Waste management represents an important challenge for reduction of GHG emissions. Waste is also a potential resource much of which can be recycled and reused. Residential and commercial waste may be differentiated from industrial waste, a component of the latter being toxic and requiring special treatment. 1.n all cases, there are options for bulk reduction at source. Thus, waste management entails the R's - Reduction, Recycling and Reclamation for recovery of unable components either directly (example: chemical recovery in pulp and paper mills) or indirectly through processing of waste (example: methane recovery from land fills and from distillery effluents).

Wastes of various kinds including energy, raw materials, effluents, emissions and solid wastes are omnipresent in different walks of life. Non-availability of appropriate technology is often perceived as a major impediment. However, there are cases to cite that even the proven technologies do not penetrate into society as rapidly as their potential would suggest. 

Barriers 

One of the major driving factors in waste management is the economic environment. Market forces favour waste utilisation when there is shortage of raw materials or their prices are high. Waste utilisation is directly influenced by the economic incentive for recovery of usable materials. Apart from market forces, the other barriers in waste management relate to the following: 
 

• Lack of enabling policy initiatives, institutional mechanism and information on opportunities for reduction, recycling and reclamation of waste
• Organisational problems in collection and transport of waste from dispersed sources for centralized processing and value addition; and, 
• Lack of coordination among different interest groups although there are several examples of successful initiatives taken through private sector and NGO efforts as well as business-to-business waste minimisation and recycling programme.

Programmes and Policies to Remove Barriers

To overcome the barriers and to exploit the opportunities in waste management, it is necessary to have a multi-pronged approach the components of which include the following:

• Building up of data base on availability of wastes, their characteristics, distribution, accessibility, current practices of utilisation/disposal technologies and their economic viability,
• Institutional mechanism for technology transfer though co-ordinated programme involving the R & D institutions, financing agencies and industry; and,
• Defining the role of stakeholders including local authorities, individual house holders, NGOs, industries, R & D institutions and the government:

The efforts of local authorities in waste management need to focus on the separation and reclamation of wastes through separate collection of reusable wastes for recovery; provision of reclamation centres where the public can deliver wastes; arrangements for separation and reclamation at disposal sites and transfer stations; arrangements for waste disposal with by-product recovery and land filling of residuals. Local authorities may enlist the support of the public and individual householders as well as NGOs to store recoverable wastes separately or deliver these to the reclamation centres. Local authorities can also consult the industry on how wastes could be best utilised to meet their raw material requirement. Industry can be encouraged to accept wastes as secondary raw materials. 

R & D institutions could play an important role in waste utilization by development and dissemination of viable technological alternatives including pilot scale demonstration, organizing technology transfer workshops and dissemination of information to industries. Land use and industrial estate planners can internalize waste utilisation/minimisation concerns in the process of siting of industrial plants. The possibilities of siting industrial activities in such a way that wastes from one unit could be used as raw material for another, need to be explored. The arrangement could reduce capital outlay and operating costs, as also facilitate transfer and processing of products/raw materials. 

Government may introduce fiscal and regulatory measures for reduction of wastes and promotion of waste utilization. These may include incentives to producers and users to accept reduced packaging and incentives to consumers to return re-claimable wastes, incentives to local authorities to support reclamation/waste utilization activities, incentives to industries using recovered materials, financial support to R & D activities, awards to individuals/organizations for waste utilisation and penalties for not adopting waste minimisation/utilisation practices.

Programmes for providing training and education on waste minimization and utilization with an interdisciplinary approach need to be developed. The waste utilization as a profession has no fixed boundaries. Skills of psychology, economics, material sciences, process design, and ecology are but some of the many requirements for the trained professional. 

Even the best planned, designed and executed waste utilisation programme would fail without, the effective participation of the public. Education of the public on waste utilization issues, therefore, would play vital role in ensuring the success of the programme. Public education programme requires identification of appropriate communication systems.