How to Manage Garbage

Garbage Management is disposal of/getting rid of waste materials or domestic refuses. The word garbage is generally used to indicate solid household wastes which are comprised of a few types of unwanted material produced through day-to-day household activities. Such garbage is also called residential waste.

A similar type of garbage is also produced by commercial sources such as hotels and restaurants, shops, offices and other business outlets, which is referred to as commercial waste.

The third type of waste is industrial waste, the nature of which is determined by the type of industry concerned.

In cities, residential and commercial wastes are disposed of by the city’s municipal administration, but industrial waste is discharged into water bodies or dumped near the site, where the industry is located. Although disposal of industrial waste is to be made in a manner that does not constitute a threat to environment, it is frequently not practised with sufficient stringency. Consequently, industrial pollution is today a major environmental threat in many countries.

Separation of non-biodegradable material from the city garbage at the site of the plant, that is, after collection of the garbage is very difficult, but such separation at the domestic level such as placing plastic, glass and metal wastes separately from the rest of the garbage consisting of bio-wastes / perishables would require both resource mobilization and awareness creation among the city dwellers.

Awareness must be created in the minds of the people and it is a long term process to change the habits, of throwing anything in the dustbins at their dwelling places or in the public garbage bins not realizing the consequences of throwing assorted breakages and wastages.

Private sector/Voluntary Organizations’ involvement in this venture may prove productive at the small-scale community level, but for this a complicated cost-benefit analysis and a well planned operating strategy is necessary.