Page 89 - SST Class 05

Soil Pollution

Soil is an important natural resource. We need it to plant our trees and produce crops.
We have polluted soil with our activities. It occurs in many ways. Farmers mix
chemical fertilizers and pesticides in water to irrigate the fields. This pollutes water as
well as soil. In cities, you can see the hills of garbage where waste is dumped. This
pollutes soil and adversely affects the environment. Our activities produce so much of
garbage that dealing with it has become a major challenge.

Waste and Soil Pollution : In our daily life, we create waste or garbage, such as paper,
plates, glass, tins, bottles, machines, clothes, books, furniture and more. All this waste
can be divided into two types : biodegradable waste and non-biodegradable waste .

1. Biodegradable Waste : Certain things rot and mix into the soil in some time, such as
paper, fruit peels, seeds, cotton cloth, wood etc.; they take a few weeks. Such things are
called biodegradable waste.

2. Non-biodegradable Waste : As against biodegradable waste, there are many things
which will not rot over a very long period of time, such as glass, metal, silver foils,
plastic etc. Such things form non-biodegradable waste. Soil pollution is caused by
these things.

We can deal with this type of pollution in the following ways. Together these are called
a 3-R’s formula :

u Reuse : In place of throwing away a thing, we can reuse many things; for example,
an old bicycle or machine can be got repaired for use again. Old clothes and toys
can be given away to the poor. Disposable plates and glasses can be washed and
reused. The blank pages of an old notebook can be taken out and stitched into a
new notebook for reuse.

u Recycle : The thing we are about to discard, its material may be useful. For example,
the glass or plastic of an empty bottle can be recycled, that is, something new can be
made from this. Recycle means that the material of discarded things can be used to

manufacture or make other things. Many things can be recycled without a loss of
quality, such as glass, metal etc. Some things can be recycled but not with a high
quality, such as paper and plastic. Not all things can be
recycled, such as hard plastic, rubber etc. A local
kabariwallah (junk-dealer) is always willing to help you
in this, in the process of which you earn some money too.

u Resell : Resell means that you sell away an old thing, like
your old bicycle. Does your mother exchanges old
clothes for kitchen pots? This is resale. The kabariwallah
can again help you in this.
A kabariwalla

Our Environment 89