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, 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.
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. The 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.
Sources of Solid waste Management:
- Residential
Residences and homes where people live are some of the major sources of solid waste. The garbage from these places includes food wastes, plastics, paper, glass, leather, cardboard, metals, yard wastes, ashes and special wastes like bulky household items such as electronics, tires, batteries, old mattresses and used oil.
- Industrial
Industries are known to be one of the biggest contributors to solid waste. They include light and heavy manufacturing industries, construction sites, fabrication plants, canning plants, power and chemical plants.
- Commercial
Commercial facilities and buildings are yet another source of solid waste today. Commercial buildings and facilities, in this case, refer to hotels, markets, restaurants, godowns, stores and office buildings.
- Institutional
The institutional centers like schools, colleges, prisons, military barracks and other government centers also produce solid waste. Some of the common solid wastes obtained from these places include glass, rubber waste, plastics, food wastes, wood, paper, metals, cardboard materials, electronics as well as various hazardous wastes.
- Agriculture
Crop farms, orchards, dairies, vineyards and feedlots are also sources of solid wastes. Among the wastes they produce are agricultural wastes, spoiled food, pesticide containers and other hazardous materials.
- Biomedical
This refers to hospitals and biomedical equipment and chemical manufacturing firms. In hospitals, there are different types of solid wastes produced.
