Topic on waste management?

Question

how is waste a problem and how is it a problem in different areas of the environment? such as in the water

thanks for helping =)

Answer 1

Waste is a problem when we introduce toxic substances into the environment.

Currently governments are mandating that people use CF light bulbs, however they do contain the heavy metal mercury.

While the amount in one bulb is slight, the collective total of all the bulbs in a local area is sufficient to cause concern, as mercury is already found in fish in alarming amounts.  Currently pregnant women are told to limit and even stop consumption of fish.

The best waste management are those waste companies that sort out their trash removing recyclable material and then reselling this material for a profit.

Answer 2

Waste can be seen as a problem or it can be seen as a valuable resource. One system's output can be another system's valuable input.

For example

A Waste problem - could be effluent from intensive farming systems if it is allowed into water systems causes nitrification which results in toxic blue green algae blooms. Another problem is Biological Oxygen Deficiency  where the organic material is broken down by micro-organisms in the water. This process takes up most of the oxygen so other living organisms (eg fish) die due to oxygen deficiency.

A Waste solution - could be incorporating your chickens into a Permaculture designed gardening system, so the chicken wanders around eating bugs, scratching up weeds, fertilizing the soil as it moves around (now a benefit,  a valuable input not a problem output). In Permaculture we look for many functions for each component of the design so the chicken is very valuable to us as it self populates, self cares if it totally free ranges, produces meat, eggs, feathers for stuffing pillows etc as well as preparing our veg beds for planting.

HINT: The closer the system is to nature the less wastes there are. Mother nature produces no wastes, every component has a function/many functions, a niche (jobs/career to do) and everything returns to the soil. In a man made system, for example intensive chicken production it is only then the wastes become an environmental problem. If the intensive chicken farmer put his chicken poo on the land, it is so concentrated it would burn the plants and leach into the waterways causing nitrification or biological Oxygen Deficiency. The chicken poo is a problem output for the intensive farmer. For the Permaculture Gardener who observes and works in harmony with nature, the chicken poo is autmatically delivered to the ground in it's perfect state as a fertilizer which helps to grow plants and enrich the soil, not pollute it.