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August 26

River waste disposal vs. garbage trucks

Why industrial waste, even if properly treated, is commonly allowed to be dumped into rivers and other water bodies rather than being carried away by garbage trucks, as it's done for households? Is it simply because of higher costs which enterprises don't want to pay? 212.180.235.46 (talk) 14:20, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Industrial waste which may be dumped in rivers, after treatment, is mostly water, or other (ostensibly) harmless water soluble things. They aren't putting trash (like packaging and wrappers and stuff) in the rivers. That material is going to landfills. --Jayron 32 14:23, 26 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Liquid household waste flows into sewers and after treatment it gets dumped into the rivers too. Solid waste is collected in road, rail or water vehicles and sent to processing facilities (or dumped in a landfill directly, but in most of the EU this isn't allowed); gaseous waste is blown into the air. It's basically the same for both industry and households, but as industry can produce very large amounts of waste, including large amounts of the same potentially hazardous materials (for households, this tends to average out), industries need permits precisely telling which stuff and how much of it they're allowed to dump.

Sometimes such permits don't work. Maybe the permit specifies how much waste may be dumped without regarding water level in the river. If the water is low (OP may be thinking of the 2022 Oder environmental disaster), the waste gets less diluted than would otherwise be the case. Sometimes inspections are too predictable and can be circumvented, sometimes inspectors can be bribed, sometimes the government silently ignores violations, fearing the economic or social consequences. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:33, 27 August 2022 (UTC)[reply]