Geography, asked by kishor76, 1 year ago

Three differences in organic and inorganic wastes?

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Answered by swetabhagat67
4
Inorganic wastes are chemical substances of mineral origin
; whereasorganic wastes are chemical substances usually of animal or plant origin.... They include waste material such as sand, salt, Iron, Calcium, and other mineral materials that are only slightly affected by the action of organisms.
Answered by sukhpreetkaur18
3
What is the difference between organic and inorganic waste?

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Ed Cook, MSc Waste Management (2014)

Answered Jan 13, 2018 · Author has 1kanswers and 544.3k answer views

Organic waste includes items that contain carbon and (usually) hydrogen at a molecular level (hydrocarbons); as well as nitrogen and oxygen. The materials present in organic waste were (usually) once alive; they come from a biological process. Organic materials include obvious things like dead plants, food (meat, fish, vegetables) and wood.

Some materials aren't so obviously organic but are made from organic materials, e.g. paper + card (made from wood or other plants), textiles (made from wool, cotton or bamboo).

Sometimes people don't realise, but plastics are organic materials. Plastics are almost always made from oil (very small amounts from plants these days). Since oil comes from plants originally, it is an organic substance and therefore the plastics are organic too. This means all the plastic packaging that is thrown away is organic. Other things that come from oil include clothing made from artificial fibres (e.g. polyester, rayon), liquids such as paraffin, turpentine, ingredients of toiletries and cleaning products.

Gasses which are considered waste can include methane and carbon dioxide; these are organic wastes.

I think there are exceptions where organic materials can be synthesised from inorganic materials; but this is outside my knowledge comfort zone.

Inorganic waste materials are those which do not contain carbon. Examples include metals, ceramics, glass, and bricks. They key identifier is the lack of carbon. However some inorganic waste materials can come from life such as sea shells which are made from calcium carbonate which does not contain carbon (well maybe a tiny bit).

Many waste materials contain a combination of organic and inorganic materials. For instance many plastics contain additives of mineral origin such as talc, chalk and clay which are used as fillers.

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