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Land Pollution


 Countries with the largest economies and consumer patterns in the world today, often have the most serious solid wastes problem. Household refuse, commercial rubbish, industrial wastes and contraction debris total more than 700,000 metric tonnes daily in the United States alone. 

Among the major methods of solid wastes disposal are open dumps, sanitary landfills, incineration, ocean dumping, feeding garbage to swine and composting. Seepage  of rain water through these wastes in dump and land fills may result in pollution of underground water.

Incineration pollutes the air. Ocean dumping damages ecosystems in parts of the sea over a lengthy period of time, and the African environment is characterized by the above mentioned.

In smaller towns and cities in most developing countries in the continent, you can find on every street and even along the roads, solid wastes litters. A lot of people just dump household refuse and solid wastes directly on the streets and even on the roads. Open dumps both large and small can be found everywhere, and as a result, they are running out of places to put these wastes. 

Yet in other developed nations, however, some cities are forced to ship their refuse long distances to disposable sites. For example, San Francisco, California in the United States, has a disposal area in a desert about six hundred kilometers from the main city. 

Also, swamps and abandoned strip mines are also considered as potential landfill areas. Several solutions have been proffered to this seemingly disturbing trend. One of these is recycling. 

Recycling is the utilization of wastes of raw materials in the manufacturing of new products. Wall board, organic fertilizers and cellulose plastics are some end products of recycling. 

Furthermore, putting old items to use is another aspect of  recycling. Another solution lies in the development of new technologies such as employing the use of digital technology to manage waste . Current trends include e-waste management and recycling. These new innovations will definitely help in handling effectively the increasing mass of trash in each country and globally too. 

Another system being used in large apartment houses is the garbage compactor. This compresses the waste into a fourth of  its original volume. The disadvantage of this method, is that it makes decomposing of the wastes much more difficult. Yet, another volume reducing system which is called Pyrolysis, is a plant that burns waste in an oxygen free environment.

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