Environmental pollution encompasses the different ways that the human activity damages the natural environment. It can be in the form of an open garbage dump or as simple as a burning house. Pollution can also be invisible, odourless, and tasteless, thus, making environmental pollution one of the most serious and insidious problems facing humanity and other life forms today. One of the chief sources and most visible forms of environmental pollution is solid waste. In order to reduce solid wastes, one has to understand the sources and volumes of solid waste generated by humans, and then the impacts and handling of the solid wastes. Only then can one begin to propose solutions to this environmental problem.
             Locally, every year millions of tons of solid garbage are disposed of in Canada. Canada has been said to generate almost 600kg of waste per person per year; one of the highest per person rates in the world. The numbers are not so astounding given the fact that Canadians are among the highest consumers in the world, and thus most of what is consumed becomes waste. According to the B.C. ministry of Environmental Lands and Parks, it is estimated that 40% of solid waste is generated by the industrial, commercial, & institutional (ICI) sector, 30% of the solid wastes is reportedly generated by the residential sector, and the remainder of 30% is generated by the demolition, landclearing, & construction sector (DLC). The cost of disposal for each of the three sources respectively are: $100 million for ICI, $90 million for residential, and $40 million for DLC.
             Majority of solid wastes are trucked to landfills which occupy valuable land space. The remainder of the solid wastes are sent to incinerators. According to Ministry of Environmental Lands and Parks, by the year 2000, it is estimated that 60% of the 236 existing landfill sites in B.C. will be filled to capacity. Furthermore, with the high rate of consumption and in...