Waste

Waste and wastes are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance which is discarded after primary use, or it is worthless, defective and of no use.

The term is often subjective (because waste to one person is not necessarily waste to another) and sometimes objectively inaccurate (for example, to send scrap metals to a landfill is to inaccurately classify them as waste, because they are recyclable). Examples include municipal solid waste (household trash/refuse), hazardous waste, wastewater (such as sewage, which contains bodily wastes (feces and urine) and surface runoff), radioactive waste, and others.

Definitions

United Nations Environment Program

According to the Basel Convention,

United Nations Statistics Division, Glossary of Environment Statistics

European Union

Under the Waste Framework Directive, the European Union defines waste as "an object the holder discards, intends to discard or is required to discard."

Types

There are many waste types defined by modern systems of waste management, notably including:

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