Refuse Disposal

  Every household produces a certain amount of waste or refuse daily. If this refuse is just thrown outside the house, it will soon encourage the breeding of animal vectors like houseflies, mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats. These vectors would spread many diseases, thereby affecting the health of the community. Refuse, therefore must be collected, stored in covered bins by each household and disposed of properly at regular intervals.
    In many rural areas, each household is responsible for disposing its own refuse. This is done by burning, burying or composting. Dry refuse such as paper and husks of food is usually burnt. Refuse which cannot be burnt such as glass and metal is usually buried in a piece of waste land. Waste vegetable and food matter, dry leaves and animal dung which will decompose are placed in pits lined with stones. The refuse is sprayed with sewage to start to start up decay, and covered with soil to prevent flies from breeding. In time, this refuse rots to form compost which can be mixed with soil to improve it for cultivation. Compost pits should not be sited near the water supply. Waste water which does not contain faeces or urine is allowed to drain into seepage pits, or be used to irrigate the land if it does not contain soap or detergents.

In small villages, group of villagers clean public places like the market and village square and dispose the refuse on a rotation basis. 

In large village, towns and cities, refuse disposal is the responsibility of the public health authorities, which comes under the ministry of health. Each household stores the refuse in covered bins. The refuse is collected from these bins regularly by refuse lorries and disposed of by 

Burning in incinerator,  

Dumping, 

Sanitary landfill or controlled tipping and emptying into the sea. 

   In many countries, refuse is burned completely in incinerators at high temperatures. Before burning, components of the refuse such as cans, bottles and plastics are separated out. These are pulverized and buried, or taken to a recycling plant. Incineration contributes to air pollution. Modern incinerators, however, are fitted with anti pollution devices that minimize air pollution. Proper incinerators, however, are very expensive to build.