Solid waste management is a term that is used to refer to the process of collecting and treating solid wastes. It also offers solutions for recycling items that do not belong to garbage or trash. As long as people have been living in settlements and residential areas, garbage or solid waste has been an issue. Waste management is all about how solid waste can be changed and used as a valuable resource.
Solid waste management should be embraced by each and every household, including the business owners across the world. Industrialization has brought a lot of good things and bad things as well. One of the adverse effects of industrialization is the creation of solid waste.
Categories of Waste
- Organic waste: Kitchen waste, waste from food preparation, vegetables, flowers, leaves, fruits, and market places.
- Combustibles: Paper, wood, dried leaves, packaging for relief items etc. that are highly organic and having low moisture content.
- Non-combustibles: Metal, Tins, Cans, bottles, stones, etc.
- Toxic waste: Old medicines, paints, chemicals, bulbs, spray cans, fertilizer and pesticide containers, batteries, shoe polish.
- Recyclables: Paper, glass, metals, plastics.
- Ashes or Dust: Residue from fires that are used for cooking.
- Construction waste: Rubble, roofing, broken concrete etc.
- Hazardous waste: Oil, battery acid, medical waste, industrial waste, hospital waste.
- Dead animals: Carcasses of dead livestock or other animals.
- Bulky waste: Tree branches, tires etc.
- Soiled waste: Hospital waste such as cloth soiled with blood and other body fluids.