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| Waste Management |
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| It is very important to have good and effective waste management techniques as the waste generated cannot be reduced easily. With increasing population, wastes generated are only going to increase. |
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| Waste management involves collection, storage, transportation, recycling and disposal. |
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| Collection of waste in most Indian cities is through the garbage bins kept at the street corners. These add to the solid waste pollution as garbage are all the time overflowing and the wastes are scattered. It is better to have a door to door garbage collection system as being done in some of the cities. |
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| All the urban local bodies should have temporary storage arrangements to avoid prolonged storage of garbage in bins. |
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| Transportation in open trucks should be avoided as they spread the wastes all along the way. In fact, in Bangalore, garbage trucks should compulsorily be covered. |
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| Recycling is an important aspect of an efficient waste management system. Most of the recyclable materials are not recovered as the segregation system is not good. The garbage should be segregated at the source - home, office, shops, etc. This should be followed by door to door collection. The recyclable material can automatically be sent to recycling plants. |
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| Many non-biodegradable materials are recyclable. For example, plastic, polythene, glass, metallic objects, paper, etc. |
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| Recycling has many advantages like: |
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 conservation of natural resources |
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reduction of wastes |
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creation of jobs which are free of health hazards which the rag pickers face. |
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| Disposal is a major issue in the waste management. The disposal process should be pollution-free and the wastes should not cause any damage to the environment. Most often garbage is dumped in far away empty lands or low-lying areas. |
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| There are different scientific techniques of waste disposal, which depend upon the nature of the waste. Most solid wastes are buried in urban areas as land fills. Some solid wastes like plastics, metals, papers are recycled. Industrial wastes are treated in special plants and valuable wastes are recycled. We can make use of organic waste as manure for plants, including trees after composting. Metals can be melted, remoulded and recycled into solid metal once again. |
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| Incinerator |
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| Molten plastic waste mixed with asphalt can also be used for making roads. This reduces pollution. The volume of the waste can be reduced by incineration or burning at high temperature. From the biodegradable waste, biogas and manure can be prepared, which cost much less than other fuel and fertilisers. Blades, broken glass pieces, nails, pieces of iron and other non-biodegradable items, should be disposed separately. |
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