A Sustainability Assessment Review Of The Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (hctp) Biosolids Management Class Environmental Assessment (2016): Sustainable Assessment Leverage Points Analysis

This research paper examines sustainable methods used to assess potential and current waste management policies, plans, projects, and programs. The Highland Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Class B environmental assessment serves as a case study. This investigation is achieved by utilizing strategic EA methodology alongside Gibson's sustainability assessment protocol. The idea is to seek valuable knowledge that can be applied as a guide in order to integrate and align waste management processes in its entirety more closely to greater goals of sustainable development. Integration (social, economic and environmental factors), strategic management and environmental assessments serve as the bedrock for achieving sustainable waste management strategies and practices that are more adaptable to any contextual uniqueness. These three pillars are embodied within the methodology of strategic EA. Most current waste management practices and plans are designed in an attempt to enhance cohesion within these systems however, cohesion is usually limited to the recovery of nutrients, materials, and energy from waste streams which are hardware components. Hard component recovery is aimed at reducing landfill disposals of waste and improving recyclable content. Although this is necessary, issues arise when credit is awarded to increased waste diversion rates (evident in the report on data retrieved by statistic Canada on disposal and diversion of waste showing increases by provinces and territories between the years 2012-2014) while these may be masking overall rise in waste generation (this is in references to the “D” grade on municipal waste generation given to Canada by OECD report in- State of waste management in Canada : Giroux environmental Consulting 2014). In response many developed countries like Canada have made significant attempts to adopt mechanisms that address article 12 Kyoto Protocol on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) (Shrestha & Timilsina 2002) by designing policies and plans such as Waste Action Plan and the very ambitious Zero Waste management hierarchy of 2014 amongst others (CD4CDM, Malawi). These are aimed at providing specific and targeted depth to 3Rs strategy (reduce, reuse and recycle) by placing emphasis on all participants involved in the waste production and management such as, policymakers, industry, and individuals (stakeholders). Solutions such as policies designed to enable the best and lowest use of materials by encouraging activities and investments that promote the preferred hierarchy of reduction as well as solutions intended to assist in developing a guide that will promote the development of systems and products designed to advance a zero waste policy are being implemented in Canada (Giroux environmental Consulting 2014). Although these are well intended and acknowledgment should be awarded for waste diversion gains, In order for there to be a corresponding and significant decrease in waste generation there needs to be improvements within the methodology delivering on plans, policies, programs, and practices. Improvements in the areas of connectedness, integration, strategic management, stakeholder involvement and environmental assessments are integral to sustainable waste management.