Where Does Our Waste Go?

For many people, their relationship with solid waste ends every time the garbage trucks arrive and whisk away the waste that was produced. So what's the big deal? We've become so accustomed to this fact of life that we need to take a step back and think about waste for a second. From a natural point of view, there is no "waste." This is because the waste of one organism becomes food for another organism, a good example of the age-old adage "one man's trash is another man's treasure."
The waste that people are directly responsible for is called garbage. However, what most people don't realize is that factories, food growers, and businesses supplying the goods and services that sustain our everyday lives produce about 98% of all the world's solid waste.
Solid waste is a concern for us in two ways. The first is that much or all of the solid waste represents unnecessary waste of the precious resources provided by the Earth. The second is that by producing the solid products that we use and throw away accounts for massive amounts of air, water, and soil pollution. Thankfully, there are solutions that you can partake in to reduce the amount of solid waste.
There are essentially two ways to deal with all the waste we create. The first is called waste management. This is known as a "high-waste approach" and looks at waste as largely unavoidable and a byproduct of economic growth. This method usually includes crushing garbage together and tossing it into landfills, burning it, or shipping it to another place. The second, more environmental method is called waste reduction. This is a "low-waste approach." This method sees solid waste as potential sources of resources. In this way, garbage cans become "resource containers." There are four major tenets in the waste reduction methodology. They are refusing, reduce, reuse, and recycle. This method addresses the issue of waste before it occurs, rather than deal with the consequences afterwards. It also saves matter and energy resources, reduces pollution of the land and water, reduces emissions that result in global warming, and saves money in the long run.