The land and hazardous waste management

Excerpt

THE land receives most of the world's waste burden. Fortunately, the vast majority of that waste is solid and nonhazardous, existing in such forms as household and commercial refuse, including garbage, paper, machinery, old appliances, molded plastics, wood, glass, and rubber. This waste is frequently biodegradable or recyclable.

Household and nonhazardous commercial trash, although adding up to hundreds of millions of tons each year, can be safely disposed of in sanitary landfills without threat to human health or the environment. Hazardous waste, on the other hand, is a new and sophisticated breed of waste. Born of the age of technology, this waste results from manufacturing processes that turn out the high-quality goods and services the public has come to expect.

It would be difficult to visualize a world without automobiles, televisions, heart pacemakers, and modern textiles; yet the manufacture of these and countless other products necessitates the production of many common and exotic metals, paints, solvents, and chemicals. In turn, these products create hazardous waste material that must be safely managed and controlled. The nonnuclear hazardous waste problem crisscrosses the industrialized world's economy and touches such basic industries as agriculture, chemicals, electroplating, leather processing, paper …