and appropriate
measures are proposed to reduce or prevent loss of materials. The ideas for
options may come from literature search, personal knowledge, discussion with
suppliers, examples in other companies and specialized data bases.
Brainstorming is an indispensable tool to ensure creative intellectual
environment to think of all possibilities.
A key assessment objective is to reduce waste generation at the source or
source reduction which involves such options as: good operating practices,
technology changes and input material changes. A brief description of source
reduction and the related options are given below.
Source reduction refers to any practices which reduce the amount of any
pollutant or contaminant entering any waste stream of otherwise released into
the environment prior to recycling, treatment or disposal (Holmes et al. 1993).
By avoiding the generation of wastes, source reduction eliminates the
problems associated with the handling and disposal of wastes. A wide variety of
facilities can adopt procedures to minimize the quantity of waste generated.
Many source reduction options involve a change in procedural and
organizational activities, rather than a change in technology. For this reason,
these options tend to affect the managerial aspect of production and usually do
not demand large capital and time investments.
Figure 2.12 shows the various options of source reduction which can be
categorized as good operating practices, changes in technology, input materials
or products.