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Plastics account for almost 10 percent by weight of the content of municipal garbage. Plastic containers and other household products are increasingly recycled, and, like paper, these must be sorted at the source before processing. Various thermoplastics may be remelted and reformed into new products.
Thermoplastics must be sorted by type before they can be remelted. Thermosetting plastics such as polyurethane and epoxy resins, by contrast, cannot be remelted; these are usually ground or shredded for use as fillers or insulating materials. So-called biodegradable plastics include starches that degrade upon exposure to sunlight (photodegradation), but a fine plastic residue remains, and the degradable additives preclude recycling of these products.
Construction and demolition waste
Construction and demolition (C&D) debris (e.g., wood, brick, portland cement concrete, asphalt concrete and metals) can be reclaimed and reused to help reduce the volume taken up by such materials in landfills. Concrete debris consists mostly of sand and gravel that can be crushed and reused for road subbase gravel. Clean wood from C&D debris can be chipped and used as mulch, animal bedding, and fuel. Asphalt can be reused in cold-mix paving products and roofing shingles. Recovered wallboard can be used as cat litter. As landfill space becomes more expensive, more of these materials are being recycled.
Domestic refuse
Domestic refuse (municipal solid waste) includes garbage and rubbish. Garbage contains highly decomposable food waste (e.g., kitchen scraps), while rubbish is the dry, nonputrescible component of refuse. Once glass, plastics, paper products, and metals have been removed from domestic refuse, what remains is essentially organic waste. This waste can be biologically decomposed and turned into humus, which is a useful soil conditioner, and kitchen scraps, when decomposed with leaves and grass in a compost mound, make an especially useful soil amendment. These practices help reduce the amount of material contributed by households to landfills.
Wastewater
Treated wastewater (domestic sewage) can be reclaimed and reused for a variety of purposes, including golf course and landscape irrigation. With achievement of appropriate (secondary) treatment levels, it may be reused for the irrigation of certain agricultural crops. After very high levels of advanced (or tertiary) treatment and purification, it may even be used to supplement drinking water supplies. However, because of public resistance to the direct reuse of treated sewage for domestic purposes, recovered water must be recycled indirectly. This is done by injecting it into the ground or storing it in ponds and allowing it to seep into naturally occurring aquifers so that it is further purified as it slowly moves through the geologic strata. In some regions of the world where water supplies are inadequate because of recurring drought and rapidly expanding populations, the recycling and reuse of treated wastewater is a virtual necessity. See wastewater treatment.