Solid_Waste

Solid Waste As defined in Environmental Science “solid waste is any discarded material that is not a liquid or gas. Products have changed over the years from being reusable to being disposable which has caused a great increase in solid waste. In fact, since the 1960’s each person in America has almost doubled their output of solid waste. There are two kinds of solid waste. One kind is wastes that are made of biodegradable materials, and the other is materials not made of biodegradable materials. “A biodegradable material is a material that can be broken down by living things into simpler chemicals that can be consumed by living things (Environmental Science).” Synthetic materials, or materials created in a laboratory, are nonbiodegradable. Plastics are a common synthetic material. Plastics are made up of mostly carbon and hydrogen, but these elements are put together differently than how they are found in nature. Microorganisms have ways to break down things in nature, but not man made things. Plastics may last for hundreds of years before they are able to start the process of being broken down. 75% waste, landfills, materials, wastes, leachate, being, about, municipal, incinerators, amount, tons, space, solid, million, made, things, material, garbage, trash, plastics, person, out, new, each, comes, biodegradable, therefore, states, recycling, put, produced, produce, per, paper, open