Knowing Some Facts About Garbage Collection

An important part in garbage collection is the waste disposal, which is typically on land or in water. Rubbish removal is properly disposed in facilities where it is permanently contained like air-tight landfills to prevent the bad odour from polluting the air. Solid wastes are usually taken to landfills while liquid wastes are disposed in specialized injection wells, where the trash is buried underground. A waste management office monitors these wells to make sure that hazardous materials will not pollute our drinking water supply.

 

Here in Australia, we produce millions of tons in solid waste every year. Even though we have committed to a greener economy through our recycling efforts, we still have loads of garbage to dispose. We have come a long way from the traditional waste collection, which was to collect trash and dispose it anywhere far from towns. This was the practice in 18th century England and France. However, our modern lifestyle has produced many synthetic materials that both commercial waste collection and household waste collection potentially contain harmful materials. Our greatest challenge now is in managing our hazardous waste collection.

 

Our typical garbage collection handles many kinds of wastes, which are classified based on their physical, chemical, and biological components and characteristics. A primary method in classifying wastes is in looking at its consistency for both solid and liquid wastes. Solid waste should have less than 70% water component. On the other hand, liquid waste should have less than 1% solid component and usually collected from wastewater. Wastewater, in turn, contains a high percentage of dissolved salts and metals. The final classification based on consistency is what is called the ‘sludge’, which is right in between a solid and a liquid. It has 3 to 25% solids and the remainder is a mixture of water dissolved materials.

 

Our garbage collection is also classified as hazardous, non-hazardous or special wastes. Garbage disposal varies for each classification. The most common trash disposal that we know is the use of landfills. However, landfills in some areas have been discovered to contaminate the supply of potable water. There is much debate on the soundness of this particular waste disposal strategy. At present, landfills are the cheapest way to dispose garbage. 

 

Modern landfills have the garbage spread out thinly in compacted layers, which is then filled with fresh soil. To lessen the pollution in both land and air, the holes are lined with the fill specially contoured, compacted and covered. It is set up away from the drainage and in places not prone to flooding. The required type of soil by landfills is clay because it does not easily absorb the things that it comes in contact with unlike some types of soil. Moreover, some of the garbage thrown in landfills can be transformed into solid materials like cement, fly ash, asphalt or organic polymers. 

 

The trend now is to make the recycling collection a crucial part of our general garbage collection. What can still be recycled and re-used will not be dumped in landfills. In fact, recycling waste has been done since ancient times. Metal tools have been melted and re-forged into another serviceable item. In modern times, recyclable materials are shredded, sifted magnetically to separate metals, screened and then washed. Another method is to make use of composting, which many households can do thereby lessening the amount of garbage collection every day. If everyone commits to minimizing their garbage, it is one step closer to safeguarding our precious environment.