Waste management solutions aim to reduce negative effects of waste, including pollution and health problems. Landfills and recycling are common solutions, but landfills can still contaminate water sources. Recycling is effective but can be expensive. Another strategy is to reduce overall waste generation by encouraging people to use only what they need.
Companies, hospitals and individuals create thousands of tons of waste every day. These wastes pollute land and water and can cause health problems in humans and animals if not managed effectively. Waste management solutions seek to reduce the negative effects of waste. Common waste management solutions include collecting waste at landfills and landfills, recycling, and reducing overall waste generation.
The oldest waste management solutions, almost as old as human civilization, were the pile or the landfill. People collected their garbage and dumped it in a pit or just made a pile. These piles often stank. Bacteria grew in them, causing diseases that were spread by animals that ate or lived in the waste. They have also caused environmental problems when rainwater runoff has contaminated local water sources.
Over the years, landfills have replaced landfills as the waste management solutions of choice. In landfills, waste is compacted and the resulting cubes are covered with layers of soil. This reduces odors and keeps pets away, as the rubbish is not exposed to the air. However, it does nothing to protect the water table. Rainwater can still carry dangerous chemicals and pathogens through the soil and into drinking water, so water that seeps through the landfill must be collected and treated before being released into the environment.
Despite the environmental problems, landfills are one of the most common solutions for waste management. They have some social benefits. Land that is no longer used as a landfill can be converted into public space, such as a park. Governments from Israel to New York have taken this approach to reusing landfills that have reached capacity.
Recycling is another waste management solution. Instead of just being thrown away, waste is reused as much as possible. This results in less waste going to landfill because much of it has been diverted for reuse. It also means that fewer raw materials are needed for production because they are recycled from waste instead.
The downside is that recycling can be time consuming and expensive. Both homeowners and transfer station employees need to sort all trash into categories. Glass is recycled using a different process than paper. A certain amount of technology is required for the recycling process, making recycling too expensive for some regions to sustain.
All of these waste management solutions focus on waste that has already been created. Another strategy is to reduce overall waste generation. This means encouraging people to only use what they need to and not throw away as much.
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