Industrial waste in the context of "Toxicity"

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 and regulation of the waste management process and waste-related laws, technologies, and economic mechanisms.

Waste can either be solid, liquid, or gases and each type has different methods of disposal and management. Waste management deals with all types of waste, including industrial, chemical, municipal, organic, biomedical, and radioactive wastes. In some cases, waste can pose a threat to human health. Health issues are associated with the entire process of waste management. Health issues can also arise indirectly or directly: directly through the handling of solid waste, and indirectly through the consumption of water, soil, and food. Waste is produced by human activity, for example, the extraction and processing of raw materials. Waste management is intended to reduce the adverse effects of waste on human health, the environment, planetary resources, and aesthetics.

Environmental policy is the pledge by governments or organizations to adopt laws, regulations, and other policy tools aimed at addressing environmental issues. These typically involve air and water pollution, waste management, ecosystem protection, biodiversity conservation, management of natural resources, and safeguarding wildlife and endangered speciesFor example, concerning environmental policy, the implementation of an eco-energy-oriented policy at a global level to address the issue of climate change could be addressed.

Policies concerning energy or regulation of toxic substances including pesticides and many types of industrial waste are part of the topic of environmental policy. This policy can be deliberately taken to influence human activities and thereby prevent undesirable effects on the biophysical environment and natural resources, as well as to make sure that changes in the environment do not have unacceptable effects on humans.

Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial, agricultural, and residential waste; particles; noise; excess carbon dioxide; or invasive organisms enter the ocean and cause harmful effects there. The majority of this waste (80%) comes from land-based activity, although marine transportation significantly contributes as well. It is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. This pollution results in damage to the environment, to the health of all organisms, and to economic structures worldwide. Since most inputs come from land, via rivers, sewage, or the atmosphere, it means that continental shelves are more vulnerable to pollution. Air pollution is also a contributing factor, as it carries iron, carbonic acid, nitrogen, silicon, sulfur, pesticides, and dust particles into the ocean. The pollution often comes from nonpoint sources such as agricultural runoff, wind-blown debris, and dust. These nonpoint sources are largely due to runoff that enters the ocean through rivers, but wind-blown debris and dust can also play a role, as these pollutants can settle into waterways and oceans. Pathways of pollution include direct discharge, land runoff, ship pollution, bilge pollution, dredging (which can create dredge plumes), atmospheric pollution and, potentially, deep sea mining.

Different types of marine pollution can be grouped as pollution from marine debris, plastic pollution, including microplastics, ocean acidification, nutrient pollution, toxins, and underwater noise. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a type of marine pollution by plastics, ranging in size from large original material such as bottles and bags, down to microplastics formed from the fragmentation of plastic materials. Marine debris is mainly discarded human rubbish which floats on, or is suspended in the ocean. Plastic pollution is harmful to marine life.

Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) is a fuel produced from various types of waste such as municipal solid waste (MSW), industrial waste or commercial waste.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development provides a definition:

Environmental dumping can refer to two distinct but interrelated types of dumping: One is the trans-frontier shipment and improper disposal of hazardous waste (household waste, industrial/nuclear waste, etc.), and the second is environmentally harmful product dumping, the unethical marketing in and exporting to developing countries of new products that are inferior in economic, environmental, and technical performance, with these products often requiring the use of obsolete and/or hazardous chemicals. The export of used products (commercial buses and trucks, heavy equipment) with poor energy-efficiency and environmental performance also falls into this category of dumping as does products that are at or near end-of-life. In all cases, the goal is to take advantage of countries with less strict environmental laws or environmental laws that are not well-enforced. The economic benefit of this practice is cheap disposal or recycling of waste outside of the economic and environmental regulations of the country of origin or the maximization of revenue from old products that are unwanted or not permitted for sale in the country of origin.

The dumping of hazardous waste has been possible because less-developed countries often did not: 1) know what entering the country through importers, 2) know the hazards and trade-offs, 3) have the enforcement structure in place to apprehend and halt imports, or 4) possess the political consensus and necessary independence to look out for their own national interests.

Waste valorization, beneficial reuse, value recovery or waste reclamation is the process of waste products or residues from an economic process being valorized (given economic value), by reuse or recycling in order to create economically useful materials. The term comes from practices in sustainable manufacturing and economics, industrial ecology and waste management. The term is usually applied in industrial processes where residue from creating or processing one good is used as a raw material or energy feedstock for another industrial process. Industrial wastes in particular are good candidates for valorization because they tend to be more consistent and predictable than other waste, such as household waste.

Increased regulation of residual materials and socioeconomic changes, such as the introduction of ideas about sustainable development and circular economy in the 1990s and 2000s increased focus on industrial practices to recover resources as value add materials.