We’ve all been there. You have a bunch of stuff that you no longer need, and you want to throw it away. Maybe it’s a couch, old appliances or even some toys for the kids. It doesn’t matter what it is; we’ve all been there at one point or another in our lives.

The question is: What happens to your trash? I’m sure some people wonder if they can just dump their junk on the side of the road and let someone else deal with it – but that isn’t exactly how things work in the garbage industry.

In this article, we’ll explain how waste management companies handle your trash once they receive it from your home or business and why they do what they do.

THREE DIFFERENT WASTE STREAMS

Waste management companies are responsible for collecting and disposing of trash. They collect recyclable materials and manage solid waste, which includes items that can’t be recycled.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens to the items you put in your garbage bin every week, here’s how it works:

• Garbage collection is broken down into three streams: recycling, composting/waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities, and landfills.

• The first step is recycling: Waste management companies collect recyclable materials from curbside bins or drop-off centers across their service areas. The most common materials include cans, plastics bottles, and paper products such as cardboard boxes

RECYCLABLE TRASH

Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new products. Recyclable trash is sorted, cleaned, and made into new products. The most common types of recyclable trash are paper, plastic, metal, glass and rubber. Recycling can help preserve natural resources by reducing the number of raw materials needed to make new objects or by reusing existing materials instead of extracting raw materials from nature.

For example: If you recycle a plastic bottle instead of throwing it in the regular trash or recycling bin, this reduces the amount of oil needed to produce another bottle because less oil was needed to make the recycled product than if making a brand new one from scratch (or so we hope).

WASTE-TO-ENERGY

Waste-to-energy (WTE) plants are a type of incinerator that burns waste to generate electricity. The technology has been around since the 1960s, and there are more than 500 WTE sites worldwide. In the United States alone, there are more than 200 WTE plants currently operating.

In general, there are two types of waste-to-energy technologies: mass burn and refuse-derived fuel (RDF). RDF is similar to mass burning but uses a higher degree of sorting prior to burning; this produces a cleaner fuel suitable for use by coal-fired power stations rather than just in WTE facilities themselves.

LANDFILLS AND GAS-TO-ENERGY SYSTEMS

Landfills, also known as sanitary landfills, are a waste management solution for non-recyclable trash. If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your garbage once it leaves your home, this is where it goes. In landfills, organic materials break down over time and form a gas called landfill gas that can be used to generate electricity or produce renewable energy. Landfill gas is composed primarily of methane and carbon dioxide: two gases that are potent greenhouse gases in their own right (carbon dioxide has been pegged by some as the cause of climate change). When these gases aren’t released into the atmosphere through burning them for energy or using them in other ways, they contribute significantly to global warming issues around the world.

Landfill gas can be collected from landfills through pipes underground or above ground; then it’s either burned directly on site or piped elsewhere so that another source can use it for energy production purposes—such as generating electricity at power plants by turning turbines when they combust landfill gas with air and firewood into an engine boiler system (this process is called power generation).

Conclusion

It’s important to know that, regardless of your lifestyle or what you throw out, all waste can be recycled or reused. Even if you live in an apartment building with only one trash chute and no recycling bins, there are still ways for your trash to go towards a better future. Waste management companies do their best to make sure that your trash is handled responsibly and efficiently so we can all benefit from it! For more information please contact Bekabee, waste management company in South Africa.

This article was first published at https://topclickblogs.co.za/what-do-waste-management-companies-do-with-your-trash/