Various types of waste require different attention. If you’re wondering how waste at home is classified, read on.
Food waste
The process your food goes through before it reaches your plate involves a lot of waste. Food waste includes left-overs that come from your home, such as bones and skin from fish and meat. Rotten fruits and vegetables also make it to this list. All non-liquid dairy products, eggshells, tea bags, and coffee grounds, count them all in. When food is disposed of improperly it produces methane after it rots. Methane is worse than carbon dioxide in causing global warming. Proper and timely disposal of this waste is indeed essential because it emits a harmful gas and smell when it rots.
Hazardous household waste
This is waste that results after making your purchase. The protective and well-designed packaging is only useful until the day you rip it open. This is the case for cell phones, laptops, appliances, and furniture, to name a few. Advertising materials you receive through the mail also form part of your household’s accumulated waste. Used batteries and used tissues are among this category. Cleaning products, automotive care, and products for pest control all contain strong chemicals. One they are used, they form part of the environment—the water, land, and air.
General hazardous waste
These waste products require special handling because of the risk they possess. Hazardous waste materials are reactive, corrosive, toxic, and flammable. Some waste is water-reactive. Organometallics and sulphuric acid should be kept away from moisture.
On the other hand, some toilet bowl cleaners are corrosive because of their acidic properties. Flame retardants are chemicals that impact female fertility and thyroid glands. These are found in furniture and are impossible to avoid. The best way to prevent this is to regularly clean your furniture and dispose of it safely when the time comes. Partner with a company offering junk removal in Washington DC when discarding hazardous waste products because they are highly trained professionals who know how to dispose of all waste materials safely.
Biodegradable waste
The organic matter that makes up biodegradable waste is recyclable through a particular type of disposal method that later on turns it into compost. In contrast to household and plastic waste, biodegradable garbage can be good for the environment. This earth-friendly garbage includes food waste and biodegradable plastic. Proper waste management causes a considerable amount of microbial flora to form around it, making biodegradable trash. Wrong disposal of such trash can result in infectious diseases in humans, plants, and animals.
Litter
Waste products and their improper disposal become litter. These are human-made products like plastic bottles and cardboard boxes that are just left lying around. Littering of used tires and electronics and batteries is not uncommon. Cigarette butts, the most littered item in the world, take five years to four hundred years to degrade.
Treating your trash right is akin to treating your environment right with the right waste management services chicago il. The consequences of improper disposal will impact the Earth for decades and centuries to come. Therefore, the right time to take action on this matter is now.
