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Solid Waste:
Turning a Health Risk
into a Resource
Solid waste is called trash, garbage, rubbish, and many other names. Solid
waste does not have to cause health problems. It can even become a source of
income and of resources for making new products. But when solid waste is not
safely collected, separated, reused, recycled, or properly disposed of, it can be
ugly, smelly, and cause serious health problems.
Many of us throw things away assuming that someone else will somehow
take care of our trash. Too often, it is the poorest people who are forced to live
in, on, and with the waste created by the rest of society. And it is the poorest
people who usually do the work of collecting, sorting, cleaning, and recycling
waste into usable resources (resource recovery). While everyone agrees this is
important and necessary work to protect our health and environment, rarely
are the people who do it paid well or treated with respect.
To manage waste so it does not harm people or the environment, we need to
reduce the amount of waste we create and turn what we can back into useful
materials and resources. Everyone, but especially industries and governments,
must take responsibility for the wastes they create and for preventing waste in
the first place by making and using products that are reusable, recyclable, or
compostable.