- What is #WASTE?
- Did you know that most of the people have an #incomplete understanding of #waste?
Let's start with an example, in the picture below, which was taken during a #flight. The same or similar phenomena exist in almost every aspect of our modern #life. The airline served this pasta salad together with a set of wooden silverware. Take a minute before continuing reading and study the picture. The picture demonstrates a variety of different #wastes. But there is a particular that is not obvious and at the same time is a good illustration of what is happening in contemporary #society, #economy and #environmental domains.
Starting with the #analysis of all the three items that they were given. By first glance we see that all the items given are #single use items. Let's overcome this #single use products and focus on another, more important.
1) A paper tray (not sure if they #reuse it or not, probably not)
2) A plastic food container
3) A set of wooden silverware
They served a simple pasta salad and they provided a fork, a spoon and a knife. All of the passengers used the fork and all the rest (spoon and knife) where #wasted without even being used.
#Waste is a critical problem in modern life, and literally #waste is everywhere around us. There are many reasons behind the #waste generation. The two most common reasons are #convenience and #unawareness. Starting with the #convenience, wasting is the easiest way to dispose and move forward, it seems that it is "locally" the most efficient but in reality and in global scale it is not. When #wasting we "solve" a problem but instantly we create another problem bigger than the initial one, with only one possible outcome, #destruction. On the other hand, most of the people are unaware of creating waste, and that's because it is unclear to their minds of what is #waste. Most of the people when asked what is waste their response instantly is product waste, which are #material based #waste. But in reality there are many different #types of #wastes such as materials or #time. For example, to make a product it is required besides raw materials there is the need for machine and human time in order to produce it. The moment that this product is #recycled-#wasted-#disposed all the time that was put to produce it, is wasted and cannot be recovered. From the #recycling process the only resource that can be recovered is #material.
When #disposing products that have been designed and produced for a specific purpose and those #products are not used for the specified purpose and simply #disposed is the #definitition of #waste.
An interesting observation is that even on #Google when you #search for "waste definition" all of the first page results defines the #waste "as any unwanted or unuseful material", or similar which totally incomplete. #Waste has many more #dimensions than material.
#Waste is anything that does not add any value to a process.
To give you a more broad understanding of the term #waste, it exists not only in the everyday life but also in the #industrial domain. According to #Deloitte there are 7 types of wastes in the #industrial domain: product defects, transportation time, waiting time, unnecessary movement of personnel or machinery, overprocessing, overproduction and inventory. This type of #waste is a result of the #mass production paradigm that is followed by industrial companies. Currently there is the #technology and #knowledge to overcome such problems and increase the #sustainability of process. Mass #customization is a newer that imposes lower batches of customized products. If mass customization is combined with careful #planning and flexible #logistics such form of #waste will be eliminated. Besides that, #understanding what is waste is the most critical issue for the transition to more #sustainable #society.
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