A Gap Analysis in Selected Asian Countries, 3R Knowledge Hub ...

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3R Gap Analysis and Findings
RECOMMENDATIONS
The current practices in all the countries
studied, in one way or the other, are left with
insufficient technologies. This can be attributed
to two possible reasons: appropriate enforcing
policies and better management systems to
have control over the technologies for waste
management. Only one country, Japan, is
observed to have fulfilled almost all the aspects.
As a matter of fact, the experiences gained and
lessons learnt by Japan with technologies can be
utilized by the other countries that are lagging
far behind. Practices in developing countries
like Japan, Singapore and Korea can be
considered as an example or benchmark to
reach the goal instead of starting from scratch.
The identified gaps can be filled up by
adopting technologies that are found to be
predominantly successful in other countries
depending on their applicability, generation
rate and composition. Cost-effective and
environment friendly technologies (e.g. wasteto-energy)
are found to be the focus in
developed countries than developing countries.
Developing countries using technology as
solutions for their waste, but with the impacts
on environment can trail or seek technology
transfer from the developed or any other
successful countries.
From the findings, though there have been
successful practices such as thermal, fuel and
material recovery was observed, there is still a
lack of environment friendly technologies
exists. For instance, incineration is one of the
technologies highly practiced where problems
with dioxin emissions and disposal are still
persistent. Instead of finding adhoc solutions
for waste management, strategic plans on
choosing unobserved environmental friendly
technologies practiced at smaller level has to be
brought to limelight and made as a reference.
Beginning from source segregation, acceptable
technologies found in other countries can be
followed in receipt of knowledge / technology
transfer from them.
Existing technology practices are not found to
be sufficient to overcome the burden of waste in
a sustainable manner. Simple technologies for
3R have to be made formal and strong by
promoting new policies, reformulation of
existing policies, cooperative efforts and
technology transfer. Thus, the technologies
chosen for waste management have to be
evaluated for their sustainability, in addition to
being environmentally effective, economically
affordable and socially acceptable. Filling the
gaps with such a design is highly indispensable
for all the countries to reach the goal of a sound
material-cycle society. In this endeavor:
3R technologies associated with MSW sorting,
pulverization and composting have to be
followed. Technologies like composting have
proved to be one of the best affordable solutions
for developing countries to manage their
municipal waste.
Further enhancement of current efforts is
recommended for managing e-waste where
policymakers and the industries join in
implementing cleaner production mechanisms
and enforce Extended Producer Responsibility.
Source segregation of healthcare waste is vital
in Asia for 3R implementation and
management.
To boost such initiatives and to solve the
medical waste management dilemma, trained
personnel at healthcare organizations are
required to facilitate the appropriate
management of the waste. An ideal example
would be the ‘medical waste supervisor’ as
suggested by Dr. Satoshi Imamura of the
Japan Medical Association.