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Waste Management

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Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

Managing wastes resulting from human activities in the most sustainable and least environmentally damaging ways using suitable wastes, as far as practicable, as resources for productive purposes.

All human activities, industrial, agricultural, domestic, or others inevitably produce waste . Some waste is harmful to health. Others, during decomposition, cause nuisance from odor, attract vermin, or cause contamination of soils and pollution of water. This section focuses on solid and liquid waste (but not waste water or radioactive waste). Disposal of waste by tipping has been used for thousands of years (early sites are now archaeologically valuable). But landfill has caused increasing problems as large populations in growing urban areas have produced ever greater volumes of waste. Large, numerous landfills divert land from other productive uses of land and can also cause short and long term hazards.

This has led to an approach to management of waste known as the waste...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London, UK

    Brian R. Marker

Authors
  1. Brian R. Marker
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Correspondence to Brian R. Marker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Kanata, Ontario, Canada

    Peter T. Bobrowsky

  2. London, United Kingdom

    Brian Marker

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© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG

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Marker, B.R. (2018). Waste Management. In: Bobrowsky, P., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_294-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12127-7_294-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-12127-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-12127-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

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