Waste management, an important step to remove wastes and purify the environment is somewhat less understood and applied by common people in real life.
From every activity on this planet, waste is generated. It may be minute to large in quantity. If they are not removed from the atmosphere, it may lead to serious health consequences. There is a broad range of wastes starting from liquid to solid. Waste management is a process to remove them or convert them to less toxic compounds. Go through this article to know more about waste management in simple words.
What is waste management?
Waste management is a long process where wastes are collected, transported, treated, and later disposed of while maintaining proper regulation and monitoring regarding waste-related technologies, laws, and economic mechanisms. Based on the source, wastes can be of biological, industrial, municipal, household, radioactive, or organic origin.
History of waste management:
The concept of managing waste is very old. The first report on recycling wastes was from Japan in 1031. They used some innovative ways to recycle paper, later, they sold those recycled paper to shops and earned money.
Impact on environment and humans if waste is not managed properly:
In most cases, wastes are a huge threat to the health of humans and the environment. Even the management process is so important to understand that any leakage may lead to harmful consequences. When left untreated, wastes impart a foul smell, which contains harmful gases. They impact overall health, especially the respiratory system. With continuous exposure to the waste, humans can develop cancer in the respiratory system. The air and soil quality also deteriorates. If the wastes come in contact with water, it may lead to water pollution, when this water is used for regular consumption or household uses, they cause severe consequences like infection, diarrhea, food poisoning, and so on. The aquatic life is also in danger of extinction due to prolonged exposure to harmful wastes.
Techniques of waste management:
With rapid urbanization, proper disposal of waste is extremely crucial. Waste can be found in various forms: liquid, solid, or gaseous. Thus, the process of management is different. Wastes generated from households and industries may account for the billions of tonnes. With new technologies coming up, waste management became easier. Mostly, scientists are trying to focus on recycling the wastes or converting them to less toxic forms. From paper and plastics to aluminum, everything can be recycled with advanced technologies. After recycling, biological reprocessing is conducted. This is done to remove leftover pollutants. Let's take the example of wastewater treatment. There are three steps to recycling this water. At first, the solid particles are removed, then other toxic substances are removed, and later, they are treated with ozone gases. After these three steps, even the water from the washroom can become drinkable.
It is a combined responsibility to make your surroundings waste-free. You must encourage others to do so as it cannot be done by only one person's awareness.
