Waste Disposal

Velma I. Grover

Solid waste is generally known as “trash” or “garbage” in layman's terms. Generally it refers to both domestic waste, generated from households, as well as commercial waste, and includes among other things food scraps, paper, newspaper, clothes, packaging, cans, bottles, grass clippings, furniture, paints, and batteries. Municipal waste disposal practices have changed over period of time. Dumping on land was a common method in urban communities because it was simple and inexpensive to haul solid wastes to the edge of town and dump them there. Burning this waste also was a common practice. Because open dumps attracted flies and rodents that spread diseases, haphazard disposal became a matter of great concern to public health authorities responsible for the control of infectious diseases. Over the years, in developed countries this problem has been controlled via engineered landfills. Dumping waste in water was generally used in some coastal cities, although it was ...

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