10: Waste Disposal
- Page ID
- 34532
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This chapter aims to first describe the types of waste produced. Once that is established, understanding how to dispose of that waste is addressed. Information presented earlier in the text about Earth's materials (like clays) and processes (like those involving groundwater) helps in understanding this topic.
- 10.1: Waste Production
- Solid waste from domestic sources—which amounts to hundreds of kg per person per year—is dominated by organic matter, paper and plastic. Although recycling programs exist in most developed countries, we all need to get better at diverting green house gas-producing organic matter (including paper) from landfills.
- 10.2: Dumps and Landfills
- While a dump is a hole in the ground where waste is deposited without any controls, a landfill is an engineered structure with barriers to prevent the waste or its liquid and gaseous products from escaping to the environment (land surface, atmosphere, groundwater). Contaminated water from within a landfill can be treated, and gases can be recovered to produce energy.