Humanity has long gone beyond the biological species that peacefully exists in the biosphere of the Earth. The modern version of civilization intensively and largely thoughtlessly exploits the resources of our planet - minerals, soil, flora and fauna, water and air. Everything that is within reach, humanity is remade to meet the growing needs of our technocratic society. This leads not only to the depletion of the planet's resources, but also to the emergence of a huge amount of waste of a very different nature.
What is waste in general? Are they a problem for us?
To simplify and generalize, waste is the result of household and industrial activities of mankind, causing harm to the environment. These include any technocratic objects or their parts that have lost their value and are no longer used in everyday life, in production or in any other human activity. Today there is a situation where the Earth has the potential to literally choke in the products of its own vital activity, if very serious and urgent measures are not taken.
To imaginescale of the issue, one fact is enough: in some countries, one resident of a metropolis produces up to a ton of household waste per year. Tons! Fortunately, some of this waste is recycled, but most of it ends up in the giant landfills that litter much of the world's major cities. For example, around Moscow there are only 800 hectares of planned landfills. And probably dozens of times more natural - in ravines, on the banks of rivers and streams, along roadsides.
And now imagine a large plant - metallurgical, textile, chemical - it's not so important. Waste from such production is also measured in tons, but not per year, but per day. Just imagine this dirty, poisonous stream coming from a smelter in Siberia and a chemical plant somewhere in Pakistan, an automobile industry in Korea and a paper mill in China. Is waste a problem? Certainly, and very serious.
Waste history
Before the advent of synthetic materials, waste, for the most part, did not exist. A broken axe, a worn and discarded shirt, a sunken boat and even a forgotten castle overgrown with moss, although they were products of human activity, did not harm the planet - organic matter was processed, inorganic matter quietly and peacefully went underground, waiting for enthusiastic archaeologists.
Perhaps the first "real" household waste was glass, but at first it was produced in scanty quantities. Well, the first serious industrial waste appears at the turn of 18-19centuries, with the advent of machine-type factories. Since then, their number has skyrocketed. If the factory of the 19th century was only throwing coal combustion products into the atmosphere, then the industrial giants of the 21st century are pouring millions of liters of highly toxic waste into rivers, lakes and oceans, turning them into "mass graves".
A truly "revolutionary" breakthrough in increasing the amount of household and industrial waste occurred in the first third of the 20th century, with the beginning of the widespread use of oil and petroleum products and later - plastic.
What are the types of waste: classification
People have produced such an exorbitant amount of waste over the past decades that they can be safely divided into groups: food and paper waste, glass and plastic, medical and metallurgical, wood and rubber, radioactive and many others.
Of course, they are all unequal in terms of their negative impact on the environment. For a more visual representation, we will divide all waste into several groups according to the degree of pollution.
So, which waste is "good" and which is "bad"?
"Light" waste
- Paper. This includes old newspapers, books, flyers, stickers, paper sleeves and cardboard, glossy magazines and everything else. Recycling and disposal of paper waste is one of the simplest - most of it is the so-called waste paper and then again turns intonewspapers, magazines and cardboard boxes. And even paper waste dumped into a pit and forgotten will decay in a short time (relative to some other types) without causing any significant harm to nature, in addition to ink from printed pages falling into the soil and water. Glossy paper is the most difficult to naturally decompose, while raw and loose paper is the easiest.
- Food. All organic waste from kitchens, restaurants, hotels, private farms, agricultural holdings and food factories - all that was "half eaten" by man. Food waste also decomposes quickly, even if we consider that over the past decades, food has become less natural components and more and more chemicals. It is precisely this that harms nature - for example, antibiotics that are widely used in raising livestock, chemicals that increase the shelf life and presentation of food products. A special place is occupied by GMO substances and preservatives. GMOs, genetically modified foods, are the subject of heated debate among their opponents and supporters. Preservatives, on the other hand, block the natural decomposition of organic matter - in large quantities they turn it off from the natural cycle of decomposition and creation.
- Glass. Glass and its various fractions are probably the most ancient type of "artificial waste". On the one hand, they are inert, and do not release anything into the environment, do not poison the air and water. On the other hand, with a sufficiently large amount, glass destroys natural biotopes - communities of living organisms. For example, we can cite animals that receivewounds and die, having no mechanisms to protect themselves from the scattered sharp fragments everywhere - and this is not to mention the inconvenience for the people themselves. Glass decay time is about a thousand years. Our distant descendants will already conquer distant galaxies, and the bottles thrown into the garbage chute today will still remain in the ground. The disposal of glass waste is not a problem of paramount importance, and therefore their number is multiplying every year.
Medium-weight waste
- Plastic. The amount of plastic waste today is simply amazing - a simple listing of its types would take a couple of pages. It would not be a big exaggeration to say that today almost everything is made of plastic - packaging and household appliances, bottles and clothes, equipment and cars, dishes and yachts. Plastic decomposes twice as fast as glass - only 500 years. But unlike him, he almost always releases toxic substances into the environment. Also, some of the properties of plastic make it a "perfect killer". Few people know that entire "islands" appeared in the world's oceans from bottles, corks, bags and other "profile" garbage brought by the currents. They destroy millions of marine organisms. For example, seabirds are not able to distinguish plastic fragments from food, and naturally die from clogging the body. Waste plastic consumption is one of the most serious environmental problems today.
- Metallurgical waste, unrefinedoil products, part of chemical waste, construction and part of automobile waste (including old tires). All this clogs the environment quite strongly (especially if you imagine the scale), but they decompose relatively quickly - within 30-50 years.
The "heaviest" waste
- Waste containing mercury. Broken thermometers and lamps, some other devices. We all remember that a broken mercury thermometer became a source of serious tension - the children were immediately expelled from the "contaminated" room, and the adults very carefully collected balls of liquid metal that "rolled" on the floor. The extreme toxicity of mercury is equally dangerous for both humans and the soil - every year tens of tons of this substance are simply thrown away, causing irreparable harm to nature. That is why mercury has been assigned the first (highest) hazard class - special collection points for mercury-containing waste are organized, and containers with this hazardous substance are placed in sealed containers, labeled and stored until better times, when they can be safely disposed of - at the moment, waste processing mercury is very inefficient.
- Batteries. Batteries, household, industrial and car batteries contain not only lead, but also sulfuric acid, as well as a whole range of other toxic substances that cause serious damage to the environment. One ordinary battery, which you took out of the TV remote control and threw away on the street, will poison dozens of square meters.meters of soil. In recent years, mobile collection points for used household batteries and accumulators have appeared in many large cities, which indicates the high danger posed by such waste.
- Radioactive waste. The most dangerous waste is death and destruction in its purest form. Radioactive waste in sufficient concentration destroys all life even without direct contact. Of course, no one will throw away spent uranium rods in a landfill - the placement and disposal of waste from "heavy metals" is a very serious process. For low-level and intermediate-level waste (having a relatively short half-life), various containers are used in which the spent elements are filled with cement mortar or bitumen. After the half-life has elapsed, such waste can be disposed of as normal waste. High-level waste is recycled using a complex and expensive technology. Complete processing of high-level "dirty metals" waste is impossible at the current level of technology development, and they are stored in special containers for a very long time - for example, the half-life of uranium-234 is about one hundred thousand years!
Attitude towards the problem of waste in the modern world
In the 21st century, the problem of environmental pollution with waste is one of the most acute and controversial. The attitudes of the governments of different countries towards it are just as different. In many Western countries, the problem of recycling andWaste processing is given paramount importance - the separation of household waste with subsequent safe processing, hundreds of recycling plants, special protected sites for the disposal of highly hazardous and toxic substances. Recently, a number of countries have been pursuing a policy of "circular economy" - a system in which the recycling of waste will be 100%. Denmark, Japan, Sweden, Scotland and Holland have traveled the farthest along this road.
In third world countries, there are no financial and organizational resources for the systematic processing and disposal of waste. As a result, giant landfills appear, where municipal waste, under the influence of rain, sun and wind, emits extremely toxic fumes that poison everything around for tens of kilometers. In Brazil, Mexico, India, and African countries, hundreds of hectares of hazardous waste are surrounded by multimillion-dollar megacities, which daily replenish their "stocks" with more and more waste.
All ways to get rid of garbage
- Removal of waste to landfills. The most common way to dispose of waste. In fact, the garbage is simply removed from sight, thrown out of the door. Some landfills are temporary storage before being recycled in a waste plant, and some, especially in third world countries, are only growing in size.
- Disposal of sorted waste to landfills. Such garbage is already much more "civilized". Its processing is much cheaper and much more efficient. Almost all countriesWestern Europe has switched to a system of separate waste, and very serious fines are provided for throwing out a "multi-purpose" bag with household waste.
- Waste incinerators. In such plants, waste is destroyed using high temperatures. Depending on the type of waste and financial possibilities, different technologies are used.
- Incinerate waste to generate energy. Now more and more processing plants are switching to the technology of obtaining energy from garbage - for example, in Sweden, "garbage energy" provides 20% of the country's needs. The world is starting to realize that waste is money.
- Recycling. Much of the waste can be recycled and reused. Developed countries are now striving for the maximum degree of non-waste. The easiest to recycle are paper, wood and food waste.
- Preservation and storage. This method is used for the most dangerous and toxic waste - mercury, radioactive, batteries.
The situation with waste disposal and recycling in Russia
Russia in this matter lags far behind the developed countries of the world. Complicating factors are large territories, a significant number of obsolete enterprises, the state of the Russian economy, and, to be honest, the domestic mentality, which is best described by the common expression about the extreme residential building and unwillingness to know about the problems of neighbors.
Who to look up to
Sweden reachedsuch a level of recycling and waste disposal that she lacks it! The Swedes even help the Norwegians in this matter, dealing with their household and industrial waste for a certain bribe.
The Japanese also surprise their neighbors - in the Land of the Rising Sun, 98% of the metal is reused. Not only that, recently Japanese scientists discovered bacteria that eat plastic! As a conservative estimate, these microorganisms may become the main way to recycle polyethylene in the future.
