What Are the Past Present and Future Option for Disposal or Treatment of Solid Waste?

¶ … Solid Waste

In todays capitalistic and consumer driven society enormous amounts of solid waste are produced. For many the moment they deposit the solid waste in its container, that is the moment they forget about it, but that waste has to end up somewhere. Just where this waste will end up and how it will be dealt with is a mystery to many. This public ignorance of the process for managing solid waste has been a problem for our society. According to Koizumi Harumi's essay titled Reducing Waste, solid waste is a serious problem amongst industrialized nations where the amount of solid waste continues to increase both in total and per capita amounts.

Solid waste can be classified into two main categories one is known as industrial solid waste. This type of waste is produced by mining industries, agriculture industries and companies that provide goods and services for the public, industrial waste accounts for about 98% of the solid waste produced, this according to Miller and Spoolman authors of Enviromental Science. The other main type of solid waste is known as municipal solid waste and this type of waste is mainly produced by homes and workplaces. This type of waste is also known as garbage and it includes: paper, plastics, cans, bottles, food containers, plastic bags, glass, aluminum, wood and also electronic waste. Hazardous waste is also a category of solid waste that is important to consider.

In the past solid waste has been managed through the use of a few and relatively simple strategies. In developed countries like the United States solid waste is buried in landfills or burned with the use of incinerators. According to Miller in undeveloped countries solid waste mostly ends up in open landfills where the poor seek out goods they can reuse or sell. Most of the solid waste produced in both the industrial and municipal categories takes a very long time to decompose or breakup, so it is important to find new and innovative strategies for dealing with solid waste.

According to Miller there are two main ways that we can deal with solid waste; one is known as waste management. The other is known as waste reduction. The waste management approach attempts to deal with waste in a manner that reduces the impact waste has on the environment without necessarily trying to reduce the total amount of waste produced. This usually involves the mixing of different types of waste together and burying, burning them or moving them to another location. The waste reduction approach seeks to drastically reduce the amount of waste or pollution that is created and when the waste is created this approach calls for recycling and reusing of solid waste. Most experts agree that the best approach is an integrated method where both of the strategies mentioned above are used.

There are many strategies that an environmentally conscious person can use to effectively deal with the problem of solid waste management. Miller indicates that individuals can reuse, reduce and recycle. An example of reusing can be avoiding one time use items such as plastic or paper bags and instead using a cloth one to do shopping. An example of reducing is becoming more conscious and aware of what products one can do without and avoid purchasing them whenever possible. An example of recycling in turning in material that can be treated and used in the manufacturing of new products like bottles, cans, metals and cardboards.