Waste: Recycling and Hazardous Waste Material Essay

Submitted By harripatl
Words: 519
Pages: 3

While most would say it takes too much time and effort to dispose of hazardous material. Rather than properly dispose the hazardous material one would go as far as placing the harmful waste in the garbage can for the sanitation workers to pick up once a week. Most people are not familiar with the proper disposal of hazardous waste. One would think just pouring your expired medicine down the drain and turning on the garbage disposal is one way. In fact, that is the most dangerous way to dispose of expired medicine. Mechanics who work on cars have numerous of hazardous waste, anti freeze, motor oil, transmission oil and the list goes on. As a local public health department employee it is my job and duty to inform the people on proper disposal of hazardous waste and how it could affect the public's health and welfare if improperly disposed of. To enlighten those who do not quite understand the importance of recycling. I wish to work with the community jointly in a way that they too foster a healthy environment and create a framework for them to develop the necessary skills and knowledge when it comes to recycling hazardous waste and the proper way to dispose of it (http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/toxic-waste-overview/). The best way to explain the importance of disposing of hazardous waste is when harmful chemicals like motor oil, paint, paint thinner; these items make it to the landfill once there they may begin to leak. Once the leakage began, now you run the risk of the farm where produce is being grown and sold to the local stores or even in the drinking water. The chemicals can also be airborne along with soil contamination when it rains the chemicals flow downstream (http://www.epa.gov/osw/). Improper practice on disposing of hazardous waste is to discard of the waste by throwing those items in the regular trash, which could harm the sanitation workers. Too many of us are not mindful of the affects caused by improperly disposing of hazardous waste if one