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Solid-waste management, the collecting, treating, and disposing of solid material that is discarded because it has served its purpose or is no longer useful. Improper disposal of municipal solid waste can create unsanitary conditions, pollution, and outbreaks of disease.
Solid-waste management - Collection, Recycling, Disposal: Proper solid-waste collection is important for the protection of public health, safety, and environmental quality. It is a labour-intensive activity, accounting for approximately three-quarters of the total cost of solid-waste management.
Broadly speaking, waste materials are either liquid or solid in form, and their components may be either hazardous or inert in their effects on health and the environment. The term waste is typically applied to solid waste, sewage (wastewater), hazardous waste, and electronic waste.
In solid-waste management. Improper disposal of municipal solid waste can create unsanitary conditions, and these conditions in turn can lead to pollution of the environment and to outbreaks of vector-borne disease—that is, diseases spread by rodents and insects. The tasks of solid-waste management present complex technical challenges.
Solid-waste management - Recycling, Composting, Reuse: Separating, recovering, and reusing components of solid waste that may still have economic value is called recycling. One type of recycling is the recovery and reuse of heat energy, a practice discussed separately in incineration.
As more stringent environmental rules and siting constraints limit the use of solid-waste incineration and landfill options, the application of composting is likely to increase. The steps involved in the process include sorting and separating, size reduction, and digestion of the refuse.
Land pollution, the deposition of solid or liquid waste materials on land or underground in a manner that can contaminate the soil and groundwater, threaten public health, and cause unsightly conditions and nuisances. The waste materials that cause land pollution are broadly classified as municipal.
Solid waste pollution is unsightly and damaging to the health of aquatic ecosystems and can harm wildlife directly. Many solid wastes, such as plastics and electronic waste, break down and leach harmful chemicals into the water, making them a source of toxic or hazardous waste.
Refuse, nonhazardous solid waste that requires collection and transport to a processing or disposal site. Refuse includes putrescible garbage and dry rubbish and is generated by a wide range of residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial activities.
Materials recovery facility (MRF), solid-waste management plant that processes recyclable materials to sell to manufacturers as raw materials for new products. MRFs are generally classified as either “clean” or “dirty,” depending on whether the facility handles materials that are mixed with other.