Research shows that Americans alone produce over 220 million tons of waste on an annual basis. Simple math will tell you that no country in the world can exceed this number. Thus, in conjunction with environmental associations, the government has developed several methods to deal with waste.
Waste management, which is a rather complex approach, brings together over 20 different industries. By definition, waste management refers to the collecting, transportation, and disposal of garbage and other waste products such as sewage. Through waste management, solid waste is treated, and other recycling solutions are explored for those items that do not necessarily need to go to trash.
Waste management is organized at the state level, where it is further devolved into the different counties. For instance, junk removal in Orange County falls under the state of California. When followed through to the grassroots level, waste management brings households and business owners among the key stakeholders in the process.
Methods of Waste Disposal
There are 8 major groups of waste management methods in the current classification, which are further divided into numerous other categories. The groups include reduction and re-use, recycling, animal feeding, fermentation, composting, incineration, landfills, and land application. Some of these techniques can be employed right from the homes, while others will need transportation of the waste to a designated center.
Landfills
This is one of the common methods used in waste disposal today. It usually consists of throwing garbage in landfills and burying the waste in the land. The temporal problem this solves is the elimination of waste from common areas into one designated area. Normally, before the waste is buried into the ground, a process is used to treat it to eliminate any toxicity. The lack of available space and landfill gases such as methane have made this disposal method relatively unpopular.
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Combustion
Also known as incineration, this disposal method involves burning solid wastes at extremely high temperatures to convert them into gaseous products and residue. This method’s advantage is that it reduces the overall volume of waste, thereby decreasing the space taken up. Countries such as Japan and the United States have embraced this method to ease pressure on available land.
Recycling and Recovery
While recycling converts waste products into newer products for another round of use, resource recovery is simply taking the discarded items and reusing them either as they are or extracting some materials from them which are still useful. Recycling helps reduce energy usage because the process doesn’t begin from scratch as it would have been with fresh manufacturing of components.
Composting
This is a rather simple and natural biodegradation process that converts organic waste into nutrient-rich foods for plants. It is one of the common practices in organic farming, and it has been praised for its ability to turn unsafe organic compounds into safer compost. That notwithstanding, it takes a bit of time and also space.
The bottom line is for everyone to be sensitive to waste management, right from the household to the government administration personnel. Where waste minimization can be done, it should be pursued with all zeal.
