Golf Environment Organization

Waste is an enormous environmental issue.  Across the planet waste is speeding up our depletion of resources, creating direct pollution and producing greenhouse gas emissions, leachate and other pollution risks from landfill sites.

Society has a collective responsibility to address its waste production and management.  However, the consumerist and throwaway nature of recent decades has led people to become blasé about resource use and waste production, meaning that many negative habits are unconscious but entrenched. As a result, much of what leads to improved waste management starts with waste-awareness and a willingness to explore opportunities for doing things better.

Although many golf facilities are benefiting from improved mainstream waste management services, few have yet taken a structured, comprehensive and quantifiable management approach to the subject. This is surprising given the potential business benefits, and also the close relationship between waste management and increasingly stringent waste management legislation.

Any golf facility approach to waste management should be based on three core principles:

Waste prevention:

Avoiding the production of waste in the first place is obviously the starting point.  This means looking at patterns of resource consumption.  Assessing the resources, materials and products you consume can lead to reductions in the consumption of goods and services.  This is all about determining the most efficient consumption patterns for your golf facility, without compromising the quality of your own services.  Green purchasing policies, communicated through your supply chain can also help you to reduce consumption and resultant waste, and can motivate your suppliers to do likewise.

Recycling and reuse:

If waste cannot be prevented, then as many of the materials as possible should be recovered for re-use and recycling.  Well organised separation is crucial to effective re-use and re-cycling.  Golf facilities should set targets for the percentages of different waste streams that they aim to re-use and re-cycle.

Improving final disposal and monitoring:

Disposal is the least preferred option for materials that you no longer need.  The aim is to strive to minimise the amount of waste material that has to be disposed.  Waste that cannot be recycled or reused can be incinerated in waste to power energy plants (which are not free from their own environmental impacts). Burying waste in landfill should only used as a last resort. Both these methods need close monitoring because of their potential for causing severe environmental damage.

Taking an active stance on improving waste management will help golf facilities achieve legal compliance and save costs as well as reducing their carbon footprint.

The EU has recently approved a directive setting strict guidelines for landfill management. It bans certain types of waste, such as used tyres, and sets targets for reducing quantities of biodegradable rubbish. Another recent directive lays down tough limits on emission levels from incinerators. The Union also wants to reduce emissions of dioxins and acid gases such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur dioxides (SO2), and hydrogen chlorides (HCL), which can be harmful to human health.

Although we may think of waste simply as an inevitable by-product of life, it is of increasing environmental concern and a major form of unnecessary pollution.  With a small amount of consideration and targeted action, it is possible for your golf facility to cut out wastefulness and increase operational efficiency.

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