We all throw away some amount of garbage every day, in Toronto and everywhere else. Sometimes it is hard to get away from trash at home especially if you live in a big house with many family members living in it with you. The landfills in Ontario are getting full, that’s why everyone should know about the importance of recycling, segregation, and proper disposal of waste materials.
But, let’s first discuss where does such garbage come from and where it ends up. Are there ways we can employ to reduce the amount of trash we create?
Waste Management 101
Well, garbage has two classifications which are either biodegradable or nonbiodegradable. When we say biodegradable, it means that the trash will decay and may turn into soil after some time. Yes, you heard it right, it will become soil.
The soil that covers the earth is formed through decayed animals, plants and other natural debris, in other words litter. Items that are considered biodegradable are parts of animals (skin, muscles, and hair) and their wastes, plants and their decayed parts. Animal bones too are considered as biodegradable even though it takes a bit longer for them to fully decompose.
An example of the best biodegradable material is paper as it is derived from trees, which belongs to the plant classification. When you bury a piece of paper in the back of your backyard, it is going to slowly decay, and in roughly three months’ time, it will already be decayed quite significantly and you will no longer be able see it.
On the other hand, non-biodegradable garbage is precisely the opposite as far as decaying goes. These items are in no way able to decompose by themselves or else it is going to take hundreds or thousands of years before they will have decayed properly. Most of these items are typically made from minerals and chemicals which cannot decompose fast naturally. The best examples of non-biodegradable trash are glass, rubber, plastic, aluminum foils, and aluminum cans.
How Does Garbage Decompose
Biodegradable materials will decay with enough time given for the process to happen. The duration of time necessary for such decomposition may differ according to the density of the matter, location, weather conditions, temperature, and the number of decomposers that reside in your place. So, what are decomposers then?
Decomposers are animals, insects, earthworms, fungus, bacteria, or other organisms that consume biodegradable matter as nourishment. Try dropping an apple staple on the ground, and you will notice that it is not going to take long before it starts to rot. Small animals will nibble on the leftovers of the apple. Birds and insects may as well eat some chunks. Before you can know it, the apple will have disappeared. Some of it permanently left with the creature that consumed it; however, part of it was transformed into soil.
Have you noticed that leaves fall on the ground during autumn in Ontario and pile up around front doors and underneath bushes? If these leaves did not get removed for a long time, they would progressively decay on their own. Autumn happens every year, but other people don’t have issues with too many leaves piled up in their doorways.
This is because the leaves decompose fast and transform into humus and return to the soil where they came from. Leaves on the trees are carrying energy, wherein if they fall into the ground, that energy is going to return to the land which helps the plants grow back later on in the next cycle.
Where does all this garbage go?
If we are going to throw trash away, it does not only sit in the trash can. Toronto waste handlers, trash collectors, and sanitation workers are the ones to take these garbage away. The trash is carried by huge trucks and then hauled to the nearest landfill in most of the communities. The landfill is also commonly known as the dump.
In the landfill, some trash will be burned, while some will be buried beneath the soil. Another part of that waste undergoes the process called recycling. Waste management companies like us here at Toronto Dumpster Rentals Corp carefully and adequately dispose of this garbage so it won’t harm the Ontario residents or the water system and the environment.
