01. Benefits

Waste management benefits

Sustainable waste management is a key concept of the circular economy and offers many opportunities:

Economic: waste management involves collecting, sorting, treating, recycling, and when properly facilitated providing a source of energy and resources. Therefore, it has a huge economic potential that needs to be leveraged by public and private entities.
Social: besides creating jobs, improved waste management leads to a better quality of life for local populations, by improving hygiene conditions and reducing health risks related to illegal dumping and inadequate garbage collection.
Environmental: the main advantage of sustainable waste management is to lessen the impact on the environment, by improving air and water quality and contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Besides, reducing food waste also helps reduce the heavy environmental cost of producing more.

02. Definition

What is waste management?

First of all, there are many types of waste: municipal (household, commercial and demolition waste), hazardous (industrial), biomedical, electronic (e-waste), radioactive, etc. Waste management includes the collection, transport, valorization and disposal of these waste. More broadly, it includes any activity involved in the organization of waste management from production to final treatment.

The main principles of waste management are:

Waste hierarchy, referring to the “3Rs rule” Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, waste prevention and minimisation being the most desirable goal.
Extended producer responsibility, adding all the environmental costs to the market price of a product, including end-of-life disposal.
The polluter pays principle, requiring that a waste generator pays for the appropriate disposal of the waste.

03. Impacts

Waste management methods

Waste management techniques include:

Landfills: a landfill, sometimes referred to as a garbage dump, is a place where waste is generally stored on the ground. Landfills are the most common and cheapest method for waste disposal in the world.
Incinerator: Incineration of waste is a technique of transformation by the action of fire. Waste combustion can be used to produce electricity and heat, but also is an important source of air pollution.
Recycling: recycling is the physical reprocessing of old materials such as metals, plastics and e-waste - industrial or household - into new products. The type of material collected for recycling can vary depending on the city and country.
Biological reprocessing: composting is a process of conversion and recovery of organic matter into a stabilized, hygienic, soil-like product rich in humic compounds: the compost. Anaerobic digestion is a process similar to composting, that allows the treatment of organic waste and sludge by fermentation in the absence of oxygen.
Waste collection: the collection of household waste is usually done by means of garbage trucks, which go to each point of garbage production to collect garbage. There are also collection systems where a network centralizes waste, such as automated vacuum collection.
Energy recovery: energy recovery from waste, often called waste-to-energy, is the process converting non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, fuel or electricity through combustion, anaerobic digestion, gasification, pyrolyzation, etc.

04. Solutions

Waste management solutions

The Solar Impulse Label is granted to innovative waste management solutions that meet high standards of sustainability and profitability. Each solution goes through a strict assessment process performed by independent experts.

Apr 2024

Use case available

La Consigne Verte

A smart bin associated with a digital environment to encourage the sorting of biowaste

Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
Agrifood & Natural Environment

Aug 2019

UBQ : Waste Conversion Technology

Conversion of household waste into up-cycled bio-based materials

Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)
Industrial Processes & Consumer Goods

Apr 2020

myUpcyclea

A circular resource management ai-powered software that improves buildings carbon footprint

Buildings & Constructions
Utilities (Water, Energy, Waste)

Mar 2021

Straight From the Farm

An innovative platform delivering fresh food from the farm to the table

Agrifood & Natural Environment

05. Implementations

Waste management solutions implementations

La Consigne Verte by TRIBIOVAL implemented by Le Connecteur in Biarritz (France) in 2023

UBQ™ thermoplastic material by UBQ Materials implemented by PepsiCo Brazil in São Paulo (Brazil) in 2022

UBQ™ thermoplastic material by UBQ Materials implemented by McDonald’s in São Paulo (Brazil) in 2023

UBQ™ thermoplastic material by UBQ Materials implemented by Mainetti in Tze'elim (Israel) in 2020

UBQ™ thermoplastic material by UBQ Materials implemented by AB InBev in São Paulo (Brazil) in 2021

Geopannel Ecological Insulation Solution by GEOPANNEL implemented by IES Hermanos d’Elhuyar in Logrono (Spain) in 2022

Winnow by Winnow Solutions implemented by IKEA (Ingka Group) in Leiden (Netherlands) in 2019

Winnow by Winnow Solutions implemented by Marriott International in London (United Kingdom) in 2024

Excess Materials Exchange (EME) by Excess Materials Exchange implemented by Enfield Council in Einfield (United Kingdom) in 2022

FluidSolids Biocomposites by FluidSolids AG implemented by Pumpstation GmbH in Zurich (Switzerland) in 2022

FluidSolids Biocomposites by FluidSolids AG implemented by Coop in Basel (Switzerland) in 2023

Buy Back Program for Mobile Devices by Back2Buzz implemented by GIE AXA in Paris (France) in 2020

KioBox by Sabai Sabai implemented by Thai Café in Brussels (Belgium) in 2020

Hesus Store by HESUS implemented by City of Paris in Paris (France) in 2021

Rice Husk insulation by ricehouse s.r.l. implemented by Industrial Company in Salento (Italy) in 2023

Greenrail by Greenrail S.r.l. implemented by Ferrovie Emilia Romagna in Emilia Romagna Region (Italy) in 2018

06. Challenges

Challenges & disadvantages

Hazard: the first one while promoting recycling is to make sure both consumers and recyclers are protected from toxic and dangerous substances that can be found in waste.
High costs: moreover, this cannot be seen as a short-term lucrative investment as it obviously requires a lot of money to implement sustainable waste management strategies.
Quality of recycled products: downcycling, the recycling process that turns waste into products of inferior quality, can cause a problem regarding the quality of secondary products.

Connect with us

Any questions

Feel free to get in touch with us
pauline.michiels@solarimpulse.com

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