Question

Essay on converting of waste into wealth

Answer 1

      Waste is the junk material we dispose of from kitchens, rest of the houses, offices, laboratories manufacturing units and industrial processes.  Waste can be in solid or fluid or wet solid or even gaseous form.  Garbage is normally thrown at the nearest dumping yard.  Often it creates trouble in countries like India, as the garbage management is not very well implemented yet.  In many advanced countries, it is well implemented systematically.  It may be surprising to know that  millions of tons of waste is generated each day.

      One method to deal with garbage is to destroy and decompose it chemically.  This is not always practical and economical.  It results in burning fuel, pollution and global warming.  Another method to deal with garbage is to dump it in a junkyard far away from residential areas.  However, the space is used and people living nearby may object to it.

     Another possibility is to use technologies to implement Reduce, Recycle, Reuse (RRR) methods that suits each type of garbage.   This option is good because we get rid of waste while making a use of it.  We also generate employment and wealth in terms of money.

      The process is to collect each type of garbage in a different garbage bin.  So garbage management methods will be different for different paper, glass bottles, rubber, plastic, organic waste from kitchen etc.  They can be processed and the material can be recycled by a manufacturing plant.   Paper and related materials can be recycled to make cartons or such objects.  Organic waste can be used for generation of biogas or as fuel perhaps.  Plastic, polythene, rubber type of materials can be used as fuels or raw materials.  Some kind of oils can be generated from them.   Often people in rural areas water plants in their backyard by reusing waste water from the house.  They use the waste from kitchen as a fertilizer for the plants.  World over, there are already small scale industrial units in many urban areas doing this.

      There is some difficulty at the moment, in this way of using waste as a raw material.  People throw all junk everywhere.  It is difficult to sort and separate the useful materials from others.  Also, certain materials may not be present in sufficient quantities for the manufacturing units to use them as raw materials on a regular basis.

     One good thing to happen will be to be able to use biodegradable materials in making many items that we use every day.  This will reduce the generation of waste.  Further these materials can be recycled more easily than others.   In future, advancements in sciences and technologies can give us good hope for converting a major part of waste into wealth.