About the Non-Biodegradable Materials

Biodegradable refers to organic material that can be broken down by living organisms.  It is said that this can break down and once again become part of the earth and soil like food scraps and papers.

But most of us often take for granted the term “biodegradable.” Which can be somehow becomes dangerous if it’s already uncontrollable to handle. Have we thought of what is the meaning of nonbiodegradable and its effects on our everyday living?

Nonbiodegradable are wastes materials that cannot be broken down by other living organisms. These are plastics (polyethylene, nylon, rayon, polyester, lexan, pvc (polyvinyl chloride), dacron). Metals such as iron, platinum, steel, tin, aluminum, lead, silver, gold, mercury, zinc etc.  Ceramics like carbon fiber and fiberglass. Foams. Circuit boards and silicon based materials.

In our everyday living, we are using tons of nonbiodegradable materials that we think are useful but in the long run, it will destroy our environment. And we are part of that destruction - whether we are like it or not.

When we disposed materials as such, our nature cannot reuse these materials to fuel the cycle of life and it will remain as pollution in the environment.  All the resources and energy used to make the material in the first place, are trapped within the waste. And because nature cannot breakdown the material; the matter and energy cannot be reclaimed and reused by the environment to generate more organic matter and energy.

This means when we rely on non-biodegradable materials, pollution is being formed and unsustainable efficiency is created. It is just like eating something that our intestines cannot digest, and so we tend to get sick and everything else is not normal.

With different government agencies putting a halt to this, there are different programs and number of places where we can throw our waste.

When we clean our homes and ourselves the products we use end up as waste washed down the drains and into sewers or septic tanks. Sewerage waste is treated which changes most of that waste to carbon dioxide and water with some minerals, waste elements and non-biodegradable materials left over. The treated water is then pumped back into a river or ocean. This means that the non-biodegradable matter in the products we use may eventually end up as pollution in our waterways (source: Waste and Sustainability - Biodegradable and Non-Biodegradable Materials by Trudy Slabosz).

Thus, disposing and having the knowledge of separating the biodegradable and nonbiodegradable is a good start. It is also best to try and make sure any biodegradable material waste is composted and does not end up in landfill. Landfills may include internal waste disposal sites (where a producer of waste carries out their own waste disposal at the place of production) as well as sites used by many producers. Many landfills are also used for other waste management purposes, such as the temporary storage, consolidation and transfer, or processing of waste material (sorting, treatment, or recycling).