Waste from Homes, Health Centres and Farms

1Where does waste come from?

In this lesson we look at the first three. The others come in the next two lessons.

2Municipal (household) waste

Homes, markets and schools make a lot of food waste, packaging and paper. In towns, collection companies take it away, and families pay for the service. Markets make huge amounts of organic waste, such as rotten fruit and vegetable leaves, which is ideal for compost. Good habits: sort your waste, compost peels, and give old clothes that are still good to people who need them; worn-out clothes make good cleaning cloths. Spoiled meat, fish and bones attract flies, so they are best buried.

3Medical (biomedical) waste

Hospitals and health centres produce biomedical waste: used needles and syringes, bandages with blood, gloves, and expired medicines. It is hazardous, because it can spread germs and cause injuries. Health workers put needles into hard sharps safety boxes and other waste into coloured bins, and the waste is destroyed in special furnaces called incinerators.

• If you ever find a needle, do not touch it. Tell an adult.
• Old or expired medicines at home should be taken back to a health centre or pharmacy. Never throw them in a latrine or give them to someone else.

4Agricultural (farm) waste

Farms produce crop remains (maize and sorghum stalks, bean husks, banana leaves, coffee pulp), animal dung, and empty pesticide and fertiliser containers. The containers are hazardous: never use them to carry water or food. Most other farm waste is useful:

• Compost and manure to feed the soil;
• Mulch: crop remains spread over the soil like a blanket;
• Animal feed from some stalks and leaves;
• Biogas: dung can be put in a biogas digester to make gas for cooking.

5Farm waste that protects the soil

Rwanda is the "land of a thousand hills". When heavy rain falls on bare soil on a slope, the water rushes downhill and carries the rich topsoil away. This is soil erosion. It makes farms poorer and fills rivers with mud. We can prevent it:

• Mulch and grass cover the soil, so raindrops cannot knock it loose.
• Tree roots hold the soil like a net. Trees also give shade, wood and fruit, and release oxygen.
• Terraces, flat steps dug across a slope, slow the water down so it soaks in instead of racing away with the soil.

Communities often dig terraces and plant trees together during umuganda.

Try it yourself

1. Name the source of each waste: (a) a used syringe (b) maize stalks (c) vegetable peels from a kitchen (d) an empty pesticide can
2. What should you do if you find a used needle on the ground?
3. Give two useful things that can be made from cow dung.
4. Why does bare soil on a hillside wash away easily?
5. What is mulch, and how does it help?

Answers

1. (a) medical (b) agricultural (c) municipal (household) (d) agricultural, and it is hazardous.
2. Do not touch it. Tell an adult so it can be put in a sharps box.
3. Manure (or compost) and biogas.
4. Nothing covers or holds it, so heavy rain loosens it and the running water carries it downhill.
5. Crop remains or grass spread over the soil. It protects the soil from heavy rain, keeps it moist, and slowly feeds it.