Waste: danger or opportunity?

Every year more than one and half of trillion tons of solid domestic waste are produced on the Earth. Furthermore, this number is increasing every year. Pollution of the planet started to progress much faster when plastic was invented that made the volume of plastic waste increasing dramatically in all developed countries. Plastic is resistant to decomposition by environmental factors therefore it will remain unchanged in the nature for a very long time (up to 200 years, accordingly to experts)

Earlier rubbish dump mostly consisted of food residues. Today it contains a lot of paper, glass, metal and plastic. Waste that falls into the ocean is gathered into the giant island by ocean currents. For example, millions tons of waste float in the waters of the Pacific Ocean (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Fish, birds and other inhabitants are suffering of that. In the stomachs of dead animals are founded lighters, toothbrushes, syringes, which animals confused with food.

Until recently, all over the world people tried to eliminate solid waste in two ways:

• by burning of that in open dumps or in special furnaces. But in both cases it created additional sources of air pollution;
• by ground burying. But it was not safe because some substances could drain into groundwater make it polluted and because of causing ground subsidence.

The solution of this problem might be the recycling of waste.

Almost all types of domestic waste are the excellent raw materials for some types of production (manufacture), which have been used in many European countries for a long time. Furthermore, it's a very cheap raw materials. For example, plastic. Secondary raw materials will cost at least 2 times cheaper and can be used in all (industrial) areas, except of food packaging and medicines.

Experts estimate that in average one person throws out about 200 kg of waste per year. Sorting (Separation) of household waste can become the basis for solving of a global environmental problem. In many countries there is a common practice of using different trash containers for glass, paper and other waste.

However, the solution of the problem requires the creation of a centralized system, which will provide:

• supplying of public by containers for separate waste;
• informing the public about the advantages of separate waste collection;
• construction of specialized waste sorting plants, which would process the garbage that was collected from people.

The purpose of the project is to study the problem of disposing waste in different regions and countries. Do people have the necessary information and opportunity to use the system of waste sorting? And most important, do people understand the importance of the problem and attempt to resolve it?

Source of information:

Recycling // QuickiWiki URL: http://www.quickiwiki.com/ru/%D0%92%D1%82%D0%BE%D... (date accessed: 14.12.14).

Disposal of garbage // Global problems of humanityURL: http://www.globaltrouble.ru/syr_evaya_problema/ut... (date accessed: 14.12.14)