Managing waste shared responsibility

decade. An everlasting solution should be put in place to solve this problem in Zimbabwe. An integrated approach to waste management should be adopted.
The responsible authorities such as the Environmental Management Agency and environmental awareness organisations should make it a mandate to involve all companies, individuals and industries when dealing with the issue of waste management.
Proper waste management involves the monitoring, collection, transport, processing and disposal of waste materials. It should not be up to local authorities only to follow these stages and procedure but everyone’s duty.
We all should be loyal citizens; it’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure that we live in a clean, safe and healthy environment. We should all take pride in cleaning our residential areas. Effective management of solid waste requires the co-operation of the general public.
Many people are still of the opinion that the local authorities are to blame as far as the issue of poor waste management is concerned.
Some argue that they are paying refuse collection fees while the local authority is not delivering the service, hence people are now opting for roadside dumpsites.
At this point in time a bottom-up strategy should be put in place to end this problem.
The bottom-up strategy is whereby we solve a problem starting from the source. Starting from the source of the problem is an effective way of solving the problem.
There is a need for massive environmental awareness campaigns in residential areas especially high-density suburbs like Mbare, Highfield, Glen View and Budiriro, just to mention a few. Effective awareness campaigns should focus on behavioural change rather than just to mobilise people and sweep the dirty streets.
If each one of us changes our behaviour towards unnecessary littering and dumping of waste the problem of waste management can be solved. EMA co-operation with waste management organisations should work hand in hand with people in communities to identify the causes of poor waste management in the respective areas and also in finding ways to end these problems.
The same strategy should also be applied to industries and companies as they are also major sources of solid waste. EMA and the Ministry of Environment should put strict policies on all companies generating waste.
All companies should lead by example to come up with ways of properly managing their waste as well as to take part in social responsibility of making sure that their surrounding communities are also clean and safe.
The primary goal to effective waste management is prevention (reducing waste from the start), followed by reusing and recycling and appropriate disposal.
The good thing about all the past environmental awareness campaigns is that many people now have a good theoretical understanding of environmental issues.
They now know the basic principles of environmental management although a lot are failing to put it into practice. We should deploy the basic strategy of “Three Rs” (Reduce, re-use and recycle).
A lot of people can sing this anthem but the big question and a major challenge to environmental activists is whether the people know how to reduce waste.
Do they know what to re-use and how to re-use resources? Do they know what to recycle and how to recycle used materials (waste)? In this case we are talking about the ordinary people in the communities and the type of resources and waste they deal with daily.
A universal waste management system should be put in place so that everyone everywhere in Zimbabwe follows the same system when dealing with waste.
A good example of the system that can be adopted in Zimbabwe is the waste management system that is being used by Lafarge Cement at their plant.
The first step is the separation of waste. Waste comes in different state forms and types from plastics, papers and food waste, among others. The norm is we just dump all these waste in one bin or at one place making it hard to separate materials for re-use and recycling.
Lafarge cement uses coded waste bins to separate their waste. Coding is just painting the waste bins with colors that are known by everyone.
Red waste bins are for dumping cardboard waste only, black waste bins are for dumping plastics and plastic bottles only, white waste bins are for dumping general waste (Bio-degradable food waste) and the green waste bins are used for dumping papers only.
This is the first and most crucial step to effective waste management. If everyone is able to separate waste when dumping the other steps of re-using and recycling will be much easier and a little bit practical. People will not be seen in dumping sites trying to pick up what they can re-use or recycle like what they are doing now. The steel recycling bales in main shopping centres used for dumping beverage cans should be maintained as they have reduced the environmental eyesore that has been caused by dumped cans for the past few years.
Adopting this strategy will not only solve the problem of waste management only but also reduce the health hazard to those people who pick up materials to be recycled in dumping sites. All industries should adopt this strategy. Communities should be provided with necessary facilities, that is coded waste bins and recycling companies should always see that they collect these waste regularly and on time.
There is also need for companies and industries to be environmentally certified (ISO certification) so that they have the knowledge of producing environmental friendly products. Companies that are certified have the know-how of waste minimisation and proper and effective waste management.