Waste Disposal Management: Problems and Personal Effort

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Waste Disposal Management
Introduction
Waste management is still a working progress in many countries, no matter the effort to manage disposable waste there is still a lot to be done to render our environment free of waste. Waste is any garbage produced by commercial production, households and institutions. Municipal Solid Waste comprises grass and fence clippings, packaging items, leftover food, clothes, and electrical appliances to name a few. Solid waste is the most common problem with waste management as most garbage does not decompose and therefore when disposed irresponsibly, the environment is filled with litter CITATION Mun16 \l 1033 (Municipal Solid Waste).
Whereas we can place the blame on corporations and industries on climate change and global warming. Humans have disregarded the mechanism put in place in order to manage waste causing pollution. Poor waste disposal has detrimental effects on the environment and people nonetheless, there are possible ways to manage waste. Waste management starts at home and an individual responsibility to properly dispose waste and avoid littering then the government and corporations can step in CITATION JAP98 \l 1033 (Philips).
The problem with waste management.
The U.S generated 254 million tons of waste in 2013 alone and each day there is 7 pounds of trash per person. Poor waste management has detrimental effects on the environment leading to pollution. Municipal Solid Waste comes from items we use every day and then dispose, this include food left overs, furniture and products packages. With an increasing population, the higher the amount of waste produced and garbage per person increases CITATION Mun16 \l 1033 (Municipal Solid Waste). Waste management has not been effective, instead of processing it is disposed in landfills which unfortunately are in proximity or residential areas leading to a polluted environment CITATION Ibr15 \l 1033 (Ibro Skenderovic, ecir Kalac, Suad Becirovic).
Everything around us is directly or indirectly linked to the environment and therefore the state of our surrounding determines much the conditions of other things CITATION Ibr15 \l 1033 (Ibro Skenderovic, ecir Kalac, Suad Becirovic). A polluted environment affects animals, soil, vegetation and even the climate and manifests itself through human diseases coming from mosquitoes, rats and infections from eating and drinking dirty products as well as contact with garbage CITATION 6Ne17 \l 1033 (6 Negative Effects of Improper Waste Management).
Solid waste generated from our everyday activities forms the greatest threat to the environment. Packaging bags, plastics and bottles are inorganic and therefore do not decompose, when we carelessly dump these items to our environment they become breeding sites of rodents and mosquitoes. Additionally, the colored plastics contain heavy metals such as lead and copper as source of their color, these metals release toxins to the soils making it unviable to grow crops CITATION Stu16 \l 1033 (Study Session 2 Enviromental Pollution and Health).
Organic waste such as food left overs, fence trimmings CITATION Mun16 \l 1033 (Municipal Solid Waste) is decomposable, however when improperly disposed it generates an odor to the environment thus contaminating the air. Dumps of organic waste are breeding sites for disease causing agents and become a cause for spreading insects and animals that are disease vectors CITATION Stu16 \l 1033 (Study Session 2 Enviromental Pollution and Health). A degrading environment presents in various ways such as a degrading biodiversity, poor growth processes of plants and a dying and unbalanced ecosystem CITATION Ibr15 \l 1033 (Ibro Skenderovic, ecir Kalac, Suad Becirovic).
Humans are the producers and victims of poor waste management and its negative effects. Poor disposal of solid waste from our households blocks drainage systems thus preventing proper flow of sewer and this becomes a source of human infections. These waste consequently becomes breeding sites for mosquitoes that cause dengue fever and malaria. Rodents such as rats hide well in disposal sites and they cause harm to our crops and find ways to our houses spreading diseases such as salmonellosis, leptospirosis and rat bite fever just to number a few CITATION 6Ne17 \l 1033 (6 Negative Effects of Improper Waste Management).
Improper disposal of old cars and electrical appliances release toxins to the soil which inevitably becomes absorbed in the food we eat and we become exposed to carcinogenic toxins CITATION 6Ne17 \l 1033 (6 Negative Effects of Improper Waste Management). Burning of these waste releases harmful gases to the air which becomes polluted causing breathing problems. Additionally, carbon dioxide from our cars is released to the atmosphere and consequently depleting the ozone layer which exposes the harmful sun rays CITATION Ibr15 \l 1033 (Ibro Skenderovic, ecir Kalac, Suad Becirovic).
Waste Management
There are various laws governing management of waste and revolve around disposal of solid waste, recovery of resources and conservation and hazardous waste management. The Resources Recovery Act (RRA) OF 1970 played a major role in ensuring proper disposal of hazardous waste. The Act emphasized on recycling and recovering of energy from waste CITATION Sol16 \l 1033 (Solid Waste Laws ans Regulations). The establishment of Environmental Protection Agency brought about the enactment of regulations that govern disposal of Municipal waste from our households as well as determining which areas are to become landfills. The Agency offers guidelines on combustion of waste in order to reduce release of harmful gases to the environment...