Waste Management

Waste Management

Waste is primarily classified into three categories-

® Harmful waste

®   Organic waste

®  Recyclable waste

Harmful waste: Waste that is chemically intense and can cause serious damage to health and environment is called as harmful waste.

Organic waste: The plant and animal remains or waste that can be easily degraded by microorganisms or bacteria is called as organic waste.  

Recyclable waste: Any waste object, thing, product that can be recycled into new comes under this category of waste.

There are three important methods of waste disposal:

® Burning  the waste

®  Landfilling

®  Composting

Burning Of Waste: Mostly medical waste is treated by this method as the waste from hospitals can pose serious danger to the environment and people staying in the vicinity, where it is supposed to be dumped.

-- Therefore, it is best to burn this waste at a very high temperature that ensures that there are no possible bacteria or viruses that can be contracted to anyone.

 -- However this method leads to air pollution as it releases loads of smoke containing oxides of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur along with lot of fly ash.  

Landfilling:  Most of the waste collected by the municipal corporations is dumped by this method. This method involves lining the surface and then dumping waste covered with a layer of soil.

Composting:  Best way of managing organic waste and the best way of all the other waste management practices. However it is limited to treatment of organic waste management.