TOPIC 8.9-Solid Waste Disposal

Solid Waste

• Any discarded material not a liquid or a gas \n • Generated by: \n • Domestic sources \n • Industrial sources \n • Business sources \n • Agricultural sources \n • Most often ends up in landfills

Sanitary Landfill

• Not just piles of trash

Landfill Issues

Many issues can occur:• Groundwater contamination \n • Methane and other harmful gases into the atmosphere \n • E-waste can leach toxic metals into the ground

Other Methods of Disposal

\n Incineration, Ocean dumping

Incineration

reduces volume of waste, but also releases air pollutants

Ocean dumping

some countries dump waste into the ocean, leading to \n plastic pollution

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

\n Trash now accumulating in the oceans.