Waste logistics involves creating logistics chains that connect waste generation sites with places for their disposal, processing, and recycling. This process should be carried out in an orderly and comprehensive manner. Therefore, enterprises are beginning to create logistics systems that facilitate rational waste management. Individual elements (subsystems) must be properly organized and cooperate with each other in the process of achieving the goal of waste prevention and minimization in order to achieve synergy, i.e., strengthening the effects of actions in implementing sustainable development strategies. Colloquially, it can be assumed that a system enables the systematic execution of something. In the case of logistics systems used in waste management, one can distinguish, among others, the waste disposal subsystem (sorting, moving, storing, processing, making secondary raw materials available) and their recycling (within the enterprise or by other business entities). Logistics systems used in waste management are based on dynamic environmental protection models (primarily intended to prevent the negative impact of the enterprise on the environment). This article is merely an introduction to a systemic approach to waste management. A metallurgical enterprise served as a case study.
Waste minimization procedure in a logistics waste management system
Over the last few years, thanks to the adaptation of metallurgical sector enterprises to environmental standards, significant progress has been made in environmental protection. A set of processes oriented towards achieving planned goals, i.e., preventing or/and minimizing waste at the source, is referred to as a waste management system. A logistics approach allows for organizing the course of individual processes, improving management, and increasing the ecological and economic effects of individual actions. Even very simple waste (steel scrap) requires many activities to enable its reuse (transport, storage, sorting, cleaning). Individual physical activities are accompanied by information and decision-making processes.
A characteristic feature of systems thinking in waste management is the comprehensive way of considering the issue and explaining the role of individual system elements (subsystems) and the relationships between them. A systemic approach therefore requires holistic thinking about the problem of waste generation, disposal, and management. The systemic approach points to the integrity of ecological, technological, economic, and even social problems (the issue of ecological awareness). A logistics waste management system is a logistics subsystem of the entire enterprise. Therefore, interactions occur between waste management and procurement, production, and product sales.
At the foundation of developing a logistics waste management system in a metallurgical enterprise lies an analysis of the entire production process (input streams, processing, output streams). The analysis allows for identifying the locations, categories, quantities of waste, and their impact on the environment. The results of the analysis are used to develop the assumptions of the waste management system in functional, instrumental, and institutional terms. The functional dimension allows for positioning waste management as a complex of activities within the entire scope of the enterprise’s operations. Thus, it is recognized that one of the functions of a metallurgical enterprise is the rational use and disposal of waste. Another assumption of the system is the instrumental approach. The system uses instruments for planning, control, and monitoring. The next group of consequences of the systemic approach results from the placement of the logistics waste management system in the organizational structure of the enterprise. The system requires the designation of units responsible for waste management. The developed waste management system in a logistics perspective shows an increased number of interactions with the environment (cooperation with external companies dealing with waste disposal and recycling) and increasing structural complexity (suppliers’ and customers’ logistics systems integrated with the enterprise’s logistics system).
A useful tool for metallurgical enterprises in rational waste management is the Waste Minimization Assessment (WMA) procedure. As the name suggests, its assumption is to reduce the amount of waste at the place of its generation. This reduction can take place through changes in the product, raw material, technology, and applied operational and organizational practices. Tables 1 and 2 present the procedure for waste minimization at the source in relation to individual processes occurring in a metallurgical enterprise, taking into account the classification of waste into hazardous and non-hazardous.
The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 5/2009.