What are Different Types of Waste

What are Different Types of Waste

Waste are useless left over or discarded materials. They can be gaseous, liquid or solid.

Biodegradable Wastes :

  • They are wastes which are broken down and disposed of naturally by saprophytes or decomposers.
  • Biodegradable wastes generally organic wastes, e.g., garbage, sewage, livestock waste, used tea leaves.
  • They can also be diposed of through waste treatment plants or converted into an agricultural resource of manure and compost.

Non-biodegradable wastes :

  • They are the wastes which cannot be broken down by decomposers because they do not have enzymes for the same.
  • Most of the nonbiodegrable wastes are human made, e.g., plastic, crockery, metallic cans, glass articles, polythene bgas, synthene fibres, silver foil, many pesticides (e.g., BHC, DDT).
  • Some of the soluble but nonbiodegradable chemicals enter food chains, persists, undergo biomagnification and harm the consumers of various levels includings humans.