Waste treatment refers to the activities required to ensure that

waste Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste prod ...

has the least practicable impact on the environment. In many countries various forms of waste treatment are required by law.

Solid waste treatment

The treatment of solid wastes is a key component of

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

. Different forms of solid waste treatment are graded in the

waste hierarchy Waste hierarchy is a tool used in the evaluation of processes that protect the environment alongside resource and energy consumption from most favourable to least favourable actions. The hierarchy establishes preferred program priorities based ...

Waste water treatment

Agricultural waste water treatment

Agricultural wastewater treatment Agricultural wastewater treatment is a farm management agenda for controlling pollution from confined animal operations and from surface runoff that may be contaminated by chemicals in fertilizer, pesticides, animal slurry, crop residues or i ...

is treatment and disposal of liquid animal waste, pesticide residues etc. from agriculture.

Industrial wastewater treatment

Industrial wastewater treatment is the treatment of wet wastes from factories, mines, power plants and other commercial facilities.

Sewage treatment

Sewage treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding e ...

is the treatment and disposal of human waste. Sewage is produced by all human communities. Treatment in urbanized areas is typically handled by centralized treatment systems. Alternative systems may use composting processes or processes that separate solid materials by settlement and then convert soluble contaminants into biological sludge and into gases such as

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ea ...

Radioactive waste treatment

Radioactive waste treatment is the treatment and containment of radioactive waste.

References

{{Waste Waste management Waste treatment technology