Proper management of hazardous wastes is an essential factor affecting the environment and human health. However, the process of waste disposal formulates financial expenditures, and sometimes, company managers try to get around the legislature in order not to pay for disposal. It may include the illegal storage of waste under the guise of valuable materials or the illegal dumping of refuse into surroundings. Such actions have a negative impact on the company’s employees, the environment, and the people. In this regard, one should consider two cases of illegal waste management to analyze their impact.
The first situation articulates the illegal storage of hazardous waste in unacceptable conditions causing harm to the company’s employees. In this case, the owner of an electroplating business, to save finances, stated that the hazardous waste remaining in the enterprise still has value in use (VanGuilder, 2018). After the officer with the search warrant visited the facility, a number of violations of chemical storage were discovered. Several hazardous materials were kept in improper conditions, namely in drums on the enterprise’s premises. Besides, it was found that an acid bath was contained on one side and a cyanide solution on the other in a tank divided by a steel plate (VanGuilder, 2018). The mixing of these substances causes a chemical reaction which results in the release of materials hazardous to health.
The company owner argued that this waste has value and can potentially be used in the future, which makes it consumables, not waste. However, the analysis showed that these materials have exhausted the limit of their use and can no longer be applied in any processes. Thus, the contents of the containers are considered hazardous waste and must be transported to specialized centers for disposal and destroyed. However, such a procedure involves financial costs, although it is mandatory. In addition, the enterprise employees complained about the deterioration of breathing and well-being, which characterizes a direct violation of working conditions.
The following situation is similar to the one mentioned above and includes the illegal storage and release of hazardous materials into the environment. Thus, in the city of Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, tons of hazardous wastes were illegally stored and hereafter disposed into the Kim Kim River (Ibrahim et al., 2021). Materials include toluene, ethylbenzene, acrolein, benzene, methane, and hydrogen chloride (Ibrahim et al., 2021). As a result of the release, about a thousand students in nearby territories experienced symptoms of a respiratory illness. It was caused by the getting of toxic substances into the body of students and subsequent poisoning. Thus, the situation articulates the importance of the correct handling of toxic materials due to their destructive effects on people and the environment. In addition, it also articulates the need to rework the existing types of waste management safety control in this region.
To conclude, the two situations described above demonstrate how business owners violate the rules of hazardous waste management in order to save money. It has been identified as including the illegal storage of toxic waste under the guise of valuable materials that can be used. In addition, one also illegally dumps poisonous substances into the surroundings in order to avoid spending on their disposal. All this has a negative impact on both the company’s employees and the environment. Moreover, one may notice the large-scale consequences of the illegal dumping of poisonous substances on the example of the last case.
References
Ibrahim, M. F., Hod, R., Toha, H. R., Nawi, A. M., Idris, I. B., Yusoff, H. M., & Sahani, M. (2021). The impacts of illegal toxic waste dumping on children’s health: A review and case study from Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 18(5).
VanGuilder, C. (2018). Hazardous waste management: An introduction. Mercury Learning & Information.