Greening Australia's Cities through Effective Waste Management

Maintaining a green and pleasant environment for the quality of life of city dwellers in a task that grows harder as population and industry expand. In particular, waste removal in Australia a serious challenge that's at the heart of effective environmental management.

Fortunately, innovative private firms are rising to the challenge with recycling services, skip hire and waste removal. The focus is on diverting as much recyclable material as possible from landfill to recycling. This offers the twin benefits of less landfill and thus a greener environment, and the recovery of maximum value from waste.

Waste management procedures depend on the type of waste to be dealt with.

The most common type of residential waste is organic waste which represents over a third of all waste that is sent to landfill. It comprises all types of food waste along with paper and wood waste, biosolids, manures, and sludges.

Owing to its high volume and disease-causing potential, organic waste presents special problems for public health and the environment. For one thing, it contributes to the formation of greenhouse gases. Organic waste disposal has been the focus of much activity in Australia and many solutions are now in place. Garden organics or green waste can be reprocessed into mulch (wood chip) and soil conditioner (compost) for reuse, for example.

Construction waste is another type that cities have to deal with in volume. This comprises such substances as cement, brick, along with hazardous materials such as asbestos. Skip bins are the main way to handle this type of waste so construction waste collection and handling requires adequate skip hire. Skip bins come in a variety of sizes and capacities and are the container of choice for rubbish cleanup, home renovation or construction needs.

Sydney is one city which offers skip bins in a wide range of types and sizes for hire. And when it comes to skip bin hire, Melbourne is also well-served.

Private environmental services firms also provide recycling facilities for construction waste. Instead of ending up in landfills, certain materials including concrete, tiles, bricks, wood, and plasterboard can be recycled for use in roadbase, garden and pathways. Over 60% of construction materials is typically recycled and companies are looking to increase this to 95% in the next few years in accord with government targets.

One of the most challenging problems is the handling of industrial waste. If not processed properly, it can have a highly damaging effect on the environment. One difficulty is that each industrial site has it own specific industrial waste disposal characteristics. This makes the use of advanced specialised services essential. When it comes to recycling services and waste management, Melbourne is especially active.

One way to effectively handle industrial waste is through facilities management. Perth is one city that's taking advantage of this system in which a private firm will take care of a wide range of environment-related services within a plant. When it comes to waste removal, Perth is at the vanguard.

The scope can be very broad and cover everything from the hiring of skip bins to site construction and renovation. For this reason, custom made products are usually developed to specifically suit a client's waste requirements on site. Facilities management also comprises other key components such as industrial cleaning, refractory management and building maintenance.

The final type of waste we'll look at is one that has increased tremendously in recent years, namely e waste. This comprises waste derived from electrical and IT devices including computers, monitors, televisions, mobile phones and compact disks.

E waste has two characteristics that make proper handling essential: it contains materials that are both highly toxic and also highly valuable. This makes it essential that e waste is properly managed to both protect the environment and also recycle the maximum value.

Australia has no specific laws on the disposal of e waste so it's up to private firms and local governments to take responsibility. To this end, cities such as Sydney have launched special projects to handle e waste. The City of Sydney has been running an E-waste recycling collections for residents since the end of 2008 and private firms have also launched their own initiatives.

If you're in search of waste management services in Australia, finding the right company to handle your needs is as easy as going online.